Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Better by 19

I posted an update on my personal blog about my back issues.

Out in the garage this afternoon.

Bench Press

10×45#
10×95
6×135
3×165
3×195
4x3x225

Push Press

10×45#
6×95
3×135
3×155
3x3x175

Both pressing movements felt heavy.

Accessory

3×15/15 Pallof Press (red band, 2s pause)
3×15 DB Side Raises (10#)
3×15 DB Bent-over Side Raises (10#)

I tried to point my thumbs up towards the ceiling for both types of side raises. Interesting angle.

Midline

100 Sit-ups

Flew through in 2:39, which is a 19 second PR! I was using my AbMat pad, but can’t imagine it would make that much of a difference. I’ve had trouble setting just a few second PR on this over the years, so not sure where this came from.

Conditioning

10:00 Airdyne

The plan was to do an aerobic 20 minutes, but after doing 75-76 RPMs for 7:00 I picked it up to see if I could get close to my 300 FY score of 358. Maybe if I had started a minute earlier. Pretty close at 338 calories (3.99 miles).

All done in 65 minutes.

Performance Plus

I’ll get this in tonight…

Lat Foam Roller – 30 seconds each side (video)
Overhead Opener – 2×30 seconds (video)
3 MAX effort sets of Wall-Walks with 1:00 rest (video)

Holy shit those slow wall walks were hard! I did 3×3 and took about 25 seconds for each rep.

Carry First

Yesterday I walked my first 9 holes of the year and was exhausted the rest of the day. Pathetic. haha I wasn’t planning on doing anything except watching the Masters anyway, so it worked out. Got to the gym early today before the 4:30 class do the stuff from the PT.

Rehab – 3 Sets

15 Reverse Hyper (90#)
100′ Single Arm Front Rack Carry (44# KB, right)
10 Single Arm Front Rack Squats (44# KB, right)
100′ Single Arm Front Rack Carry (44# KB, left)
10 Single Arm Front Rack Squats (44# KB, left)
10 Single Arm Single Leg RDL (44# KB, right)
10 Single Arm Single Leg RDL (44# KB, left)

The squats turn out to be much harder when you fatigue yourself first. No rest from the carry to the squats.

Class Warm-up – 2 Sets

200m Run
10 Ring Rows
20 Jumping Jacks

The ring rows felt really good. They never do.

Strength – Back Squat

10×45#
8×135
6×185
5×215
4×245
3×275
2×285
1×300

No belt and wore Nike Metcons. Wasn’t planning to push the weight even though class was maxing out.

Accessory – 5 Sets

10 Hand Release Push-ups
10/10 Kroc Rows (53#)

Conditioning

9:00 AMRAP

5 Power Cleans (95#)
7 Back Squats (95#)
9 Burpees

Was too slow on my burpees. I was doing a short pause after each back squat too, which I should have just pushed through with so few reps. Finished exactly 7 rounds.

Get To It

Warm-up

2×15 Reverse Hyper (90#)
2 Rounds
- 200m Run
- 10 Air Squats
- 10 PVC Passes
- 15 Jumping Jacks

Strength – Front Squat

10×45#
6×135
4×185
4×215
2x3x245

My back is definitely tight.

Warmed up cleans with 5×45, 5×95, and 5×135.

Conditioning

30:00 Partner AMRAP

10 Power Cleans (185#)
20 Burpees
30 Row Calories
40 alt Box Jumps (24″)
50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
200m Run

Paired up with Weston and we evenly split everything. I did 5 TnG cleans each time. Did box jumps in the first round, but switched to step-ups because my back was getting a little tight. We recovered on the run. First round was around 8 minutes not knowing how to pace. Got a little faster and then we pushed it in the final round almost getting through in 6 minutes. Finished 3 rounds and about 120 meters of the 4th run.

Midline

Max Plank

With my mid back already tight I didn’t push it. Stopped at 3 minutes.

Pulled a double day because I wanted to get in the bench work and be able to rest tomorrow with the nice weather and the Masters on. Out in the garage after 9pm…

Bench Press

10×45#
10×95
5×135
5×165
5×185
5x5x205
3×30 alt DB Bench Press (50#)

Those dumbbell presses get much harder on the short rest.

Shoulder Press

5×95#
5×115
5×120
5×125

I haven’t done a shoulder press in months.

Accessory

3×15/15 Half-kneeling Single Arm DB Press (30#)
3×15/15 OH Single Arm DB Tricep Extensions (15#)
3×15/15 Landmine Press (75#)
3×15 Z Press (65#)

Single arm for the tricep extensions was not good but I thought it would be better for unilateral work. Didn’t feel the tricep working much at all. Won’t be doing them that way again.

