push-up – Page 35 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Touchy Tailbone

Rolling out of bed was rough this morning. My lower back is very sore from one-arm snatches and deadlifts yesterday, but even worse, my tailbone feels raw from the 150 sit-ups last night. I can feel them in my abs too, but WOW it hurts to sit! Once I finally got out of bed, I knocked out 3 sets of max push-ups as I went through my morning routine. This may not have been the best idea considering I knew we were doing “Angie” today for the WOD. It’ll make me stronger I guess!

Warm-up

5 rounds

1m Plank
1m Burpees (10 and then rest)

Just last night I was thinking we hadn’t done plank in a while. Funny how that works out. 🙂

WOD

“Angie”

100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Air Squats

The one time I’ve done “Angie” Rx was on April 11th and looking back, we had swapped the order of sit-ups and squats. Probably didn’t matter much. My time then was 24:42, with about 12:00 to get through the pull-ups. When I did this, I was still doing “cheater” sit-ups where I only had to touch my shoes. I’m no longer doing those because they’re a joke with my long arms and flexibility. I’ve started getting all the way up so I can reach out past my feet. Originally I was planning to blow that time out of the water, even with harder sit-ups, but the tailbone issue made it rough.

I was feeling pretty good through the pull-ups and completed them in about 8:30, a lot faster than last time. I wore home-made tape grips on both hands which really helped saved my hands since they are in rough shape from the last week. I felt ok on push-ups considering I had already done 100 of them when I woke up. Started with a set of 15, then did 3 or 4 sets of 10. That’s when things started to slow down and sets kept getting smaller and smaller. Sets were all 5 or more though, which is a huge improvement from last time when I was only getting 2-4 at the end.

At this point it was neck and neck between a few of us. Sit-ups absolutely killed me though. They took me forever even with two mats under my ass for padding. Each sit-up hurt like a bitch so I tried as much as possible to come up on the sides of my ass instead of straight up. I powered through and moved on to the squats. Not my best effort in the squats, but I finished in 23:41, which is a PR by 61 seconds. I’m confident I can get sub-20 next time.

Strength

Death by Clean & Jerks

Brent and Ron had already used up all of the 10# bumpers, so I didn’t have much choice but to load up with a couple of 45s and do 135#. I got up through the set of 4 and had to start the set of 5 with no rest. I nearly made it in the minute, but locked out the jerk 1 or 2 seconds after the minute ran out. I took a couple of minutes off and then jumped over to the 115# bar Brent was using and did a minute with 6 reps and a minute with 7 reps to get in some more work.

At some point tonight I’ll do day 4 of the Armstrong Pull-up Program.

Snatching Sixty

No golf today due to rain, so I woke up early. I wanted to eat a small breakfast and hit the 9am class. First things first though, I knocked out my 3 maximum effort sets of push-ups for the Armstrong Pull-up Program. While doing these, I’m concentrating on keeping my elbows in close because I have the tendency to let my elbows fly out during push-ups. My sets today were 35, 32, and 30 with sufficient rest in between each set.

My legs are feeling a little sore from yesterday, but that’s good. I need to do more heavy squatting. I’m sure the wall balls have something to do with it as well. I really enjoyed this video, which looks back at Regionals. Check it out.

This morning I realized I’m starting my 8th month of CrossFit. Incredible! I’ve never stuck to a fitness program for more than 3 months, but now I can’t imagine my life without CrossFit. It has changed my life in so many great ways. I’m inspired by the people sweating next to me during each WOD. This community is something special. We’re all in the box to improve our lives and push our limits.

Warm-up

50-40-30-20-10 Air Squats
50 Mountain Climbers

I could really feel the air squats today.

WOD #1

100 Alternating 1-Arm DB Snatches
100 K2E

* Every minute there is a burpee buy-in (3-beginner, 4-intermediate, 5-advanced) before you can work on the reps. I went with 5 burpees for my buy-in. You can take a minute off from burpees and reps, but then you must work the next minute. All snatches must be completed before moving on to K2E. Time limit of 30 minutes.

