After a double last Saturday, Spartan Race on Sunday, and a very heavy week without a day off, I needed some recovery today. Got up early and went for a 2.76 mile hike that took 1:11:03. Didn’t wear the weight vest today because I wanted it to be more about recovery and just moving. Great way to start the day. I went and golfed 18 holes in the afternoon, but rode in a cart for once.
Author: Nick Momrik
I'm searching for my first hole-in-one.
I enjoy being active and making things.
I work for Automattic.
Big Boy DT
Went in this afternoon with Adam to do the hero WOD “DT”, which we missed out on last Sunday because of the Spartan Race.
Warm-up
- PVC Pass-thrus
- DU
Did a bunch of stretching too and then did some hang cleans and push jerks at 95# and 135#.
WOD
“DT”
5 Rounds
- 12 Deadlifts (155#)
- 9 Hang Power Cleans (155#)
- 6 SH to OH (155#)
I was dreading the shoulder to overhead the most, but it was the hang power cleans that did the most damage. Don’t get me wrong, the push jerks were still pretty terrible for me though.
I broke my rounds down into:
- 11 deadlifts
- 1 deadlift + 4 cleans
- 4 cleans
- 1 clean + 3 push jerks
- 3 push jerks
The only round I didn’t do this was the 2nd round when I managed to do all 6 push jerks unbroken. This worked well for me and allowed me to catch my breath a bit in between each phase. It ended up being an extra 3 deadlifts and 1 clean each round, but the deadlifts didn’t bother me at all. My time was 14:40. I told myself I’d be happy if I could stick to 3:00 rounds and I beat that. It really beat me up though. My entire body hasn’t felt this crushed by a WOD in a long time.
I have only done “DT” one other time and it was using 115# back in October for a time of 7:31. Nearly twice as long today with 155#, so power output was much higher at the lower weight, but I wanted something heavy today and clearly hit that goal.
I won’t be able to make it in for a WOD tomorrow morning because of golf, but maybe I’ll get out for an early hike. It’s been a pretty brutal 7 days so a day without a WOD will be welcomed by my body and should be ready to WOD and do OLY on Sunday.
So Much For Resting
I couldn’t help myself. Saw the WOD posted and figured it wouldn’t be too bad and decent for recovery, so I went in at 9am.
Warm-up
- 3m Row at 20 spm
- 4 World’s Greatest Stretch (each side)
- Tabata Sit-ups
For the first 6 intervals I got 13 sit-ups and then 12 each in the last two for a total of 102.
WOD
3 Rounds
- 250m Row
- 20 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
- 15 T2B
- 10 Front Squats (145#)
The Rx weight was 165#, which I probably should have done, but 145# sure wasn’t easy. I did sets of 6-4 every round on the front squats. For the wall balls I did 20, 12-8, and 10-10. Then for T2B I did 10-5, 8-7, and 10-5. Total time was 12:02. Glad I decided to workout today.
Hit Them Shoulders Hard
My low back and trips are pretty spicy from yesterday. Went in for the noon class.
Warm-up
- 2m Jump Rope
- 2 Rounds
- 2 Shoulder Press
- 2 Push Press
- 2 Push Jerk
- 2 Split Jerk
- 5 Pause Push Jerks
- 5 Pause Split Jerks
- 5 Jerk Footwork
Used an empty 45# bar for everything. Shoulders were nice and warmed up after this!
Strength
5 Sets
- 1 Shoulder Press
- 3 Push Press
- Max Jerks
- 2m Rest
This is superset week. 🙂
| Weight | Shoulder Press | Push Presses | Jerks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 95# | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 105# | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| 125# | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 135# | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 140# | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Wow! Nowhere near my 1RM of 160# on the shoulder press, but that’s a lot of volume with the push presses and the jerks.
WOD
12:00
- 800m Run (buy-in)
- AMRAP
- 5 Curtis Ps (95#)
- 30 DU (unbroken)
The run really gets you. I missed about 6 times in my 2nd round of double unders, twice in the 20s and one at 27 unbroken. Ugh!! That took a lot of time and winded me bad. I finished with 3 complete rounds plus 5 Curtis Ps.
Tomorrow I’m resting. It’s been a brutal few days.
4 Hundy? So What!
Feeling pretty damn good today considering it’s day 2 after the Spartan Race and the heavy squatting we did yesterday. Went in for the 5:15pm again so my legs could rest.
Warm-up
- 400m Run
- 4 World’s Greatest Stretch (each side)
- 4 Inch Worms
- 10 Scorpions (each side)
- 10 Flamingos (each side)
Scorpions were a new move for me. You lay on your stomach with arms straight out to the sides like you are forming a T. Take your leg behind you and over the other leg to tap the ground on the other side with your toes. Nice stretch.
