Handstand Push-up – Page 14 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Weird Feelings

In at 3:30.

Skill WOD “Be the Master of Your Volume” Week 3 Day 3

Warm-up: 3 Rounds

10 Pass-thrus (over & under grips)
10 Straddle V-ups
10 Back Extensions
10s Handstand Hold
5/5 Bar Taps (tight/dynamic)

Test Your Max

1 Set of MAX C2B Pull-ups
4 sets at 60%
2:00 Rests between all sets

Didn’t have it today. Got 18, which is 5 fewer than last week so 60% (rounded up) was sets of 11. I got the first 3 sets unbroken and then went for a max of 13 on the last set.

In the 2nd drop set I started to lose some of my peripheral vision and was seeing sort of 2 squiggly rainbow lines on the right some of my vision. It was weird. Lasted through the accessory work and then my peripheral was still messed up for a little while after that.

Strength Accessory: 3 Sets

10 Leg Lifts (AbMat on box on jerk blocks)
20 GHD Heel Drives

Cut from 5 to 3 sets again since I didn’t want to fatigue my back too much before squats.

Strength – Front Squat

5×45#
5×135
5×205
5×235
5×265
5×275
5×285 (PR)

Wasn’t sure what to expect after the vision weirdness. Pretty solid lifting though and beats the set of 5 I did about a year ago.

Conditioning

Mini “Diane”
12-9-6

Deadlift (225#)
HSPU

I had looked back earlier when planning my week and saw a time of 5:18 from over 3 years ago for this so I was pretty happy with the 3:58 I did today. Until I got home at least. I had failed to see I later did a 15-12-9 in 4:10 over 2 years ago. Today I went unbroken on all of the deadlifts and 7-5, 5-4, and 4-1-1 on the handstand push-ups.

My neck and head weren’t feeling the greatest after this and then some of my fingers actually started going numb as I recovered. What the fuck is wrong with me today?

Skill

2:00 DU

Missed more than I should have, but did a decent set of about 80 unbroken in the middle. Managed 183 reps, which is still ranked high on Beyond The Whiteboard so I shouldn’t complain too much, but I expect better.

Really not sure what was going on with me today. I’ve never had some of those issues in a training session. I did take a bunch of extra carbs in both of my workout drinks, but not sure that would have had anything to do with it. I think it’s a sign to take a full rest day tomorrow instead of active recovery.

Get Nasty With The Girls

My legs were surprisingly tired this morning. The squats I did yesterday were nothing crazy. Went to the gym at 10am.

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 4 Day 2

Warm-up

3 sets

10 Pass-thrus
10 Hollow Rocks
10 Arch Ups
10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
10s Bottom of Dip Hold
10 Bridge Rocks

Skill

4 Sets

Freestanding HS Hold practice
16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Best week of the 4 for these shoulder taps. Didn’t fall off the wall once during the 4 sets. I think I figured out how to shift my hips better with the butt facing the wall.

Skill Test

3 Sets: 4 Deficit Strict HSPU (3.5″)

Lowered down from last week’s 4 inches so I could hopefully get 4 each set. Wasn’t easy but did it. I set the plates further from the wall after watching Spealler’s tips video this morning. Felt better that way.

Strength Accessory

3 sets

10 Seated DB Press (40# DBs)
10 Parallette Push-ups (feet on 16″ box)
30s GHD Hollow Hold

The presses have been pretty easy so I added 2 more reps this week. I guess I could have tried using 44# KBs. Also increased the box height under my feet. I really tried to get as low as possible in the bottom of those push-ups to feel the stretch.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

Burpees
HSPU

I had to have miscounted last week. I think I did the round of 4 twice because there is no way my score should have been that much of a decrease from the previous 2 weeks. Kipping felt much butter with the plates further from the wall. I finished the round of 6s and got 5 burpees, a PR by 6 total reps over the first week. First time Yes! Got a second wind after that success. I was pretty disappointed last week.

I am not sad to see the last day of this workout. Has been my least favorite of the 3.

