Nick Momrik

Random Friday Open Gym

My calves are even more sore today, but my shoulders aren’t bad. I went in at 5:15 for open gym and did a bunch of random stuff, trying to keep any stress of my lower back.

20:00

30s Row
30s Rest

I was planning on doing 10 minutes, but Matt guilted me into 20. I’m glad he did. The first 10 weren’t too bad, but I had to fight for intensity after that.

Brent showed up and we worked together on some stuff.

6 rounds

10 DB Chest Presses (5 each side, 40# DB)
10 Weighted Push-ups (sandbag on back, which is about 35#)
10 Quarter Get-ups (5 each side, 39# KB)
10 Russian Step-ups (5 each side, 35# DBs, 18″ box)

We did the chest presses on a bench. This circuit took us somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. We didn’t keep track of time, but kept up a steady pace and didn’t take breaks.

Matt noticed we had a lot of pushing movements there, so suggested we do some pulling and maybe GHDs. I tried a GHD sit-up, but it was too much for my back so I did hip extensions instead.

5 rounds

10 Hip Extensions
10 Pull-ups

No time again here as we didn’t do this for intensity. Brent headed over to do some rowing so I jumped on the squat rack in between sets with Cora.

3 sets

8 Front Squats (130#)

Why not 10 reps each set? Because the bar was starting to cut off my air supply. 🙂

Solid work for a Friday night, being the 4th day in a row at the gym. No WOD tomorrow for me. I need to start taking more rest days and probably should try getting into a 3 on 1 off schedule. I may go for a run or bike ride if it doesn’t rain.

Scaled “Garrett”

I went back to the chiropractor today and he showed me the x-rays. I have some weird curves going on in my spine due to sitting all day for work. Might be time to look at setting up a standing desk. Sore in my calves today, probably from all of the push presses last night. Shoulder soreness is definitely from push presses and I bet they’ll be even more sore tomorrow after today’s WOD.

Warm-up

10 Russian KBS (53# KB) each round before the Wall Ball set
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)

I started out slow and steady, which quickly put me behind a lot of people. But I never rested and ended up finishing first in the class with a time of 6:15.

WOD

“Garrett”
Three rounds

75 Air Squats
25 Ring HSPU
25 L-Pull-ups

Anyone that can do this WOD as prescribed is a fucking beast.

I’ve never attempted a ring HSPU and don’t have plans to try one. I started off doing HSPU with no assistance and got about 10 in each round before adding an AbMat under my head. I did mostly kipping HSPU, except for 4 or 5 strict ones at the beginning of each round. I did a few L-Pull-ups in the first two rounds, but quickly resorted to strict dead-hangs. After about 10 or 12 of those per round I added a purple band to finish out the 25. My total time was 32:44.

Finisher

1m Side Plank (L)
1m Side Plank (R)
1m Plank

This was supposed to be 3 rounds, but there wasn’t enough time so I only got in the one.

12.3 Revisited

While icing yesterday morning after the chiropractor’s office, I got a little frostbite. Ouch!

Warm-up

30-20-10

Star Jumps
PVC OHS

WOD

18:00 AMRAP

15 Box Jumps (24″)
12 Push Presses (115#)
9 T2B

Look familiar? This was CrossFit Games Open WOD 12.3. It was March 9th when I did it for the Open. Back then I got 5 rounds plus 15 box jumps and 6 push presses. Five months later I improved by more than a round, getting 6 rounds plus 15 box jumps and 7 push presses.

My weakness was still the 115# weight for push presses. I did better on push presses because I was able to rebound off the ground on the majority of the box jumps and I split T2B up into sets of 5 and 4 most of the way.

Finisher

1 Mile Run

Didn’t take much of a rest and then went out for a mile run with a few other people. The run wasn’t going to break any speed records because we were pretty whooped from the WOD. We didn’t even keep track of time.

Sandbagging

I got home from San Francisco around 10:30pm last night after a my last flight was delayed about 40 minutes. Went in to the chiropractor this morning to see if he can’t get my back fixed up. I have to go back on Thursday to go over the x-rays he took. Went in to Survival Fitness tonight for the 7pm class. It’s good to be back after a few days of hotel WODs.

