Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Should I Have Gone Rx?

I’m tired today but my body feels good after yesterday’s workout. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

1:30 Assault Bike (30s Easy/Hard/Easy)
10/10 Single Leg/Arm Deadlifts (44#)
10 Good Mornings (PVC)

Strength

Deadlift

10×45#
5×135
5×185
5×225
5×255
5×285
3x5x305

With 285 and up I wore my belt and used a mixed grip for the first time in ages. So much easier on the grip. Deadlifting felt really good for the first time in a long time.

Conditioning

7 Rounds

5 C&J (165#)
15 Sit-ups

The Rx for this was 185 pounds. Two years ago I did a heavy Grace with that load in 6:59 and it was horrible. Not sure I could keep the same type of pace with my current strength, even with the sit-ups pacing it out a lot more. Decided on 165# so I could hopefully move through it.

I did all quick singles and was able to go right into my jerk on every rep, without a full stand up from the clean. Used the sit-ups to catch my breath some. Finished in 8:01. I wore my belt, which I think helped a lot. During the first round I loosened and tightened it with the sit-ups, but after that I just kept it tight.

Should I have gone Rx though? I would have needed to take an extra breath or two before each rep and at some point probably would’ve started standing up to reset for the jerk. With a time cap of 15 minutes I’m thinking I should have tried 185#.

Chippin’ Away

My legs were extremely fatigued Friday night and until about 10pm yesterday. Felt like I ran 10 miles. Or that’s what I imagine it would feel like. Rested yesterday, but went on a little road trip, which was a tiring day in its own way.

Warm-up

Bottom Squat Hold
Ring Hang & Stretch
10 Deadlifts (45#)
6 Pendlay Rows (95#)

Accessory

4 Rounds

6 Pendlay Rows (135#)
6 Evil Wheels
6/6 Bottoms Up KB Presses (26#)

Might be time to try the presses with 35#.

Conditioning

Warmed up snatches with 5×45, 5×65, and 3×95.

15 Power Snatches (115#)
55 Double Unders
25 C2B Pull-ups
55 Double Unders
35 Hand Release Push-ups
55 Double Unders
45 Wall Ball Sit-ups (30#)
55 Double Unders
35 Hand Release Push-ups
55 Double Unders
25 C2B Pull-ups
55 Double Unders
15 Power Snatches (115#)

Realized it had been a long time since I’d done a chipper, so I came up with this one. My only miss on the rope was 2 reps in after the first round of C2B. Snatches were all quick singles, chest to bar pull-ups were 5×5, push-ups were 7×5, and sit-ups were 3×15. The sit-ups with that heavier medicine ball were the hardest part of the workout. Excited I was able to do all sets of 5 for the C2B, though I maybe could have gone a lot faster in the workout without as much rest between the sets. Finished in 18:57. I really liked that one.

I did a little bit of handstand walk practice, but was tired.

Dumbbell Thrusters are the Devil

My neck had been kind of sore after Wednesday’s workout. Today my traps are really sore, probably from all of the pulling with those 50 power cleans. I did get a much better sleep last night. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

Team Rowling to 1,000 meters

I got 100-100-99-100-100. 🙂

Conditioning

10 Rounds

30s Row
30s Rest

I got 166, 161, 160, 160, 159, 156, 155, 155, 155, and 156 meters. The workout summary on the rower added that up to 1,584 for some reason, which is a meter off. Should have been 1,583!

21-15-9-6-3

DB Thrusters (40# DBs)
T2B

Wasn’t really recovered for this. I decided last night when I saw the workout that I was not going to attempt with the 50s. I went 12-9, 9-6, 9, 6, and 3 on my thrusters and took too much time looking at the dumbbells. The thrusters definitely affected my hip action on the toes to bars, but I was able to get 6-5-5-5, 5-5-5, 5-4, 3-3, and 3. Finished in 7:14, which I’m not very pleased with. Too much resting.

Accessory & Skill

4 Sets

10/10 Kroc Rows (44#)
HS Walking Practice

After the 4 rounds I worked for another 10-15 minutes all walking up to the wall. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with it and will probably see what I can do on the open floor on Sunday.

Here is a quick video I took of some of the practice. These weren’t my best attempts, but even these are a huge improvement from what I could do before this week.

Ready for a rest day!