I wasn’t sure if I did the landmine presses correctly the last time so I found a T Nation article. Yep, I had been leaning forward too much, effectively turning it into a shoulder press. Much harder when stand up straight and press out at an angle!

The Z Press was from the Performance Plus program. It was recommended to use about 33% of a max shoulder press. Focus on upright posture and fully opening the shoulders.

Because it was so decided to keep my rests at about 1:30. It helped me to prep the next movement ahead of time to keep rolling through. Finished all of that in 57 minutes!! It created a nice pump too. Short rest, Arnold style.

Still have 2 pieces of the Performance Plus to do, but will do them in the living room while watching TV.

Mobility

Thoracic Spine Extension
3×12 Downward Dog

Garage Pump Sesh

Got in a garage sesh before a late lunch. Warmed up with 5 minutes on the Ski Erg and went 1,156 meters. It’s like a bodybuilding day!

3 Sets 8 Strict Pull-ups + 7 Banded Pull-ups (blue hanging from bar)
3×12 Rack Chins (feet on bench)
3×10 BTN Wide Grip Pull-ups (blue band – across j-cups at pockets)
3×20 DB Curls (15#)
3 Sets
- 20 Shoulder Is (CS purple)
- 20 Shoulder Ys
- 20 Shoulder Ts

I feel so weak on this day of the program. Pull-ups get hard really fast. The rack chins are easily my favorite of the bunch. Talk about a pump on those!! I’m so weak. I did the IYTs as a big superset without letting go or stopping. Owww.

Quick work for the Performance Plus program today because the 2nd movement was strict pull-ups and I had clearly done enough already.

12 – 9 – 6 Hollow straight-arm (red) banded pull downs (video)
30s rest

PT Work

We clearly woke up some muscles yesterday on my low back. Maybe getting these in right away the next day wasn’t the smartest idea. Oh well.

3 Sets

10/10 Single-arm DB Front Squats (40#)
10/10 Single-arm single-leg RDL (40#)

Did these as a big 40 rep superset.

All that in less than 70 minutes.

Eval

Today I went to see a PT who knows CrossFit. Did a variety of movements there including air squats, back squats, deadlifts, single-arm kettlebell front rack squats, single-arm one-leg RDLs, and deficit deadlifts. Not high reps of anything. I’m preparing a post for my personal blog with an update about my back, how I recovered, and what I found out at the PT. I’ll link here once it’s published.

Jumped on the Airdyne tonight for a 30 minute aerobic piece. My watch actually worked today, so I was able to track my heart rate. Made it 17.19 km, a best by almost 0.8 km over the last time, which had already been a best. The kicker is I was still aerobic. I did bump up my zones since my back is functioning and didn’t feel I needed to use the 5-10 beats per minute adjustment to the 180-formula.

I did notice it took me about 5 minutes to get up near the bottom of that zone (133) even though I was going at 73-75 RPMs. Then before I hit 14 minutes in I did notice the high alert start going off for the first time. The graph confirms that stuff. I was able to keep the pace at 71-73 for a good length of time before I had to start dropping to 68-ish to keep the HR in zone.

Where’s The Rest?

I spoke too soon when writing my post yesterday. A few hours later I started to feel my hips, ass, hamstrings, and quads getting sore. I knew it had to be coming after squatting some weight for the first time in weeks. Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

1:00 Kang Squats (15#)
1:00 Sit-ups
1:00 Row
Deadlift
- 8×45#
- 8×155
- 8×225

Strength & Gymnastics

12:00 EMOM (alt)

8 Deadlifts (245#)
12 T2B

Wore grips (good to know they were fine with the deadlifts too) and did all sets unbroken. Tried to remember to keep eyes on the wall instead of looking up to the bar on each rep. Also tried to keep straight legs as much as possible. Was programmed as only 6 T2B but that would have been way too easy. Almost started to fail at the end so the 12 worked out great.

Accessory – 5 Sets

8 Pendlay Row (95#)
10 HR Push-ups

I mentioned to Weston, “We need more rest time. I’m not used to this class workout stuff.”

Conditioning

14:00 AMRAP

40 Hand-to-hand Kettlebell Swings (44#)
30 Ball Slams (20#)
20 Goblet Squats (44#)
20 Sit-ups
10 Walking Lunges

I did Russian swings in the first round but my hands were rubbing on the narrower handle so decided to switch to the H2H swings. Did every movement unbroken. Finished the sit-ups in the 3rd round. If I had done standing lunges I probably would have finished.

Late Night

E2M – 7 Sets

15 HR Push-ups

Decided to bust out some more push-ups while watching videos.

Performance Plus

Traps and neck are sore from yesterday. Legs seem fine from the squats though. Had a last chiro appointment to make sure everything was smooth sailing. Wanted to get in workouts at home, but while I was out figured I might as well just walk over to the gym. I started the Push-Only program for real today.

