Author: Nick Momrik

I'm searching for my first hole-in-one. I enjoy being active and making things. I work for Automattic.

Upping The Insanity

I’m up at my parent’s place in Rogers City for a few days, so I brought up my weight vest figuring I could have some fun with it. Dad’s been doing the Insanity workouts for nearly two months, so I told him to pick me one to do. He handed over Max Interval Circuit, I strapped on the 20# weight vest and headed out to his workshop in the freezing garage. For the first 15 minutes I thought I was going to get frost bite on my toes they were so cold.

The DVD was an hour, which is a long time to strap an extra 20 pounds to your frame. Try doing a bunch of cardio movements in a 6×8 area! It was a good long workout and I’m glad I wore the vest because it was a different kind of work for me.

My brother told me they have open gym basketball at the high school tonight and I’m super excited about it. After getting stronger, putting on a lot of muscle, and being in great shape, I’m curious how my game is. I bet I haven’t played in 3 or 4 years, so my silky smooth stroke will be rusty for sure.

Casey’s Birthday WOD

In at 10am for my last Survival Fitness class for a few days. Heading up to Rogers City for x-mas.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Butt Kicks
  • 15s High Knees
  • 15s Air Squats

WOD

28:00 AMRAP Partners (Each partner does a round of their own to make a complete team round)

  • 1 HSPU
  • 9 Burpee Clean Thrusters (95#)
  • 8 Double Squat Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups

I partnered up with Casey and we did well. I started off first and got through 6 full rounds, then Casey got through 3 of his burpees clean thrusters before time ran out, so we had 5 + 27 to top the board. Having those thrusters and wall balls back to back was pretty brutal. Each round I’d start out fast on the burpee clean thrusters, but that would only last for 3 or 4 reps and then it was just a grind.

Finisher

8:00 Death by AbMat Sit-ups (by 3s)

I was able to get through mine all the way, for a total of 108. Not sure why, but it felt worse than doing 100 in a row the other day. Maybe it’s because of the other day!

Closing in on 100

Went in to open gym tonight.

WOD

30 Rounds

  • Power Snatch (95#)
  • 2 OHS (95#)

This was tough, but not in the way I expected. The OHS added up and really worked my legs and hips. I finished in 8:26.

Strength

Find 1RM Bench Press

Did 10 reps at 95# and 3 @ 135#. Then went 185#, 205#, 225#, and failed at 245#. Maybe could have got 240# if I had tried it.

Skills

Worked some on butterfly pull-ups and started to get the feel for them. I was getting a few in a row, but then I’d still bottom out on kill my shoulders. Getting better though.

Did a bunch of DUs and knocked out 5 streaks over 50! Last set of the day was 85, a new PR. So close to the century mark!

Running On Fumes

I was wide awake at 4:30am. After laying there for another 15 minutes, I crawled out of bed and put on the coffee. Was I really going to go to the 5:45am class? Yep!

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Standing Bicycles
  • 15s Butt Kicks

Strength

5×5 Deadlift

I went with 10 reps at 135#, then 5 each at 225#, 275#, 315#, and 345#. Once I had 345# moving, the reps were smooth and pretty easy. Now that I look back in my book, I made a mistake and should hove gone heavier. I got 345# for 5 reps with a 3″ deficit a few weeks ago. Oh well, it saved me from having to use more weight in the WOD I guess.

WOD

24:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 5 Deadlifts (175#) & 7 Burpees
  • Evens: 15 Russian KBS (53# KB)

Wasn’t bad at all. Easily completed all of the reps within the 30 second goal of each minute. My low back did start to get a little tight, but I was already feeling it some from the C&Js yesterday.

Finisher

100 AbMat Sit-ups

Flew through these in 3:34, beating my time of 4:03 from October 2nd. Good way to finish off the workout.

To be honest, it was kind of fun working out with a different group of people and the early morning didn’t bother me once I was up and moving. Fun to be in a class taught by Cora too. I’ll probably need a nap at some point later today.

If Grace and Cindy Paired Up…

Feeling pretty good today, especially by waiting until 5:30pm to WOD.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Left Side Plank
  • 15s Right Side Plank

Strength

5×5 Floor Press

I did 115#, 145#, 165#, 185#, and 205#. That’s up from 195 I did last time and equal to what I did a couple of weeks ago for bench press. But the 205# was easier on the floor press, which doesn’t make much sense.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 10 C&J (115#)
  • 5 Rounds of “Cindy”
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

Great WOD! I figured I could break under 20 minutes due to the fact that my “Grace” time with 125# is in the low 4s and I can do “Cindy” rounds in less than a minute. Finished in 17:46, but screwed up in the 2nd round through. I messed up my sticks and was a round of “Cindy” short, so I had to do 6 at the end. Clean and jerks felt good and I didn’t even really jerk them, mostly push presses. Rounds of “Cindy” aren’t too bad, except the push-ups start to get hard and had to break them up a bit. Very solid WOD though, which tested both my improved strength and my conditioning. Both felt solid.