Strength
5 Sets
- 3-5 Deadlifts
- 5-7 GHR
- 2m Rest
More supersetting today! My first time doing GHRs too. I was excited when I saw deadlifts were on the menu. I hit 375# for 5 reps a couple of weeks ago, so I wanted to demolish that today. Set out with a plan and nailed it. I warmed up with 5 reps at 135# and then for my working sets went 225#, 275#, 315#, 365#, and 405#, hitting each one for 5 reps. Didn’t have too much trouble with the 405# either. At the end of December I hit that weight for 2 reps and then lost my grip. No issues today. Sets me up for a big PR next time we go for a 1RM since my old one is only 415#. I did 5 reps of GHRs each set on the GHD.
WOD
5 Rounds
- 3:00 AMRAP
- 3 C2B Pull-ups
- 6 American KBS (70# KB)
- 9 Box Jumps (24″)
- 1m Rest
There were a lot of people in class so we had to stagger and spread out all of the equipment, which slowed us down some. I started with box jumps and got exactly 3 rounds during each 3 minute round, pretty much sticking just under 1 minute per round. I had 5-10 seconds left on the clock at the end of each 3 minutes, but the KB was too far away from the box to make a run for it just to get one rep. I did all of the C2B pull-ups unbroken and this was the first time doing a bunch of American swings with the 70# KB. 15 total rounds in one hell of a good WOD.
We Are Spartans!
Yesterday I did a 4.7 mile Spartan Race with a group from CrossFit Full Strength. It was a lot of fun and we all did really well. I was 13th in my age group and 70th overall for men on the day, both in the top 10%, with a time of 1:08:01. After going out for food and drinks I was exhausted and slept over 10 hours last night. Was feeling a little tired this morning, but not too bad other than my hips are really tight. Let myself recover some more and went in for the 5:15pm class.
Warm-up
2 Rounds
- 500m Row
- 3 World’s Greatest Stretch (each leg)
- 5 Inch Worms
- 10 Leg Swings (F2B and S2S, each leg)
Strength
5 Sets
- 2-4 Front Squats
- 3-5 Back Squats
- 2m Rest
Holy shit! Super setting front squats with back squats is the toughest squat strength day I’ve ever done. I nearly passed out during the last 3 sets and was sweating more than I did from WOD.
| Weight | Front Squats | Back Squats |
|---|---|---|
| 135# | 4 | 5 |
| 165# | 4 | 5 |
| 195# | 4 | 5 |
| 225# | 3 | 3 |
| 255# | 2 | 5 |
I had a plan going in to get to 255# by going up 30# each set. It’s always nice when that works out! I hit 255# for a front squat 2RM last week and for a back squat 5RM the week before. Could I do them back-to-back though? Hell yeah! I don’t think I could have gotten another rep at each one. I did take it a little easy on my reps in the 4th set, but I’m ok with that since it allowed me to get heavy and I still hit the minimum reps. Thrilled with this after an exhausting day yesterday. Walking for the next few days might be tough.
WOD
2 Rounds
- 50 Push-ups
- 100 DU
- 75 AbMat Sit-ups
I ordered the SR-1 Speed Rope from Rogue, which came in on Friday. Tried it out for the first time today in this WOD. Damn it’s a heavy rope! I could really feel the fatigue from it. The handles are awesome, but I might swap out the extra wire that came with the Again Faster Revolution rope. Push-ups were by far the most difficult part of this for me (which I expected), but the last 50 sit-ups were pretty brutal and got slow, but I managed to do all of the sit-ups unbroken in both rounds. My time was 12:17.
Double Trouble
I was itching for a WOD all day yesterday since I’d taken Wednesday off and won’t be doing a WOD tomorrow since we are doing a 4.7 mile Spartan Race. The hike helped, but it’s not the same as being in the box. In at 8am this morning for the competitors WOD and stayed for the regular class as well.
Warm-up
- PVC Pass-thrus
- 500m Row
- Thrusters
Strength
Find 1 RM Thruster with 1 attempt EMOM. No rack, so must do a power clean and a thruster or a squat clean thruster. Keep increasing weight each minute until failure.
I started at 115# and added 10# every minute. Got 195# and then failed at 205# because I was too slow coming out of the squat clean and couldn’t get any momentum on the bar. That’s a 30# PR for my thruster when I last did it back in April. Having to go every minute is pretty tough once the weight gets heavy. I did power cleans up through 175# and then switched to squat cleans. So that ended up being 10 attempts in total.
Competitors WOD
This was WOD #6 of the 2011 Regionals.
- 20 cal Row
- 30 Burpees
- 40 Two-arm DB ground-to-overhead (45/35# DBs)
- 50 T2B
- 100′ Overhead walking lunge (45/25# plate)
- 150′ Sprint
I used 40# DBs for the ground-to-overhead and I’m glad I did. I still had to split them up into sets of 5 (pretty much doing a clean and jerk) and it took the most time by far. I should have worn some wrist sweat bands because I could barely hold the bar for the T2B making those take a lot longer than they should have since I had to do 2 or 3 at a time most of the way. Everything else was kind of easy. Took me 15:52 to finish.
