L-Sit – Page 4 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Shoulders!

Up for the 9am today. My hamstrings started to get sore last night. I think from back squat Monday. My abs are still sore and the GHD sit-ups last night are probably contributing to that.

Warm-up

30 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups
20 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups
10 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups

Great warm-up for the shoulders. I mixed in some around-the-worlds with the PVC too.

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

10 @ 45#
4 @ 95#
1 @ 125#
1 @ 135#
1 @ 145#
1 @ 155#
1 @ 160#

Just over a month ago, on October 3rd, I missed 150# once and then barely squeezed it out on the 2nd attempt. Going into today I was shooting to match that PR and see if I had anything left in the tank. I was feeling good, so didn’t even make at attempt at it and went right for a PR at 155#. Got it without much trouble so went for 160# and had to fight hard for it.

WOD

2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20

Push Presses (40# DBs)
Burpees

Went unbroken with the push presses through the set of 12 and then broke the last 4 sets up, always getting just over half in the first go and then finishing off the rest after a break. Tried not to stop at all during the burpees and just keep going no matter how slow they felt. It was a struggle to push up off the ground for the last 5 reps. Finished in 16:15.

Finisher

5 Sets

MAX L-Sit
60s Rest

I did these with my knees up, using the rings and got right around 30 seconds each round except for the 4th, where it was closer to 20 seconds. Good way to finish off the shoulders and get in the abs as well.

4 In A Row

So much for 3 on 1 off. I saw this WOD and really wanted to do it because I need the work with weighted pull-ups and the push-up reps. Tomorrow is a better day to take off for me anyway because I have the 2nd round of a golf tournament in the morning.

Warm-up

10:00 EOMOTM

7 KBS
12 Wall Balls

The goal was to pick a heavier KB each round. I used 48#, 53#, 62#, 71#, and 80#. That’s the first time I’ve ever swung the 80 pounder; hadn’t even done Russian swings that heavy yet. It felt pretty good. The wall balls were a good way to loosen up after all of the squat work yesterday.

Strength

5 Sets

5-8 Weighted Pull-ups

These were one of the reasons I wanted to come in today. Kind of disappointed with how I did.

8 @ 8#
7 @ 10#
5 @ 12#
4 @ 12#
3 @ 15#, plus a long negative on the last rep

WOD #1

5:00 AMRAP

3 Plyo Push-ups
6 Burpees
9 HR Push-ups

This AMRAP was the other reason I wanted to come in. I need to increase my push-up strength and capacity. Lots of push-up movements here, so no break for the arms. I did 4 rounds plus 11 reps in the next round.

We rested 3 minutes before doing another WOD.

WOD #2

7:00 AMRAP

7 Thrusters (35# DBs)
7 Box Jumps (24″)

The Rx for men was 40# DBs and I grabbed them for about 10 seconds. After thinking about the WOD, I realized I would die so I swapped them for the 35 pounders and I’m so glad I did. In the first round I thought the 35# DBs were even going to be too heavy, but I stuck with it and did each round without putting down the weights. I really had to focus on the hip drive to get those suckers up overhead. The thrusters really wiped me out and negated my box jump advantage. I managed to get 6 rounds and 5 more thrusters.

Finisher

10:00

Hold the L-Sit as long as possible
30 Russian Twists (30# KB)

I did the L-Sit on the rings to get that extra work on my upper body and I think it’s harder on the core as well. I was able to hold for about 25-30 seconds each time and surprisingly it was my arms that kept giving out. All of the Russian twists were done unbroken each round. I did 5 total rounds.

I’m glad I went in today because it allowed me to work on some weaknesses. I could tell I wasn’t all-in for today though; definitely not my best effort. Golfing the 2nd round of a tournament with the group of guys I play with in the morning, so it works out better for me to make tomorrow a rest day.

Fat Bars on the Playground

Today is another hot one, so I got up early and took a drive down the road to a local school. They have all kinds of monkey bars, dip bars, and playground rigs to make WODs out of.