Baby Swings

My shoulders and arms are in rough shape today. I couldn’t fall back to sleep last night, so by 6am I was fed up with it and got out of bed. Turned out to be a 2 coffee day and I’m still dragging ass. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

Bottom Squat Hold
Dead Hang
Mini Ring Swings!!!
2 Rounds
- 1:00 Assault Bike
- 10 Kip Swings
- 10 PVC Good Mornings
- 10 PVC Passes

First time I’ve been able to swing on the rings in months!! Could still feel my right shoulder when I got really deep in the swing so I only did a few. Making progress finally. Looking forward to being able to do ring muscle-ups again.

Weightlifting

5×45#
5×95
3×135
3×165
3×185
3×205
3×225
3×235

I did TnG through 185 and put the belt on for 225 or 235. The bar was feeling really heavy and it didn’t dawn on my until after class that I was feeling so terrible from a lack of sleep last night. The reps with 235 were harder than I can remember in many years and then I went for 245 and “Clarked” the first rep. Wow! For comparison, in June I was able to hit 245 for a triple, shortly after I started lifting again.

Conditioning

15:00 EMOM (alt)

12 cals Assault Bike
10 Power Cleans (115#, unbroken)
4 Pull-ups + 3 C2B Pull-ups + 2 Bar Muscle-ups

As soon as I saw this workout I knew I’d scale back from 135# and definitely glad I did with how I am feeling. The gymnastics minute was 5+4+3, but I wasn’t confident I could hold on to that, so I cut back. Possibly could have made it, but this was plenty hard enough. I dropped off the rig between every movement. That bike really blows up your legs. I need to use it more often because it’s a lot different from my Airdyne.

Hopefully I can get a good night of sleep and hit the gym tomorrow because I have a busy Saturday and probably won’t have time for a workout.

Baby Steps

Took a rest day yesterday, though I should start doing an active recovery day once a week again. Middle of my back, or just below my shoulder blades, especially on the sides of my spine, is was really tight. Not as bad today. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

2 Minute Row (28 s/m)
2 Rounds
- 10 Push-ups
- 10 Air Squats
- 10 American KBS (35#)

Conditioning

Buy In: 3,000m Row
5 Rounds
- 15 Push Jerks (95#)
- 15 Sit-ups
- 15 American KBS (53#)

Started out around 1:51/500m and then slowed closer to 1:55 after about 1,000 meters with a stroke rate around 25-26 most of the way. I got off the rower around 11:20-ish and was feeling good, so I know I didn’t go too hard. When I saw this workout I knew I wasn’t going to try 115# and 70#. I made the right choice with scaling. Still had to break up the last two rounds of push jerks because I couldn’t straighten my arms! I went 8-7 and 9-6 on those rounds. Tried to catch my breath on the sit-ups and did the swings unbroken every round. Going from the swings to the jerks was horrible. Finished in 22:21.

Skill

Worked on finding balance in a handstand hold and some walking again. My shoulders were wrecked, but I figured it would be good practice when fatigued. The band across the rig was feeling good, so I went over to the wall and started taking a few handstand steps into it and was even able to hold in a freestanding for a little bit. Felt like a huge breakthrough today!

Pace and Pick it Up

The middle of my back is sore. I’m guessing it was from the C2B. Went to the 4pm class today.

Warm-up

1:00 Row @ 20 s/m
15 Air Squats
1:00 Row @ 26 s/m
15 Air Squats

Strength

Back Squat

10×45#
5×95
5×135
10×165
10×185
10×195
10×205
10×215

Got up to what I hoped for based on what I’ve been lifting and estimated maxes. Still feels weird and uncertain. I wore my belt for the last 2 or 3 sets.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

300m Row @ 2k pace
200m Row @ 3-6 seconds/500m faster
2:00 Rest

I guess the program has some rowing focus for the next month, which will be fun. I missed the 2,000 meter test last week, so decided to go off a 7:00 time, since I’m pretty sure I can’t match my 6:43.3 PR right now and my 2k test on the Ski Erg was about 10 seconds slower than my best. Plus 7:00 makes calculations easy. So I rowed at 1:45/500m and then picked it up to 1:40. My times were 1:43, 1:43, 1:42.9, 1:42.7, and 1:42.5. Love that consistency!

Upside Down Work

Read about my new folding wall mounted rack.

The usual open gym at noon.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

10 Pistols
5/5 Single Arm DB Hang Clean & Jerk (50#)
10 C2B Pull-ups

My pistols were shaky and in the last couple of rounds I started grabbing my foot on some of the reps. I switched arms on the way down for the C&J. Every round of chest to bars was 4-3-3 and didn’t wear any grips. Finished 5+11.