Warm-up

150m Run
150m Power Skip
50m Zombie Kicks
50m Butt Kicks
150m Power Skip
150m Run

I could tell I wasn’t feeling it during the warm-up. Pretty tired and slow.

WOD

500m Sandbag Run
50 Sandbag Cleans over the Shoulder
500m Sandbag Run
50 Sandbag Get-ups
500m Sandbag Run

Just what I needed after seeing the chiropractor this morning. I flew threw the sandbag cleans unbroken. My runs were pretty slow, but the get-ups were the toughest. They really wear on your tailbone. I finished in 20:59.

Finisher

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 V-ups
20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 DUs

I forgot to look at the clock when I started, but I know this definitely took me less than 6 minutes.

Sunday Morning in San Francisco

Yesterday was an incredibly long day. I was up at 5:30am and volunteered all day at WordCamp San Francisco, spending most of the day on my feet. I got a pretty good night of sleep and headed in to the hotel workout center at around 9:30am.

Warm-up

800m Run on the treadmill

Strength

I used a couple of the machines again today, but went back and forth between the machines instead of doing all sets at one machine before switching.

Chest Press

3x 115#
3x 130#
3x 145#
3x 160#

Shoulder Press

3x 80#
3x 95#
3x 110#
3x 135#

WOD

3 rounds

20 Chest-to-deck Push-ups
30 Russian Twists (30# DB)
30 Air Squats

I finished in 6:20 and probably should have upped it to 5 rounds.

Finisher

20 minutes on a stationary bike set to the hills program. According to the computer I went 5.44 miles.

WOD at the Westin

I was able to sleep longer than I expected with the 3 hour time difference and didn’t get out of bed until after 8am. Granted I didn’t go to bed until after midnight, so it was a long day yesterday. The workout center in the Westin was pretty busy today, but I was able to get in a pretty good workout. When traveling you have to make due with what you have. It’s better than doing nothing.

Warm-up

400m run on the treadmill at a 6 mph pace.

Strength

I used a couple of machines.

4 sets

5 Chest Presses
2m Rest

I set the weight to 115#, 115#, 130#, and 145# for my sets.

4 sets

5 Lat Pulldowns
2m Rest

I set the weight to 100#, 115#, 130#, and 145# for my sets.

WOD

5 rounds

10 HR Push-ups
10 Floor Wipers (45# DBs)
5 Bent Rows (45# DBs)

Originally I was going to do 10 push-up renegade rows instead of the HR push-ups and the bent rows, but the DBs are round, so I was rolling all over the place. Sometimes you have to modify due to equipment. Not a bad little workout. I did it in 7:48.

Finisher

20:00 on a stationary bike. The computer said I went 7.14 miles, but I don’t believe it. I got a good sweat on though.

Treadmill Hills

After getting settled into my room, I headed down to the hotel gym. I jumped on the treadmill and set it for 30 minutes and selected the Hills program. This was my first time using a treadmill’s incline and it turned out to be a damn good workout. I started out with a speed of 7 mph, but quickly set it to 6.5 mph and by the end of the 30 minutes I was down to 6 mph. Some of the incline intervals were as much as 7.5% and it was always at least 1.5%. Once the 30 minutes were up it had me do a 5 minute cool-down. According to the display I ended up going 3.39 miles in total.

Push (Press) It Real Good

I was planning to hit up the 8pm tonight, but decided to go to the 7pm in case I felt like staying after for a bit and doing some extra work, which we can do during the 8pm. Shoulders are sore from yesterday.

Warm-up

4 rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Squat Jumps

Strength

Find a 2 rep max for Push Press

Started off at 5 reps of the 45# bar. Then did 2 reps at each of 85#, 105#, 125#, 145#, 165#, and 175#. The last time I tried a max push press was at the end of March when I got 145#. That’s a 30# PR with 2 reps.