Stuck around and let my heart rate come down while the 9am class did a warm-up.
Regular WOD
25:00 AMRAP with a partner
- Partner 1 – 400m Run
- Partner 2 – AMRAP:
- 5 HSPU
- 10 KBS (53/35)
- 15 Goblet Squats (53/35)
* Both partners work the entire time, but keep switching off and continuing where the last guy left off in the AMRAP so total rounds can be counted.
Brian was the only other person in at 8am and stuck around too, so we paired up for this WOD. We finished 14 rounds of the AMRAP doing everything Rx. I picked up a nice little tip from the CrossFit Journal to make the HSPU easier and didn’t really have any issues until my last 5 when they started to get a little tough. My arms were shaky after the first WOD today so I’m thrilled I was able to hold on that long. The goblet squats were by far the roughest part of the circuit, but I pushed myself to always do 15 unbroken because squat stamina is one of my weaknesses.
Great 2 hours of work! Think I’ll try to get out for some golf this afternoon.
A Long Weighted Hike
Since CrossFit Full Strength is closed on Fridays and Adam wasn’t getting in there this afternoon, I needed to do something. Headed out for a longer hike and wore the 20# vest. Had to park pretty far away, so it was nearly a mile just to get to and from the trail head. In total it ended up being 4.08 miles and took 1:50:13. It doesn’t seem to get any easier with that vest even as I use it more.
The Real Bear Complex
Yesterday I rested. Walked 9 holes of golf early in the morning, which was good active recovery. I was pretty wrecked from Saturday through Tuesday so my body needed it. I’m still sore today, but don’t feel destroyed like I did. Went in for the 9am.
Warm-up
2 Rounds
- 5 Pull-ups
- 10 Push-ups
- 15 Air Squats
- 20 Sit-ups
2x Bergener Warm-up with empty bar
Strength
10:00 EMOM
- Power Snatch
- Hang Full Snatch
I’m excited about all of the snatch work we’ve been doing. Today I really focused on full hip extension and I think I made some great progress. I went 75#, 85#, 95#, 105# for 3 minutes, 115# for 2 minutes, and 125# for the last 2 minutes. In the 9th minute I lost focus a bit and had to bail on the full snatch in the bottom of the squat, but I picked it back up and got the rep in. I felt like my hip extension was pretty good in the power snatches and still short from the hang position. It’s definitely improving though.
WOD
5 Rounds
- 7 TnG Bear Complex (Power Clean, Front Squat, SH to OH, Back Squat, SH to OH)
* Combining is allowed, such as doing a thruster for front squat + shoulder to overhead.
* Increase weight each round.
* Partner up so you rest while the other person is working.
I’ve done bear complexes, but never as it’s designed to be done, with 7 TnG reps of the complex per “round”. It was definitely a challenge! Started off light with 75# to get the feel for it and warm up some more. Then went 85#, 95#, 115#, and 125#. Pretty much thrusters and back thrusters the entire way for me. I did quite a bit of resting with the bar on my back in the last round and some in the 4th round. Going any heavier would have been very difficult to finish.
Hike
After 4pm I headed out and did a hike. 2.39 miles in 1:03:59, while wearing the 20 pound weight vest. Strapping that thing around my chest really adds a whole other level to the hike.
I Should Be Taking A Rest Day
After doubles on Saturday and Sunday and a tough WOD yesterday, I should have taken today off. I saw the WOD though and know I can use extra pull-up work, love box jumps, and rarely get to do GHD sit-ups. So there I was at 9am ready to get my sweat on. Gayle said she was kind of taking it easy on us with the WOD today and it was like an active recovery day. HA HA! I don’t remember working so hard on an active recovery day.
Warm-up
3 Rounds
- 1m DU
- 3 Turkish Get-ups (25# KB, each side)
I went light for all 3 rounds because I’m having some issues in my right hand. I can really feel it after doing shoulder to overhead movements like all of the thrusters yesterday. I need to give it a few days rest.
WOD
3 Rounds
- 30 Pull-ups
- 30 GHD Sit-ups
- 30 Box Jumps (24′)
We had the option of doing 50 Sit-ups or 30 on the GHD, so I went with the GHD. Gayle mentioned Rx for the box jumps was 30′, but I went with 24′ so I could rebound them and keep a higher intensity. Finished in 15:59. I really tried to push myself more in the pull-ups with shorter rest periods and some bigger sets as I got tired, but still ended up down to 3 at a time. That’s a lot of GHD sit-ups in a WOD especially when the sets are that big.
Finisher
- 600m Weighted Run (20# MB)
Didn’t do it fast, but got it done. I’m definitely taking tomorrow off and will maybe get out for a round of golf.