Warm-up

400m Run
2 rounds
- 10 PVC Pass-thrus
- 10 PVC OHS
- 10 PVC Around the World’s (5 each way)

WOD

Fat bar DB “Fran”
21-15-9

Pull-ups
Thrusters (45# DBs)

There weren’t any great bars at a height high enough for me, so I went with the best thing I could find (pictured above). The bars were probably twice the diameter of a normal pull-up bar and I really had to bend my knees in order to get a kip going because I could easily touch the ground. Variety is good though right? My time was 9:32, which is worse than the 9:05 I did at Survival Fitness a couple of weeks ago. I’ll take it though since my intensity probably wasn’t as high as it would be doing the WOD next to other people and the fat bar makes this a lot tougher.

Finisher

Tabata Mash-up

Hanging Leg Raises (strict)
L-sit

I used the same fat bar for the hanging leg raises. For the L-sits there were some perfect dip type bars about 1.5-2 feet off the ground.

Kayaking

Went out for a 2 mile trip in the kayak again and it was easier than the first day. I had to keep switching up my grip on the paddle though because I started to get blisters on my thumbs the other day. I’ve really been feeling the kayaking in my abs over the last day or so as well. It really is a great workout. Not too long after, I went out and walked 9 holes of golf with by brother.

About 12 hours after the morning workout I did another one with Dad.

Warm-up #2

3 rounds

1m Plank
1m Lateral Hops (30s each leg)
1m Side Plank (30s each side)
1m Rest

I knew Dad could use the core work so I threw in the planks. Lateral hops were just something to get the blood flowing.

WOD #2

4 rounds

5 HSPU
25 Air Squats
40 Tuck Jumps

The plan was to do 10 HSPUs, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be possible. My shoulders were pretty fatigued from pull-ups, thrusters, and kayaking. I had to scale back to 5 reps each round. For the first two rounds I did strict and kipping, then in the last two rounds I added one AbMat. Dad did piked push-ups and did 10 reps. He also scaled back to 3 rounds instead of 4. I finished in 9:57 and he wasn’t too far behind me for his 3 rounds.

Finisher #2

Death by Burpees

I made it through the round of 15 with less than 5 seconds left in the minute, so I shut it down there. That’s enough for one day. I walked a mile to cool-down.

My Revenge on “Cindy”

My lower back has been pretty sore all day from yesterday’s multiple short WODs involving hang power cleans and deadlifts. It’s a good sore though.

Warm-up

5 rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Squats
15s Mountain climbers
15s Squat Jumps

I took it easy during the warm-up because I knew what was in store and there were a lot of squats coming in the WOD.

Skills

Tabata: Ring L-sits

Tabata: Over the box jumps (24″)

For the Ring L-sits I wasn’t able to keep my legs out for long and had to resort to holding my knees up as long as possible. My arms actually started to give out sooner once I switched to the knee tuck version. Over the box jumps were new and a welcome challenge. Since my basketball days I’ve always enjoyed jumping. I managed 6 or 7 over the box jumps during each 20s period.

WOD

Today we each got to choose between “Cindy” or “Mary” for the WOD. I have a little history with “Cindy” so this was an easy choice for me. Without that history I would have chosen “Mary” because I could use the work on HSPUs and lots of pull-ups. So, what’s that history with “Cindy” you ask?

I started CrossFit almost 8 months ago. My first on-ramp session was supposed to be a 1/2 “Cindy”, but I only made it into minute 6 or 7 before I nearly passed out and was literally on the ground for the next 30 minutes. I was doing ring rows instead of pull-ups and only managed 3 rounds. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life, but I was instantly hooked on CrossFit.

Fast forward a month and a half after that, when I did jumping pull-ups during “Cindy” and completed 12 rounds plus 5 more jumping pull-ups and 1 push-up. Oh, and I also had to switch from regular push-ups to knee push-ups in round 7 or 8.

As you might expect, I wanted my revenge on that bitch!

“Cindy”
20:00 AMRAP

5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

Today I completed my first Rx “Cindy” doing kipping pull-ups and chest-to-ground push-ups the entire way. Those first 3 rounds were done right around the 3:00 mark. All pull-ups were unbroken and other than a few sips of water, I never took more than a 1 or 2 second break during some of the push-ups and air squat sets. I definitely had to take the most breaks during the push-ups, but would only rest for a second or two at the top of a push-up before doing more. I ended up with 18 rounds plus 5 pull-ups and 6 push-ups, so scored 18+11 on the WOD!

Take that “Cindy”! I hope we can be friends now. 🙂

PRs Everywhere!

