Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Snatch It Up

Yeah… still that right ass tweak. I’ve figure out that going up against the wall with the tennis ball is easier than trying to do it on the floor.

Warm-up

3 rounds

60s Flight simulator
60s “Cindy”

I’d never heard of flight simulator so let me describe it. You start off by getting 5 unbroken DUs, then you do 10 unbroken, keep increasing by 5 once you do the previous number. The goal is to get up to 50 and then come back down. Obviously that’s impossible in this scenario because we’re only doing it for a total of 3 minutes. I’m still struggling with the DUs, and couldn’t string together a 10. For “Cindy” we started off where we had left off in the previous round. I completed 2 rounds plus 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 11 air squats.

Strength

On the minute for 10m

1 Snatch
1 Hang Snatch

This doesn’t seem all that bad, but the weight got heavy in the last couple of minutes. I used 95#, which is still the most I’ve attempted. I’m really liking the snatch and it’s such a cool feeling to take a weight from the ground all the way to overhead in one move.

WOD

10m AMRAP

10 T2B
10 Dips
30 DUs

I didn’t do any scaling today. I did everything Rx because I knew I could use the DU practice (work on weaknesses right?) and it would mean less time ripping my hands doing T2B. I completed 2 rounds plus 10 T2B, 10 dips, and 11 DUs. At the beginning I tried doing kipping T2B but my body was swinging all over the place, so I slowed down and used a bit of a kipping motion to do one at a time and then reset myself. I did 5 ring dips in the first round because all of the racks were being used, then I switched over to the rack for the rest of the WOD. It took me around 2 minutes each round to get 30 DUs. Slow improvements on them. It’s so frustrating!

Paying the Price

The final tally for yesterday was over 30,000 steps. Wow! I’m not sure if there is a muscle in my entire body that isn’t sore today.

Warm-up

400m Row
2 Sets of 10
- Wall Squats
- Leg Swings (10 front to back, 10 side to side, each leg
2 Sets of 15
- Hollow Rocks
- Superman

Strength

5 Sets, 3-1-X-1 tempo, rest 2-3 minutes between sets
5-7 Deadlifts

My legs were shot from yesterday. I think I’ve figured out that deadlifts are causing the tweak in my right ass (or at least preventing it from healing) because I can really feel it after I do a set and stand back up and walk away from the bar. I warmed up with some reps of 135# and then used 185#, 205#, 225#, 225#, and 225# for my working sets. I usually love deadlifts, but not today.

WOD

3 Rounds

20 KBS
150m Row
Rest the amount of time it took to complete the round.

Another CrossFit WOD that looks easy on the whiteboard, but packs a punch. It was kind of goofy because you had to do the calculations to figure out rest time (as you are trying to rest and record your time on the board) and when to start your next set. I used a 53# KB and did my rounds in 1:21, 1:22, and 1:21. Consistency is the name of the game in a WOD like this. I wish I was consistently faster.

Only two more days until the first Open WOD is announced. I hope they start with something where I can do all of the exercises.

Hiking Distance PR

After yesterday’s WOD it was a rush to eat breakfast, shower and get to the golf course, but I made it early and walked the 18 holes. I got a headache, likely from the sun, and it didn’t go away for the rest of the night. I’m feeling really good today though.

This morning I went out hiking on some new trails and set a distance PR of 7.2 miles in 2:21:26. I kept a steady pace and wasn’t exhausted when I finished, so that’s good. A new goal is to do a 10 mile hike before I head back to Michigan in April.

I was planning on going to the Olympic Lifting class, but the door was locked when I got there. I checked Facebook and class had been canceled. I was going to head over to the driving range after class, so I decided to play a round and see how many holes I could get in before dark. I ended up walking all 18 and finished in the dark. According to Fitbit I took over 27,000 steps today.

Partner Up

I ate kind of shitty the last couple of days and my body is letting me know by not getting quality sleep, having less energy, craving more junk, etc. Ugh!

On Thursday I ended up going out and walking 11 holes of twilight golf and spent a good hour+ at the range yesterday working on my swing. Tee times were later today so I was able to make it in for a WOD. The weekends usually have some type of team or partner WOD, which is fun.

Warm-up

150 Sit-up variation reps (switch as you want)
Plank competition
3 Sets of 2 Turkish Get-ups (each side)

Since we had 15 people in class, we went across the room, each person counting to 10. I tried to do regular sit-ups most of the time, but switched to some bicycles and flutter kicks. I think I made it to the final 5 in the plank competition at just shy of 2 minutes and 50 seconds. My core was shaking so bad at the end. For the Turkish Get-ups I used a 35# KB for the first 2 sets and then a 40# DB for the last set. Bumping up 5# really makes you concentrate on that shoulder stability.