Took a solid 30 minute rest, but did 10×45# and 5×95# hang power cleans to warm-up for…

Conditioning

“Nasty Girls” – 3 Rounds

50 Air Squats
7 Muscle-ups
10 Hang Power Cleans (135#)

I’ve been wanting to try this one out for a long time. Since I’m heading out of town for a couple days today sounded like a great day for it. Get in a metcon involving a barbell and get in some muscle-ups with a full 2+ days to recover before the final workout of this Skill WOD cycle.

The air squats are so damn slow. Tried not to get my heart rate up too high going into the muscle-ups. I went 4-3, 4-2-1, and 4-2-1 on MU. Cleans were 5-5, 5-5, and 10. Took me 10:46. Next time I give this a go I’d try to speed up the 2nd and 3rd round of squats and I’d do all of the cleans unbroken for sure. I broke up those first two sets trying to save my pull a bit for the muscle-ups but with the long break during squats I don’t think it matters. I also think without having done an hour of handstand push-up work I’d be able to get the muscle-ups in 4-3 each round.

This video is a classic. The sport has come a long way.

210 Plus

Took a much needed complete rest day yesterday. Got on the scale this morning for the first time in weeks. Knew this was coming, but first time over 210, weighing in at 211.5 pounds! At least my strength numbers are going up with it, but this gymnastics stuff sure would be easier if I dropped back to around 2 hundy. Had my monthly adjustment at the chiro and then went to the gym

Warm-up

3 Sets

10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Strength

Deadlifts

10x20kg
10×70
5×100
5×120
5×140
5×155
5×170
5×180
5×190

Comes out to 419# on the last set, which is only 16 shy of my best 5, back in November 2013 a couple months after I pulled 515. I did 5×425# back in January of this year for a more recent set. Back when I did the 5×435, I was pretty dumb with my warm-ups. Look at this shit… I did 135-225-315-385-435. Today I took almost twice as many sets to get up close to that. Felt good too. Nice to have my back holding up.

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 3 Day 2

Warm-up

3 sets

10 Pass-thrus
10 Hollow Rocks
10 Arch Ups
10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
10s Bottom of Dip Hold
10 Bridge Rocks

The narrow grip overhead squats felt rough today.

Skill

4 Sets

Freestanding HS Hold practice
16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Felt better with the handstand holds, but still used the wall as my crutch to kick up and then took my feet off the wall for as much as I could.

Skill Test

4 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)
3 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)
3 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)

In my notes from last week I see 3″ for the working sets, but my record on BTWB says 3.5″ so not sure which was correct. The bump to 4 was not easy though. Should probably decrease and get in more reps next week.

Strength Accessory

3 sets

8 Seated DB Press (40# DBs)
10 Parallette Push-ups
30s GHD Hollow Hold

Put feet up on a box for the push-ups this week and didn’t really feel any harder.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

Burpees
HSPU

Fucking terrible. I only got through 5 burpees and 3 HSPU this week. I’m not sure what happened but since doing the max deficits last week I’ve started to put my back up against the wall during the push-up. It’s really throwing me off, especially in the kipping reps. I was hoping to get more than the first week, but got an entire round less. Almost makes me wonder if I messed up my counts and did the round of 4 twice. I don’t think so, but it’s weird to be an entire round less an just a 5 minute workout. Oh well I guess.

Unmotivated Morning

Took the complete rest day yesterday. Biceps were sore and then my lats were sore later in the day. Planned to do the 9am class this morning but woke up really tired and was moving slow. I was also a bit depressed I wouldn’t be able to deadlift heavy with my tore up hands. So I skipped out on class. Went in earlier than originally planned at night instead and did extra work after too.

Warm-up

3 Sets

10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Strength

Back Squats

5x20kg + 5x20kg with 2 second pauses
5×70 (2s pauses)
5×90 (2s pauses)
5×110 (2s pauses)
3x3x130 (2s pauses)

Work my belt for the last 3 sets.

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 2 Day 2

Warm-up

3 sets

10 Pass-thrus
10 Hollow Rocks
10 Arch Ups
10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
10s Bottom of Dip Hold
10 Bridge Rocks

Skill

4 Sets

Freestanding HS Hold practice
16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Realized I wasn’t looking down at the ground like you would in a handstand or when walking. Seemed easier when I did that and also helped make the shoulder taps easier too.

