Author: Nick Momrik

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

135 Pound Thrusters Suck

My abs are pretty sore, either from the sit-ups, the snatch work, or more likely from both. Things like the OHS and snatch balance are very underrated in being a core exercise. My shoulders and lats are pretty sore from the snatch work too. Since I did double workouts on both Saturday and Sunday, I took some extra rest and went in for the 5:15pm today. I’ve also been told there is some good competition at this time.

Warm-up

5:00 Row at 20 spm keeping a pace +/- 3s

This was something new and interesting. I tried to count a 1-2-3 on the recovery to make sure I wasn’t pulling too often, but when I did pull I gave it power. I tried to keep my pace right around 2:00/500m.

Strength

5×3 Front Squats

Last time I did a 5×3 on front squats I hit my old PR of 235# for all 3 reps. It’s been a couple of months since hitting a 255# 1RM so I was shooting to hit it for 3 today. So close! I went 135#, 165#, 205#, and 235# for 3 reps. I got the first two reps at 255# and then lost the rack on the 3rd one as I started to come up. If I had gotten a little tighter and more organized before the rep I think I would have had it. Nice improvement though.

WOD

  • 15 Thrusters (135#)
  • 200m Run
  • 20 Thrusters (95#)
  • 400m Run
  • 30 Thrusters (65#)

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate thrusters? I was not looking forward to this WOD, especially Rx. But I went for it. For the 135# thrusters I had a set of 9 to start and then got 5 more before I had to bail. I was so pissed to leave one rep left. On the 95# thrusters I went 8-4-4-4. Rough! Then for the final 30 with 65# I went 12-10-8. My strength endurance still sucks. Lance and Adam smoked me. I finished in 15:17. Glad I went Rx after all is said and done, but it damn near killed me.

Double Duty Weekend

I walked 18 holes of golf last night and afterwards my legs and low back were shot. Exhausted! Went in for the 9am class. I felt like I made good progress with my snatch yesterday so might as well keep it going with the clean & jerk today.

Warm-up

  • 200m Run
  • 200m Run Backwards
  • 400m Run
  • 200m Run Backwards
  • 200m Run
  • 5 Deadlifts (135#)
  • 5 Deadlifts (185#)

The backwards runs are fun!

WOD

4 Rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 24 Lunges (12 each side)
  • 12 Deadlifts (185#)
  • 6 Lateral Burpees Over Bar
  • 1m Rest

One of the easier ones to be honest. I’m sure my legs will feel it later, but the entire thing only took 12:01, with 3 minutes of that being rest time. My rounds were 2:13, 2:12, 2:14, and 2:18. I screwed up counting the over the bar burpees a couple of times so the overall time is messed up a little. Not sure what happened in that last round because I thought it was my fastest run of the bunch. I guess the deadlifts and burpees must have been a lot slower. Other than that, very consistent though.

Finisher

  • 150 AbMat Sit-ups

I decided to do the first 100 as fast as possible to try to break my PR and I smashed it, with a time of 3:02, beating my previous best of 3:34. Took a minute rest and then busted out the last 50 unbroken in 1:41, which was a lot more of a struggle.

Headed home for some food and then back to Full Strength for OLY at noon. Warmed up with a 500m row, PVC pass-thrus and around-the-worlds. Then we also did some progressions with the PVC pipe to loosen up and get some feel.

Snatch Work

We did the following, working up in weight by doing doubles or singles.

  • Snatch Deadlift to the knee
  • Snatch Deadlift to the knee, pause, Snatch

Did some doubles at 45#, 75#, and 95#. Went up to 115# and 125# for singles. Since I had just worked up to heavy singles yesterday morning, I didn’t want to do that again, especially working from the knee. I tried to concentrate on technique, which is slowly getting better.

Snatch Balance

These felt solid today. Started off with doubles at 125# and then 145#. Didn’t feel comfortable dropping the weight back on my back after that so I switched to singles and dropped the weight to the floor after my rep. I went 155#, 165#, and 175#. That’s 20# heavier than I’ve done before and even 10# heavier than I’ve ever done for an OHS. Makes me feel good that if I can get the bar up there on a snatch, I can finish it off. I had the first attempt at 175#, but lost a little stability in the bottom and the weight came forward so I bailed. Nailed it without much trouble for a couple of singles after that and called it a day.

2 Hour Saturday

I had a great rest day yesterday and went in for the 8am Competitors WOD and stayed to do the regular WOD as well.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • PVC OHS

Strength

Work up to a heavy snatch single.

I started out with a few at 75# and a few at 95#, then started going up by 10# after one or two reps at each weight. Focus was on keeping the bar close and getting hip extension instead of looping the bar out, which I have a problem with. I got up to 155# and got under it for the first time, but it was a little too far forward and I couldn’t steady it before standing up. Took another shot and wasn’t committed to it. Nailed it on the 3rd try, which is a 10# squat snatch PR. I’ve hit 155# with an ugly power snatch in competition before, so this felt good to finally get out-of-the-way. Took the personal win and stopped there for the day.

WOD #1

This one comes from event #5 of the 2010 CrossFit Games.