WOD

Form teams of 2, switch each exercise
10 rounds

10 Thrusters
10 Burpees
400m Run

It’s a little confusing when you look at it. This helps:
Partner A performs 10 thrusters; Partner B performs 10 burpees; Partner A runs 400 Meters; Partner B performs 10 thrusters; etc…
Each person is doing each exercise a total of 5 times over the course of the workout. In 2 rounds, each partner ends up doing everything once.

I partnered up with a couple of guys (team of 3 since there was an add number of people in class) that are new to the gym, but in really good shape. We used 95# for the thrusters which was absolutely brutal in rounds 3-5 so I had to split up the set into 6 and 4 reps. I was hating the choice of weight during the WOD, but after it’s done I’m glad I used it. I think we finished 3rd out of all the teams in a time of 31:03.

50 thrusters, 50 burpees, and 1.25 miles of running is a pretty good way to start the weekend! Time to rush and get out to the golf course.

The Early Leader

Feeling pretty good this morning even though I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would like last night. The right ass continues to have that tweak and the soreness is spreading a bit. I hope it’s from the tennis ball work I’ve been doing on it.

Warm-up

400m Row
2 Sets
- 10 GHD
- 10 Hip Extension
- 10 SDLHP
- 1m Plank

I used a 53# KB for the SDLHP. It’s been at least a couple of weeks since we did any planks, so I was a little shaky.

Strength
4 Sets

4-6 Shoulder Press, 2-0-X-1 tempo
90s Rest
20-30 Hollow Rocks
90s Rest

For shoulder press I did 95# for 6 reps, 105# for 6 reps, 115# for 5 reps, and set a new PR with 125# for 2 reps. After the first set, Emily let me know my elbows should be out in front of the bar at the bottom, which would help me to push straight up instead of out in an arc. After concentrating on that in the 2nd set, the weight was easier than the first set. This was the first time I’ve done hollow rocks and let me tell you, they really do some work! I struggled to get to 20 each set and there was no way I was getting to 30.

WOD
5 Rounds

10 DB Ground to OH
200m Run

This is my kind of WOD! I used 30# DBs and finished with a time of 7:41 to get the early lead on the board. I’m sure someone will crush it in the night classes, but I’ll enjoy it for now.

It’s been a great week with some awesome stuff happening at work and in the gym. I also ordered a new set of golf irons last night, which is always fun. So I’m going to go hog wild to celebrate and order a pizza as soon as they open in 10 minutes. Nom nom nom!

My legs are definitely sore today from the…

My legs are definitely sore today from the last two days of heavy lifting with back squats and deadlifts. My lower and middle back are ever a little sore. I worked on my right butt with the tennis back a couple of times yesterday and it seems to feel a little worse today, but maybe that means it’s improving. I can hope.

I had a golf lesson at 11 so couldn’t make it to the 9am class like I usually do. I checked out the workout and it included pull-ups and toes to bars (T2B) so I decided not to go to a night class. My hands are healing at a good pace and I don’t want to rip them wide open again so soon.

I decided to do a round of Tabata sprints since the last time I did them was December 8th in San Francisco. When I run these, I structure them like the following:

5:00 Slow Warm-up
8 rounds
- 20s Sprint
- 20s Slow
5:00+ Slow Cool down (however much longer it takes to get back to my destination)

I ran for a total time of 14:35 over 1.76 miles. According to the RunKeeper logs I covered nearly 0.1 miles more than previous runs of this workout during the interval portion, which is about 15% improvement. I could really tell the difference in my conditioning during the second half of the sprints. Usually I’d be dying, but I was able to stick pick up to a pretty decent pace.

After the run I practiced DUs for 5-10 minutes and was consistently getting streaks of 5-10. Finally some progress! It’s been awhile since I did a max push-up test, so I did that after in my apartment after some rest and knocked out 36.

Back to the box in the morning for a class.

I Love the Deadlift

My legs are a little sore from back squatting yesterday, but not bad. Still having the tweak in my right ass cheek, but I talked to our trainer Emily and she gave me some things to work on the area.

Warm-up

6 World’s Greatest Stretch (3 each leg)
2 Sets
- 10 Lateral Broadwalk with band (each leg)
- 10 Band Push Press
- 10 Single Leg Reach Stretch (each leg)

The flexibility in my hamstrings has improved a lot over the last month or so. I attribute it to some of the great warm-up stuff we do.

Strength

4 Sets

5 Deadlifts, 2-0-X-1 tempo
20s Rest
Max HSPU
3m Rest

When I saw the workout I knew I wanted to shoot for PRs in both movements. The last time we did heavy deadlifts, I was able to do 260# three times and I still had some gas left in the tank. I did a warm-up set at 135# and then did 185#, 215#, 245#, and went big for 270# in the last set. For HSPUs, I only used 2 AbMats today. I was able to do 12, 9, 7, and 7 in the sets. Mission accomplished!