Skill Test

Find 1 rep MAX deficit strict HSPU
3×4 deficit strict HSPU (3″)

I stopped after getting 11.5 inches. Probably did 5 or 6 other heights working up to that (all singles). The program calls for 3 sets of 4-6 at 70% of max height. Real funny! Tried 7″ and was already spent, so bumped it way down. Barely made it through sets of 4 at a little over 3″.

Strength Accessory

3 sets

8 Seated DB Press (40# DBs)
10 Parallette Push-ups
30s GHD Hollow Hold

Jumping up to the 40# DBs wasn’t that hard. Will try the push-ups with feet on a box next week. The hollow hold still sucked.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

Burpees
HSPU

I got through the 4th HSPU in the round of 6 faster than last week, but failed on it and wasn’t going to try again with 15 seconds left. So -1 rep from last week. Didn’t do any of the deficit work last week and went heavier on the DB presses, so I’ll still call that progress.

Conditioning

Bryan and I got out the Air Dyne (AD2) for the good ol’ Air Dyne Hell. Don’t remember ever doing it on this model, so wasn’t sure what to expect.

E2M 20:00

15s Air Dyne at 100%

I didn’t think it was too bad after the first round, but by round 3 the quads were burning. We totaled 512 calories between the two of us. Compare that to 273 and 287 calories Kevin and I did on the model AD6 before and you can see how different the computers are on the two models.

Sore Wings

Woke up yesterday with a headache that got worse through the day, before I finally gave in and popped some pills. So fucking sore too! I’m not sure my lats have even been this sore from pull-ups. Triceps are rocked from Kalsu I believe and my biceps are probably sore from the underhand work on Monday. Had planned an active recovery day yesterday with the possibility of squatting, but it was pretty obvious my body was crying for rest.

Was wide awake shortly after 5am so crawled out of bed and got an early start on work. Then went to the 9am class.

Warm-up

Bottom Squat Hold
Shoulder & Upper Back stretching
Air Squats
Jumping Jacks
Toe Touches
Zombie Kicks

Strength: Deadlift

10×45#
6×155
3×265
3×315
3×345
3×375
3×395
3×415
3×435

Yeah! Only 30# shy of my best triple. The slow and steady approach is paying off. Back felt really good today. I put on my belt starting with 345 I think.

Weightlifting

Probably should say it’s more conditioning since not really much technique work involved.

10:00 EMOM

2 Clean & Jerks

I went 155-165-175-185-195-200-205-210-215-220 with squatting and split jerks. I think I powered one rep at 175 or 185. My second split jerk in the heavy rounds was kind of ugly with a lot of flat back foot. Wore the belt and lifting shoes.

Conditioning

6 Rounds

10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
10 Plate Snatches (45#)

Looks innocent, right? Nasty shoulder burner though, starting at the end of the 3rd round. I was glad I didn’t use the 25# slam ball and was starting to regret my decision to use the 45# plate. Kept every round unbroken though. Finished in 5:43. According to the Fitbit, my heart rate was up to 144 at the end.

Skill WOD: Hustle & Flow Week 1 Day 2

Headed out to the garage in the afternoon to do this. Shoulders feeling fatigue from this morning.

Warm-up

3 sets

10 Pass-thrus
10 Hollow Rocks
10 Arch Ups
10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
10s Bottom of Dip Hold
10 Bridge Rocks

Skill

4 Sets

Freestanding HS Hold
16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Basically just practiced trying to get up into a freestanding handstand. After a few attempts out in the open I moved over to the wall with a little better success. If I kicked up and hit the wall I took my feet off the wall as quick as I could and tried to balance for a few seconds. Shoulder taps with back to the wall are so much harder. I wasn’t even tapping my shoulders, though I don’t think I was shifting my weight enough until the last set. Will hopefully be easier at the gym with more room.

Skill Test

1st week: Find 1 rep MAX deficit strict HSPU
3 sets of 4-6 strict reps at 70% of max deficit

I didn’t figure out a good way to setup the plates until I had already started on an alternative. Did 3×7 regular strict reps with no deficit and about 2-2:30 of rest between sets. Plenty difficult.