Bench Press

10×45#
10×95
8×135
4x8x170
3x12x185

It seems weird to do the working sets of 8 and then what seems like should be drop sets (supposed to be to failure in 10-12 reps) have to be heavier. I was too light on them.

Close Grip Bench Press

12×135#
12×150
12×165

These were supposed to be the same failure in 10-12 reps but I wasn’t really sure what I was capable of. When I did sets of 12 with 115 and 120 recently I wouldn’t call it easy. These weights were no issue though.

Accessory

DB Tricep Rollback
- 15 with 20#
- 15 with 25
- 15 with 30
3×15 DB Side Raises (10#)
3×15 DB Bent-over Side Raises (10#)

Definitely hit failure on that final set of JM Press! The last 5 were some ugly reps.

Performance Plus

Last week I saw Pamela Gagnon of CrossFit Gymnastics was pairing up with The Barbell Physio to launch a new prehab program. Only being a 10-20 minute time commitment caught my eye.

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

The program dropped already on The Barbell Physio site! Couldn’t believe it came out so quick, unlike the Brute Gymnastics program which they’ve been promising for about 2 years. They’re giving a 14 day free trial so I’m going to add it in the days I do this Hybrid Push-Only program and see how it goes.

Pec Minor Soft Tissue Mobility: 2x 20-30 seconds each side (video)
Crab sliders: 3:00 Tabata (video)
Overhead Snatch Shrugs: 3x10x45# (video)

Pretty simple stuff and easy to get through. I paused for a quick 2 count in each shrug.

Conditioning

20:00 Airdyne

Wore my Garmin to keep an eye on my heart rate and keep it aerobic but it was only reading 101 for some reason. I’ll have to try a software update. I kept the RPMs at about 72-73 based off the pace that worked for my 30 minute “ride” last week. Did 11.59km.

Without Restrictions

Finally took a rest day yesterday. Feeling great. Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up – 2 Sets

5 Burpees
12 Barbell Curls
12 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

The board actually had barbell GMs (good mornings) but I thought it said curls from far away. I was wondering why a bunch of people were doing good mornings. After finishing the first set I was committed to the curls.

Strength – Back Squat

10×45#
8×135
6×185
6×215
4×245
3×265
3×275

My back was just fine.

Conditioning

Buy-in: 100 DU
10 Rounds
- 10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
- 5 Power Snatch (95#)
Cash-out: 100 DU

I missed after 17 and then not until after 97 in the first 100 dubs. After the first few rounds I started to count my rest and tried to get in 2-3 deep breaths between movements after walking to my spot. The final 100 dubs were terrible. I was stopping every 10 reps. Doing them in lifters is not so great. The rope kept getting caught up in the velcro. Finished in 15:02.

Remembered to bring my dumbbells home so I can start the Hybrid Performance Method Push-Only program for real and get in a lot of the workouts at home to save time traveling to the gym.

No Joke

Abs and quads are still sore, but feeling pretty good. Went to the 10am class ready to lift some weight.

Warm-up

800m Row
3 Sets
- 30s Bar Hang
- 10 HR Push-ups

Gymnastics

3 Cycles

1:00 T2B
2:00 Rest

I did 5×5 the first two cycles and then 3×5 with 5×1 for a total of 70 toes-to-bars! I could tell the wall was coming and I hit it head on after 65 reps.

Conditioning

“Fran”
21-15-9

Thruster (75#)
Pull-ups

Nope, not an April Fool’s joke!

For some dumb reason I thought I had 65# on the bar until after I was done and Alex mentioned the weight. No issues with the weight. My shoulders were pretty fried from the T2B though so I had to break up pull-ups from the start, going 3×7 and then 8-7 on the 15. I did the 9 unbroken to finish and did all of the thrusters unbroken. Not a good time (4:21), but I’m back. 🙂

Midline

100 Sit-ups

Wasn’t going to be pretty after the T2B. Took me 3:51, almost a minute off my best time.

New Accessories

Quads are getting sore from yesterday and my abs are still feeling those knee raises. Got to the gym before 5. My back is feeling really good.

Bench Press

10×45#
10×95
5×135
5×165
5×185
5x5x205

Accessory

3×30 alt DB Bench Press (50#)
3×12/12 Half-kneeling Single Arm KB Press (26#)
3×15 Banded Triceps push down (red)
3×12/12 Landmine Press (70#)

All kinds of new stuff! Those bottoms-up kettlebell presses are hard! My left side fatigued much faster and was more unstable than the right.

Conditioning

Just a 20 minute aerobic Row for 4,880 meters. I bit harder to find the heart rate sweet spot on the rower. It was right around a 2:00/500m pace.