WOD

8:00 AMRAP

15 KBS
30 DUs

Double unders…my favorite. 🙂 My goal was to get 10-15 in each round and then move on. I was able to get 15 in each round and got a few streaks here and there. Much better than I have been doing. I used a 53# KB for the swings and was able to complete 4 rounds plus 15 KBS.

I might not be able to make it to a class tomorrow because I have a golf lesson. I’ll check out what the WOD is for the day and maybe run some sprint intervals outside instead.

Back Squat and Pull-up PRs

I had a great night of sleep after not getting enough on Friday or Saturday night. My shoulders were a little tired from the Olympic lifting and I still have that tweak in my right butt. My hands are healing quite well.

Warm-up

400m Run
2 rounds
- 15 GHD
- 15 Hip Ext
- 15 Wall Squats
- 5 Ring Dips
- 10 Bench Dips
- 15 KBS

A longer warm-up, but today’s workout wasn’t anything intense, because it was a test day, so it was nice to get some extra work. I used 53# for the KBS.

Strength
Back Squat, 1RM Test, 3-0-X-0 tempo
Take a 2 minute rest after each set, do max strict pull-ups, and then take another 2 minute rest before starting the next set.

Set 1: 50% of possible 1RM x 5 reps
Set 2: 75% of possible 1RM x 3 reps
Set 3: 85% of possible 1RM x 1 rep
Set 4: 90-95% of possible 1RM x 1 rep
Set 5: Test 1RM
Set 6 (optional) – Exceed Set 5 weight

To finish off the workout, take 85% of the 1RM back squat and do max reps in one set with the 3-0-X-0 tempo.

The most I had attempted on the back squat was 185# a couple of weeks ago when I did it 4 times for a few sets. Since we had just tested the frost squat last week and my 1RM was 215# I set a goal of 230# because I really had no idea. For the first 4 sets used weights of 115#, 175#, 195#, and 210#. Already 2 new PRs there! I put 210 on the bar for the 5th set and got it up, but I didn’t get low enough in the squat so it didn’t count. After doing the pull-ups and getting in another rest I made another attempt and got 220# up. For the finisher set I used 185# and was able to knock out 6 reps.

For the pull-ups, I got 6 in the first set, which is a new PR for me. I’m pretty excited about that since I just got to 5 on February 2nd. I’m well on my way to 15 by the end of the year. In the other sets I got 5, 5, 4, and 4 pull-ups. I was really trying to grip the bar only with my fingers so I didn’t get any rubbing where I tore them up last week.

A Hike and Olympic Lifting

I didn’t end up golfing this morning because I went back to test out some new golf irons. After I was done, I headed straight to Piestewa Peak for a hike. I had to park in the farthest parking lot from the trail head, so the total distance was 2.85 miles, which I completed in 1:11:07.

There wasn’t an Olympic lifting class at CrossFit Full Strength last week because of the Super Bowl, but it was back on the schedule today, so I made sure to get there. After doing a 500m warm-up on the rower, we worked on transfer skills and strength for them.

First we started with hanging muscle snatches. Nothing too complex, but I had to work on keeping the bar close to my body on the way up and not starting the move with a dip of the shoulders and body. The weight quickly got heavy, but I guess that’s why it’s called a muscle snatch. I think I got up to 95#.

The next thing we did was heaving snatch balance into a receiving position, followed up by an overhead squat. The OH squat is an awkward movement to get the hang of. I have trouble keeping it locked out, back behind my head, and still make sure I’m pushing up on the bar. I started rocking a few times, but think I was getting better. Got up to 95# again doing these.

Finally at the end, we worked on a slow jerk movement. Starting in the rack position, we’d go up on to our toes and pause the bar at our forehead for a second or two. Then from there we’d concentrate on dropping below the bar into the split jerk. I have a tendency to split too wide with my feet. We started with just the 45# bar, but as I added weight I felt that it helped me to keep the split smaller. I only worked up to 85# on these because we did a lot with the bar and were concentrating on the split portion more than anything else.

I really like going to these Oly classes because they are really slow paced with a lot of instruction from Johnny. They are really helping me out during the strength work and WODs of regular classes.

After I got home I worked on DUs for awhile. I did better than I’ve been doing in class, but still a struggle.

Yesterday was a much needed rest day Some…

Yesterday was a much needed rest day. Some new skin is growing in nicely on my hands and I no longer have any pain when water or anything touches them. I walked 18 holes of golf this morning and I was fine swinging a golf club. I did keep putting chap stick on the areas because they were getting a little dry. I’ve been applying lotion several times a day when at home too.

I just got done hiking Piestewa Peak, which is just over 2 miles, in 53:38. Each time I hike it I set another PR. This time I shaved off another 3:03. I’m really noticing a difference in my breathing during the climb. It’s much easier than when I first did it on January 7th at a time over 10 minutes slower than today. All of the credit goes to CrossFit!