Strength Accessory

3 Sets

8 Seated DB Press (30# DBs)
10 Parallette Push-ups
30s GHD Hollow Hold

Holy fuck was that hold hard! Entire body shaking by 10 seconds in. The seated presses were easy at that weight but I didn’t want to kill myself too much before the AMRAP, which I knew would be tough.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

Burpees
HSPU

Went unbroken through 3 and then no more than 2 handstand push-ups in a row. Finished the round of 5 plus 6 burpees and 5 HSPU.

One More Row+Burpees

Feel pretty good today. In to the gym a little after 4:30.

Warm-up

3 Sets

5 Bridge Rocks
5 Arm Circles (one arm at a time, forward, backward)
10s Laying Handstand Hold Drill
15s Plank on hands

Gymnastics Tests

MAX Strict HSPU + MAX Kipping HSPU (stay on the wall)
4-5 min Rest
MAX Kipping HSPU

Wasn’t sure what to expect. Over 3.5 years ago I did 10 strict handstand push-ups. I was 173.5# that day, but I’m almost 210# now so I’ll take the PR of 11 strict and then I was able to stay up and get 5 kipping after that. Got 14 kipping after the rest, which matches an old record from January of 2013.

Rowing WOD Week 17 Session 1

27-21-15-9
- Calorie Row
- Burpees over the Rower
15:00 Rest
7:00 AMRAP (3-6-9-12…)
- Calorie Row
- Burpees over the rower

Just like 15.5 but the burpees in place of the thrusters. I thought this would be easier, but with burpees you don’t have any rest time like you did when splitting up the thrusters. I pulled close to 1,500 cal/hr during the set of 27 cals and then tried to keep about 1,200 during the other sets. The burpees seemed to take forever. Finished in 9:15, which is 8 seconds slower than my time on 15.5.

I actually messed up the order of the movements for the AMRAP. Burpees were supposed to be first. Whoops! Finished the round of 15s and got 5 more calories for 95 total reps.

One more workout to finish out this cycle! Looking forward to it and the switch to gymnastics work. Cameron, the guy who puts out the program is giving away some t-shirts this week, so I made a couple of videos for my entries. Both are from the first round of each part of the workout.

Four Wheels For Five

I had planned to do some active recovery yesterday, but when I woke up I knew I needed a full rest day. That row-burpee combination has been destroying me. Had a chiro appointment tonight so went to the 5:30 class right after. Doc says things have been loosing up well each time I go in and my low back and transition to my mid back looks a lot better lately. Knock on wood, I haven’t tweaked anything in months either now that I’ve been doing some accessory work and taking things slow.

Warm-up

3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
Inch Worms
Zombie Kicks
High Knees
Butt Kicks
Arm Circles

Strength

6 Sets

5 Strict C2B Pull-ups

I did a couple sets before class started and the rest in between my early deadlift sets. Felt really explosive with them today and that’s an extra set from what I’ve been doing.

Deadlifts

10×45#
5×155#
5×225#
5×265#
5×305#
5×335#
5×365#
5×405#

Don’t really like to make a bigger jump than previous jumps, especially at the end like that, but everyone else was waiting on me. Did 405 for a triple recently so wanted 5 today. Feels good to be pulling 400+ again. Wore the belt starting with 305#.

Conditioning

E2M 12:00

3 Bear Complex (135#)
10 Wall Balls (25#, 10′)

Nice quad burner. Rounds were 42-40-41-41-41-40 seconds with all touch-n-go reps.

Gymnasty

5 Sets

30s Handstand hold + 2 Strict HSPU

I wanted to increase the difficulty of the handstand holds that were programmed so I thought trying to do some handstand push-ups after would be a good test. Nearly failed in the first set. Was getting some nasty over extension in sets 4 and 5 but I completed them all without coming off the wall after the hold.

Accessory

10:00 EMOM (alt)

12 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20# MB)
5 Russian Dips (heels on ground out front)

The 2k

Today was the big day. Glad I rested yesterday. Still kind of sore in my legs from the 500 double unders and 100 wall balls. Got to the gym around 4:30.

Warm-up

3×8 Reverse Hyper (210#)
4x150m Row (bursts, getting faster each time)

Rowing WOD Week 12 Session 2

This is it! Second phase of the program has been leading up to the big test.