Even though I said I was only going to get on the scale once a week, I couldn’t help myself. I’m down another pound and a half to 173.5 and body fat is now at 15.1%, which is a 0.8% drop from Monday. My goal for the challenge is to hit 14%, which means I need to average less than 0.5% per week the rest of the way. Seems doable, but it gets tougher as your body fat gets lower. I’ve had some real cravings for sweets at night this week, so it’s a good thing I don’t have any in the house.

At the gym I did a quick test with the handheld device and it showed my body fat down to 10.8%, which is good news because I was skeptical of the initial 12.3% reading it gave on day one of the Paleo challenge and is what will be used for my scoring.

I took a well-needed rest day yesterday, but did get out and walk 18 holes of golf. On Thursday morning, while laying in bed, I came up with my workout for open gym time today. Here’s a screenshot of the note I made on my iPhone. As you can see, I made a few changes

Warm-up

2 rounds

150m Run
20 Band Walk Steps each direction
10 Band Presses after each 20 steps
10 KBS

I used a 53# KB and did American swings.

Strength

3-2-1-3-2-1 Deadlifts
MAX Strict Pull-ups
2m Rest

I did 2 warm-up sets of 5 reps each with 135# and 223#. For my working sets I did 285#, 305#, 315#, 305#, 320#, 335#. My previous 1RM was 315, so I broke that several times. I also set a new PR for strict pull-ups in a row with 9. I don’t remember what I got the rest of my sets.

WOD

“Karen”

150 Wall Balls

Karen is a bitch. I did it in 8:51, which is a 9 second PR, beating when I did it as part of Open Workout 12.4. I’m disappointed with that though. I started out with 25 reps in less than a minute and was at 50 in 2 minutes and change. From there I tried to do sets of 10. As I got past 100 it was less than sets of 10. Too much resting. I just need to push through the hurt.

Ab Finisher

4 Sets

MAX L-hang or L-sit
1-2m Rest

I started out on the bar for the first one, but my hands were not feeling the greatest from heavy deadlifts, so hanging on the bar wasn’t the greatest idea. I didn’t time these, but they were better than I’ve done them in the past.

Just Because

3 Sets

MAX HSPU
2-3m Rest

The few people who came in for open gym were messing around and talking, so since the classes worked on some HSPUs today I figured I’d get in a bit. Got 10 (PR) on the first set and then 8 and 6 I think. These have come a long way since I left Phoenix. I don’t think I was even doing any Rx there. Dropping some weight helps too!

That was fun. Got to work on a bunch of stuff today.

Deadlift Soreness

My legs and back are really sore from RDLs on Sunday and deadlifts yesterday. I used the foam roller for the first time today. Wow it really brings everything out in those sore areas.

Warm-up

600m Run
3 rounds
- 10 PVC Shoulder Pass-thrus w/ shrug
- 15s Dead Hang
- 30s Plank (on hands)

First time doing a dead hang during class. Focus for them is on keeping the shoulder engaged. I think it was also the first time I had done planks on my hands.

Strength

4 Sets

2-3 Weighted Pull-ups, 2-1-X-0 tempo
20s Rest
MAX Strict Pull-ups, 2-0-X-0 tempo
20s Rest
30-45s L-Sit (cumulative)
2m Rest

I really struggled with the strength work today. I used an 18# KB for the weighted pull-ups and was able to get 2 or 3 each round. But that completely knocked me out for doing strict pull-ups. It was an adventure trying to get 2 or 3 of those with such a short rest. I did the L-Sits on PVC parallettes with my knees slightly bent and tried to get 10-15 seconds at a time.

WOD

In teams of 2, complete the reps however you want, but you must run together.
4 Rounds

12 DB Renegade Rows
400m Run

I paired up with Dominic, who I hadn’t met before. We split up the renegade rows by each doing 6 in each round. I used 25# DBs but should have used 30s. We finished first in 11:43. My endurance is improving a lot lately. I really pushed my pace in the 3rd and 4th rounds.

I took out the jump rope after a rest and knocked out a couple of good DU streaks. Didn’t try more than a minute. I’ll do a longer practice session on them tonight. Last night while looking for tips on DUs, I found a great video for progressing through DUs, from Again Faster. Check it out.

http://vimeo.com/2969537