Accessory

3 Sets

8/8 Single Arm/Leg KB Deadlifts (62#)
8/8 Bottoms Up KB Press (26#)

Midline

5 sets (Holding 5# plates)

10 Hollow Rocks
10 Scissor Toe Touches (alternate arm/leg)
Roll
10s Superman hold (straight arms!)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnojfV5j5jl/

Could go with a shorter rest period. Took me 6:57.

Skill

We were done really early so did some handstand drills. Put my feet up on a box and walked around it with my hands. The 24″ side isn’t high enough for me, so the 30″ allows me to get my hips up over my shoulders more, though I think I was still short of it.

Then I put a big band around high J-cups on the rack so I could kick up and work on finding the balance point. This one really helped. After getting a feel I’d place my hands further away from the rig, working on finding the handstand position without hitting the band. Then I went to the wall and eventually tried handstand walking a few steps into the wall. Big progress is one session. My wrists were getting sore, so that was enough.

Racked

Had a minor procedure done yesterday to remove another cyst from my head, so I rested. Spent most of today finally putting the new Titan Fitness folding rack up in the garage. I should have a post on nick.blog about it tomorrow. Finished around 4pm and got into the gym’s Friday workout, with a modification to sub the Ski Erg since I don’t have a rower.

Warm-up

1:30 Ski Erg
10x
- Inchworm
- 2 Push-ups
1:30 Ski Erg
20 PVC Passes

Strength

10 Shoulder Press (45#)
5 Shoulder Press (75#)
5 Shoulder Press (95#)
5 Shoulder Press (105#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
5 Shoulder Press (115#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
3 Shoulder Press (130#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
3 Shoulder Press (140#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
1 Shoulder Press (150#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
1 Shoulder Press (160#)
5 Strict Chin-ups
1 Shoulder Press (165#)
5 Strict Chin-ups

Added one extra single above the programmed rep scheme. That was my heaviest press of 2018. I decided to do chin-ups instead of pull-ups because it’s been far too long since I did some. They felt much easier. Sure was nice to have a rack for lifting, though shoulder press would be just fine off jerk blocks.

Conditioning

2k Ski Erg

I would much rather have done 2,000 meters on the rower at the gym. My time to beat for skiing is 7:39.6, so my goal was to hold a sub 1:55/500m pace. I did it for the first quarter of the race, but fell off quick after that. I bumped the damper up to around 5 after noticing it was near 3, so I wonder if that affected me. Or I just didn’t have it today. Finished in 7:49.2.

Ten Triples

Not feeling anything from yesterday’s workout. Mowed up the leaves in the yard around noon today. Went to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

1:00 Row
30s/30s Lizard Stretch
1:00 Row
45s Wrist Stretch
1:00 Row
10 Goblet Squats (44#)

Strength

Front Squat

6×95#
6×135
10x3x165

Programmed to be at 70% so this was probably a little low considering my estimated may back squat right now would be around 300 and this would only be 70% of 235. Good enough. Supposed to be 1:00 rest between sets but I was trying to go closer to EMOM.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

15 Hang Power Cleans (135#)
15 Burpees

Wasn’t even going to attempt going unbroken. My goal was 9-6 each round, which I was able to do. The second and third round were a fight to hold on. I kept getting lower in the hang in order to use my legs more and not my back. Started dropping under the bar more too and slowed down the cycle rate. Burpees felt pretty good. Finished in 4:45.

Keep Pace

Yesterday had heavy deadlifts, but after back squats Sunday and squat snatches on Monday my back needed to recover. Plus it would have been 4 days in a row, so I welcomed the rest day. Went at 4pm today.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

20 cal Row
20 Jump Rope
20 DU

Conditioning

E4M for 40:00

20 cal Row
15 Burpees
40 DU

Two months ago we did 15 cal, 15 burpees, and 30 double unders every 3 minutes for 30:00. I killed it with all of my rounds between 1:59 and 2:02, not missing a double under. With more rest and not much more work, my goal was to push the rower a little more with > 1,400 cal/hour the whole way. If my double under were on point, I was hoping for rounds of 2:20.

I’d say my average pace on the rower was between 1,400 and 1,450 through every round. My burpees were at a nice steady pace that didn’t change much. In the 8th round I tripped on the rope before my first rep and missed at 24 reps. Every other round was unbroken.

My times were 2:10-2:13-2:15-2:11-2:13-2:13-2:12-2:17-2:13-2:11. I didn’t transition between movements well in the 3rd round and then that 8th round was obviously going to be my slowest with the DU misses. Other than that everything was within a few second window again. These workouts really force you to keep pushing your pace and the 10 round grind can get to your head.