WOD

10:00

Odd minutes: 7 Power Cleans (100#)
Even minutes: 7 Front Squats (100#)

Take 1 minute off to add weight

10:00

Odd minutes: 5 Power Cleans (120#)
Even minutes: 5 Front Squats (120#)

Take 1 minute off to add weight

10:00

Odd minutes: 3 Power Cleans (140#)
Even minutes: 3 Front Squats (140#)

After a couple of reps into that first minute of power cleans I didn’t think I could keep going. My back was really feeling it. I realized I was pulling too much too early with my back, so I slowed down the deadlift portion of the clean and then exploded with the weight once I got above my knees. It really helped a lot and I didn’t feel a problem with my back until after the we were done.

We ended up doing 5 more power cleans with each weight that what you would see here because we didn’t have racks, so everything was off the floor. I really liked this one. It was over 30 minutes, but there was less than 30s of work during each minute. Just enough time to recover before starting on the reps of the next movement.

I’m heading off to San Francisco early tomorrow morning and won’t be back until late on Monday night. Hopefully I’ll find some time to workout at the hotel.

After a Couple Days on the Golf Course

warrior-dash-matt-2012 — My cousin Matt and I, all muddied up

On Saturday night I did the Warrior Dash for the first time. It was a lot of fun doing the obstacles. As I had expected, the run wasn’t bad at all. Now I need to step it up and try a Tough Mudder. Then on Sunday and Monday I went on a little golfing trip up to northern Michigan. It was nice to have a couple of rest days away from the WODs.

Warm-up

5 rounds

1m AbMat Sit-ups
1m Russian Twists (30# KB)
1m Plank
1m V-ups
1m Table Top (30s each side)
1m Rest

I could still feel the GHD work that I did on Friday night. This was the first time doing table tops and wow are they tough.

WOD

1m Wall Balls
3 rounds
- 100m Run
- 5 KB Snatches (L)
- 5 OH KB Lunges (L)
- 5 KB Snatches (R)
- 5 OH KB Lunges (R)
- 100m Run
1m Wall Balls

Kind of a weird WOD with the minute of wall balls at the beginning and at the end of the WOD, especially when everyone had to keep track of their own minute at the end. I got 29 wall balls that first minute and 25 at the end in the last minute. Total time for the WOD was 8:40, using a 53# KB for all of the snatches and lunges.

Finisher

100 HR Push-ups

My push-up endurance sucks. I think I started off with a set of 15 and then a set of 10, but after that it was 5s for a while and then whatever I could do. It took me 7:48 to finish off the 100.

Be a Warrior

Got to sleep late last night, but feeling pretty good today, other than my lower back of course.

Warm-up

400m Run
30 Air Squats
20 PVC Pass-thrus
30 PVC OHS
4 rounds
- 15s Jumping Jacks
- 15s Air Squats
- 15s Mountain Climbers
- 15s Jump Squats
4 rounds
- 15s Plank
- 15s Supermans
- 15s Side Plank L
- 15s Side Plank R

Long warm-up, but just what my body needed.

WOD

Cool partner WODs today. I was paired up with Laura. You keep alternating each part of the workout, so while one person is running, the other is doing the movement for reps inside.

10:00 AMRAP

150m Run
Over the Box Jumps (24″)

We got 198 reps total. Great WOD that keeps up the intensity the entire 10 minutes. There is no place to rest here until you’re done.

We rested for 5 minutes before moving on to the second part.

10:00 AMRAP

150m MB Run
Alternating one-arm DB Snatches (40#)

We got 175 reps in this one. MB runs are never easy. Another 10 minutes where there is no place to rest because snatches are such a full body move.

Now I’m off to run the Warrior Dash at 4:30 this afternoon. It’s only 3.25 miles and from what I’ve heard there is a lot of waiting at the obstacles, so I don’t expect it to be too hard on the body. I’ll use it as a recovery from this morning’s WOD. Then tomorrow I’m heading out-of-town for the weekend to golf with my Dad and a couple of buddies. Looking forward to the rest days.