7 Rounds

  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 4 Deficit HSPU (10# bumpers)

I scaled of course because it calls for 205# cleans and ring HSPU. I did power cleans the whole way through and reset for each rep. It was heavy, so I picked a good weight. My neck and collarbone are already showing some bruising. I can’t believe how much my HSPU have improved in the last few weeks. We’ve been doing them once or twice a week, so I’ve had plenty of work on them and it’s really paying off. I did each set unbroken. Final time was 8:36.

Since I was already warmed up, I skipped out on the warm-up the regular class was doing so I could cool down a bit.

WOD #2

3 Rounds

  • 5 Wall Walks
  • 20 cal Row
  • 15 K2E
  • 25 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)
  • 15 Ring Dips
  • 50 DUs

This was a non-stop suck fest! It was the first time I’ve ever done wall walks and after the 28 deficit HSPU they were not easy. Finished in 22:57.

I’m actually not feeling too bad after all that, but I suspect tonight I’ll be exhausted, especially if I head out for a round of golf this afternoon. Felt good to get really heavy in a WOD with the 185# cleans.

I jumped on the scale after everything and was at 191.5 with my shoes and clothes on, so I’d say the diet changes are working. I certainly am feeling good with the healthy food changes and getting a lot of sleep.

A Balanced Day

Upper body is kind of sore from the last couple of days. Went in at noon.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 10 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 10 PVC OHS
  • 10s Triceps stretch (each arm)
  • 10s Rack stretch (each arm)

Conditioning/Endurance

1 Mile Run

Each gym is different because of their mile loop, so I’m trying not to compare today to my 6:18 from the summer at Survival Fitness. I also weigh about 15 pounds more now, which doesn’t help! I mapped out the Full Strength route on Google Maps and it’s pretty damn close to a mile, other than the fact we have to go down a big flight of stairs to start and then back up to finish. My time was 6:45. I probably started out way too fast and it caught up to me, but I’m terrible at setting a running pace. It’ll be interesting to go run a mile at the track one of these days.

Strength

5×3 Jerk

  • 5 @ 45#
  • 3 @ 95#
  • 3 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 145#
  • 3 @ 165#
  • 3 @ 185#

I started off doing split jerks and it wasn’t feeling that great in the set with 135# because of the extra time holding the bar overhead. Emily told me to do push jerks if I could handle the weights, so I did and it felt better. Makes sense to work on strength here instead of the split jerk technique. The last set was actually pretty easy, but I have no idea what I can do for push jerks now, so I had to shoot for something as a goal before I started.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 5 Curtis P (95# – Power Clean, Lunge, Lunge, Push Press)
  • 10 Burpees

Usually it’s a squat clean in a Curtiss P, but I guess everyone had been doing power cleans in the day, so we did the same. First set of 5 was unbroken and I set the bar down once in each of the next two sets for 1-2 seconds to regrip. Short WOD so just tried to keep going. Did all of the burpees unbroken and really picked up the pace for the last 7 reps to finish out. Final time was 4:24.

Cardio Times Three

I used the rumble roller a few times yesterday and I think it really helped with my recovery. My ass and low back are still spicy from Monday, but not as bad as they were last night. Shoulders, triceps, and lats are kind of sore from yesterday. Went in for the 9am and was the only one to show up.

A day of 3 WODs, with each WOD having a 10:00 time cap. If you finish early, you get to rest for the remainder of the 10 minutes. No breaks or extra time between each WOD, so it’s a 30 minute running clock overall.

A couple of weeks ago we did a similar format, which was a lot of fun. When I saw this posted I was definitely looking forward to it after hitting the lower body hard on Monday and the upper body hard on Tuesday. In need of a light day!

Warm-up

  • Multiplanar (ankle/knee/hip mobility) – 10 each leg
    • Back to front leg swings with a knee dip on the forward swing
    • Leg swing out to the side with a knee dip
    • Skaters with a knee dip
  • 10-15 Each Side
    • Glute Bridge Marching
    • Human Snowflake
    • T-Stabilization
  • 600m Run
  • 50 feet World’s Greatest Stretch

Good to get in some solid mobility work after the last couple of days.

WOD #1

4 Rounds

  • 15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 250m Row

All unbroken, not too difficult. Finished in 6:44.

WOD #2

4 Rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 20 KBS (53# KB)

Not very fun. Runs got progressively slower and the KBS sucked, but I did them all unbroken. Emily says my technique could use a lot of improvement to help me expend less energy. I was just trying to survive during the last 2 rounds. Finished around 6:40.

WOD #3

4 Rounds

  • 25 Sit-ups
  • 25 Push-ups (chest to deck)

I knew this would be the worst one due to the push-ups. All of the sit-ups were unbroken and I tried not to get to the point of failure on my push-ups, but 100 is a lot no matter what you do. I had to split them up a lot after the first 25. Finished in 8:13.

Reviewing Goals

I’m a firm believer that goals are important for many parts of life. They help create focus and purpose.