Finisher

DU Practice

I got several streaks of 25-30 and called it a day.

What’s a Rest Day?

Feeling ok today, but after 4 solid days in a row it’s a good idea to take a break from any high intensity. Went in at 6pm for Olympic lifting class.

5×2 Snatch Balance

Worked up in weight, but these didn’t feel very good. My shoulders were not feeling stable at all.

10×1 Snatch

Worked up, down, and back up in weight. Felt better than the snatch balance, but not all that great. I’m not sure what was going on, but I couldn’t even convince myself to drop under 145# today.

5×2 Snatch High Pull

These felt the best out of everything. I think I worked up to 185#.

Came home and while waiting for Kevin to come over, I jumped on the rower at a nice easy pace. In 21 minutes I went over 4,300 meters, which is about a 2:25/500m pace. Call it a recovery row I guess.

Instead of doing a typical 5 sets of X number of reps, I wanted to try something different today. So I strapped on the weight vest, which adds 20# to my frame, and did 5 sets of max reps for each pull-ups and ring dips. My weighted pull-ups kind of sucked and I only got 5-5-4-4-4. Although I usually start around 10# and work up, so maybe not all that bad. For the weighted ring dips I got 10-9-8-7-7.

First time using the new pull-up bar and it felt solid. After doing dips on the rings with weight, I think I’m going to have to do my ring suspension system over again because they are too far apart. I guess that will be a project for next year when I come back from Arizona.

Speed Burpees

Feeling a little beat up tonight, but screw it, I’m not doing anything high intensity tomorrow. More engine work!

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Burpees

Did them as fast as possible each minute. Started out the first 4 minutes at a 20 second pace, even getting one round done in 19 seconds. Started to slow a bit, but the clock never hit 24 seconds while I was working.

Zerchers

My legs were fatigued all day yesterday, but felt fine this morning. Went in for the 9am class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

Strength

5×5 Zercher Squats

First time for these. Felt a little odd for the first few sets, but started to get the hang of it. I ended up using the same loads I had used for 5×5 front squats 3 weeks ago: 135#, 155#, 175#, 195#, and 215#. Hit 5 reps on each and the last set was tough. Might have had another 5 or 10 pounds in me, but I’ll take it for my first time.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 21 Over the Box Jumps (24″)
  • 16 Weighted Lunges (45# DBs)
  • 9 Front Squats (45# DBs)

This was a hell of a leg killer and even after the first round I had to really concentrate on every box jump to make sure I got up there. Did my best not to take any rest breaks, but did have to put the DBs down between lunges and squats in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Finished in 13:58, which feels good since grabbing the 45# DBs is on the edge or past my limits.

Finisher

  • 10 -> 1 Ladder of T2B
  • 20s Spider Plank

Did all of the T2B unbroken. First time doing spider planks and those are tough. My legs were pretty shaky after the WOD.

A Sunday Triple

Feelin’ good. Getting a lot of sleep. Eating pretty healthy. Drinking more water. Seeing results. Went in for the 11am.

Warm-up

  • 100 Jumping Jacks
  • 100 Mountain Climbers
  • 100 Butt Kicks
  • 100 Lateral Hops (I alternated legs each 25)
  • 25 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 3 x 1m Bottom Squat Hold (30s rest between each)

WOD #1

Tabata Front Squats (65#)

I got 80 total reps. Nice burn, but could really feel my lower back towards the end.

Take 2 minutes of rest before the next WOD.

WOD #2

13 -> 1 Ladder

  • Burpees
  • Russian KBS (53# KB)

Never took a break and finished in 8:56. It was a 10:00 time cap and then 3 minutes of rest before starting the next WOD, so it was nice to get that extra minute of rest.

WOD #3

50 Reps of Sandbag Complex

  • Clean the bag up on to a shoulder
  • Squat
  • Press the bag up OH and on to the other shoulder
  • Squat

I was able to find a nice rhythm with these and did blocks of 5 throughout most of the WOD. At the end, the presses started to get harder so I switched to blocks of 4 at a time. Crushed this one in 7:37.

Great hour of work for a Sunday. I’m shocked how fast my conditioning has come back. I’ve only been doing the extra rowing stuff at home for a couple of weeks and just cleaned up my diet a week ago. I hope this continues.