2,000m Row for time

During the first week we set a pacing goal based on a 500m interval workout. I went with what felt like an aggressive 1:41 pace at the time for my goal, knowing that would be a pretty big PR. After doing a 1,500m race pace simulation on October 12th, I felt confident it was possible. I stuck to the race plan that had been laid out for us and came home with an average pace of 1:40.8, a time of 6:43.3, and a PR by 18.6 seconds!

I think the fast start actually hurt me and if I had to do it again I’d dial it back more in that first 200m. When I got past the first 500 meters I was having a hard time generating enough power to stay on the 1:41. 1:42-1:43 was more of the pace I was hitting. At 1,000m I was still averaging under the goal, but it kept creeping up more and more, eventually getting up to about 1:41.3. Luckily that’s when it was time to kick it in gear for the final 300. I was able to reign it back under 1:41. Pretty stoked to make my goal. This rowing program has been awesome and I’m seeing a lot of carryover in my conditioning. Here’s a Beyond the Whiteboard chart showing my 2k rows over time.

Here’s my ranking on Concept2 for men’s 30-39 heavyweight.

concept2-2k-rank

Even though that hurt like hell and my legs are still burning 2 hours later, I’m excited to take a shot at my 1k row time now. Hell, my first 1k of that race was 3:21.1, which is only 10 seconds off my best.

Conditioning / Accessory

After recovering, Bryan and I did this little I Go You Go style workout. We didn’t use a clock but kept moving throughout.

7 Rounds (each)

4 Strict HSPU
7 Goblet Squats (53#)
10 GHD Sit-ups

We said we’d start out shooting for 5 rounds and go from there. Was getting close to failure on the HSPU so went for 2 more rounds. We each went through an entire round and then rested while the other guy did his. Went better than expected, but was a little light-headed after the rowing.

Pistols Firing

Feeling a little beat up from the high rep workout yesterday.

Warm-up

3 Sets
- 8 Reverse Hyper (210#)
- 30 band pulls (red)
Bottom Squat Hold
OH Stretching
C&J
- 5×45#
- 5×95#
- 3×115#
- 3×135#

Weightlifting

8:00 EMOM

5 C&J (155#)

Trying to get more comfortable with touch-n-go at this weight because I get mental and want to drop it before I need to. I was able to get 6 rounds unbroken, fighting on the last 2 rounds. Then the final 2 rounds I did 3 unbroken and 2 singles. Step in the right direction

Skill

4:00 AMRAP

30 Unbroken DU

I missed on my 30th rep 3 fucking times! My only other 2 misses were on the first rep. Just that little lapse in concentration. I did get 5 unbroken sets in, but should have been 8! Did this about a year ago with 6 unbroken sets.

Strength

18:00 – E90S for 6 sets (alternating every 90s between the movements)

6 Supinated Pendlay Rows (165#)
5 Strict HSPU

Was a grind on the final HSPU every round after all of the C&J, but I got every set done. The rows were a little harder than they should have been.

Conditioning

2 Cycles

2 Rounds
- 50m Broad Jump
- 20 Pistols (alt)
2:00 Rest

The first 50 meters of broad jumps weren’t that bad; I was getting good distance. After the pistols the way back was a grind and more like doing bunny hopes. I finished my first cycle in 4:14 and my second in 4:37 for a 10:51 total with the rest included. Happy to be doing pistols again! 😀

My legs are toast after the 132 wall balls yesterday. Probably a recovery day tomorrow.

That Pump

Woke up even later this morning, but got moving and didn’t need a shower, so made it for the 9am.

Warm-up

2×10 Reverse Hypers (210#)
Bottom Squat Hold
Front Squat
- 10×45#
- 5×135#
- 3×205#

Strength

12:00 EMOM alternating

3 Front Squats (225#)
10 OH Walking Lunges (55#)

My squat feels week after backing off recently.

Accessory

5 Sets

10/10 Kroc Rows (70#)
10 Barbell Curls (45#)

Wow, bicep pump!

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

5 HSPU
8 T2B
30 DU

Missed one set of dubs at 27 and one at 29. Everything else unbroken on every movement. Finished 5 rounds plus 5, 8, and 8.