At the end of June, I set the following goals for the rest of 2012:

  • Dead Hang Pull-ups: 15 in a row
  • HSPUs: 15 in a row (without kipping)
  • 1 Mile Run: 6:00
  • Deadlift: 400#
  • Clean & Jerk: 200#
  • Back Squat: 275#
  • Snatch”: 165#
  • “Cindy: 22 rounds
  • “Fran”: 6:00
  • Muscle-up on the rings

How did I do?

  • I haven’t done a dead hang pull-up test in a long time, but I’m confident I can do 15 in a row by now.
  • Haven’t tested strict HSPU in a long time either, but should be no problem to do 15.
  • I think I’d be close to a 6 minute mile, may try it this weekend.
  • Last time I did a 1RM deadlift it was 415# and it should be 430 or 440# now.
  • I’ve done a 205# C&J in competition.
  • My back squat was up to 285# last I checked and should be 300# or more now.
  • Snatch PR is 155#, but I didn’t work on it much.
  • Last try at “Cindy” came out with 20+6, so I can probably get close to 22 rounds now.
  • Not sure about “Fran” but guessing I can go sub-6 now.
  • I’ve done some muscle-ups, and haven’t really worked on them since I have more important things to improve.

What’s next? Registration for the CrossFit Games starts tomorrow and the Open begins on March 6th. Yesterday I started cleaning up my diet in order to drop my body fat and lean out. I bulked up over the last few months, but with it came a fair amount of fat. I need to lean out so body weight stuff is easier. I’d like to get back down between 180 and 185 pounds.

Other than leaning out, my only other current goal is to finish above average in the CrossFit Games Open. Last year I was still a newb, with only a few months of CrossFit under my belt, so my goal was to beat 10% of men. I ended up beating about 25%. My strength has improved by leaps and bounds this year, which should really help me jump up above average for the 2013 Games. I can’t wait!

What are your current goals?

Burning the Shoulders

Glutes and low back are a bit sore from yesterday’s thrashing of them. Went in at 9am today.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 30 Sit-ups
  • 30 Supermans
  • 5×2 Turkish Get-ups (1 each side)

I went up in weight for each set of Turkish Get-ups, using 25#, 35#, 40#, 44#, and 50#. The first 4 were using a KB and the last using a DB.

Strength

5×5 Shoulder Press, 2m Rest between sets

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 125#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 4 @ 140#
  • 3 @ 140#

I was able to do 140# for 5 reps back at Survival Fitness when we last did a 5×5, so I bumped up my 2nd and 3rd sets to 115# and 125# today. I had the 5th rep on my first attempt at 140#, but lost concentration and stopped at the bottom, so I lost all momentum. Took a short rest and came back at it again for 3 reps.

WOD

  • 21-15-9 C2B Pull-ups
  • 21-15-9 HSPU
  • 100 DUs

The WOD actually called for deficit HSPUs on 35# plates, but there’s no way I could handle that for 45 reps, so I went with standard ones and those were hard enough. My time was 16:58. Not great, but I kept plugging away at all the reps. I need to improve my DUs when I’m tired. Shoulders are fried after this one.

Double Strength

After being in Hawaii for a week I was excited to hit the box and throw around some barbells. I think the break from heavy weights was good though. Slept for 11 hours last night after not getting more than a couple of short naps on the flight the night before, so went in for the noon class.

Warm-up

  • 50 Jumping Jacks
  • 40 Mountain Climbers
  • 30 Bicycles (each side)
  • 20 Body Blasters
  • 10 Burpees

First time doing body blasters I think. You get down on your back on the ground, roll up to your upper back and then use the momentum rolling up to your feet and standing up. Get really tough for the last 10 reps.

Strength

5 Sets

  • 5 Deadlifts
  • 2m Rest

With the first set as a warm-up, I did 5 reps at each of 135#, 225#, 275#, 315#, 345#, and 375#. Felt really good and is a big jump for a set of 5 for me.

5 Sets

  • 5 Back Squats
  • 2m Rest

Don’t think I’ve ever done two big strength movements on the same day like this, so was unsure how these would go. Just did sets of 5-7 a couple of weeks ago, so was looking to get higher. I went with 135#, 165#, 195#, 225#, and 255# for 5 reps each. That’s 5# heavier on the last set (compared to 2 weeks ago) and it was a fight on the last few reps. Probably should have gone up a little higher early on and taken smaller jumps in weight, but this felt good.

WOD

  • 800m Run
  • 50 Back Squats (135#)
  • 800m Run

Did the first run at around 3:30 and broke the back squats into sets of 30 and 20. It wasn’t really the squatting that got to me, it was the cardio aspect of it. Probably had close to a minute in the middle of those squat sets. The last run was absolutely brutal, but will keep the legs from getting too sore after the 50 back squats. Finished in a time of 11:18.

Quick Sunday WOD

After flying through the night from Hawaii back to Phoenix, I wasn’t going to do anything today since I really haven’t slept. Then Tara posted this little challenge on Facebook and I can’t resist a good challenge.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 20 Sit-ups
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 20 Push-ups

I sat on a pillow so I didn’t get ass-burn from the carpet, and had that pillow under my chest when doing the push-ups, making sure I come down on it a bit to get my elbows to 45 degree angles. Finished in 4:09 with only the push-ups slowing me down.S