Matt told me to grab the 60# DB, so I obeyed. 🙂 I never would have grabbed that one on my own, but I’m glad I did. The last time we did one-arm snatches I used a 40# DB! The 60 was tough, but rewarding and will make me stronger, which is exactly what I need. I started off going 2 minutes in a row to hit 20 reps, but quickly realized that wouldn’t last. I started taking every other minute off and was getting 10 reps during a working minute. Towards the end I pushed for 12 in one set, took the last minute off, and then worked 2 minutes in a row for the last 18 reps.

I hurried to put on one of the tape grips I had ready, but ran out of tape so couldn’t secure the second one to my left hard. Nothing ripped open, but I’ll have to keep an eye on it closer now. I was able to knock out 10 K2E in a row right off the bat, but it was all downhill from there. I worked a couple of minutes in a row here and there, but otherwise took minutes off. Near the end it was really a struggle to get my legs up. I was 10 reps shy of 100 before time ran out. Total score: 190 reps in 30:00, not even counting around 100 burpees.

I headed back to the box in the evening for open gym so I could do some deadlifts. While I was there I figured I’d do a quick WOD that wasn’t too stressful on the body.

Strength

5×5 Deadlifts

Warmed up with 10 reps at 135# and then 5 at 225#. Used 275# for all 5 working sets of 5 reps. Wasn’t planning to try to set any records today, especially with the state of my hands from hanging bar work. More than anything I just wanted to move some weight, so goal accomplished.

WOD #2

50-40-30-20-10

Sit-ups
Tuck Jumps

I ordered a Revolution Rope from Again Faster and was excited to use it today, but they sent the wrong jump rope; it’s a speed rope, which I already have. I was so bummed when I opened the package. Again Faster was quick to reply, telling me to keep the speed rope as a spare and the correct rope is on its way.

My plan was to do “Annie” even with my current speed rope, but I could not string together DUs while warming up, so I did tuck jumps instead. Finished in 8:28.

When I got home, it was time for the pull-up portion of the Armstrong Pull-up Program. Now I’m spent! I may be going crazy for working out so much, one day a week like this shouldn’t kill me should it? 🙂

Did you see the Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0 launched today? I ordered a pair already because I had to send in my broken Inov-8s. I was just looking earlier this week for a pair of the Nano 1.0s, but couldn’t find them in my size, which is a 14. I had a feeling the new model would be coming soon since there was no restocking going on and the Games are right around the corner. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait too long. My first choice in color, the blue, doesn’t come in my size so I went with this grey pair. Good thing I acted fast because size 14 is no longer listed!

I’m so excited! I can’t wait for these to come in.

Memorial Day Murph

Today we honor the men and women who have lost their lives fighting for our freedoms. The CrossFit community usually does the Hero WOD named “Murph” after LT. Michael P. Murphy.

A team of 4 Navy SEALs led by LT. Michael P. Murphy on a mission to capture or kill a key Taliban leader, found themselves seriously outnumbered in a firefight with well over 100 enemy troops. Pinned down and under intense enemy fire, their communications operator severely wounded, they were in desperate need for help. Due to the mountainous terrain, their communications could not be received. Understanding the situation, LT. Michael P. Murphy moved to open exposing himself to enemy fire, to use his satellite phone to request immediate support to save his team. LT Murphy was mortally wounded making that call. They continued fighting until Lt. Murphy and two of his three team mates were mortally wounded. His fourth team member, severely injured himself, managed to escape where he was taken in by a local villager until he was rescued 4 days later. He went on to tell the story in a book titled “The Lone Survivor”

For his selfless leadership, courageous actions and extraordinary devotion to duty, LT. Michael P. Murphy received the Medal of Honor, the first service member to receive the medal in Operation Enduring Freedom, and the first Navy recipient of the medal since Vietnam.
Memorial Day Murph

As we remember and honor those that have given the greatest sacrifice, we push ourselves a little harder today.

WOD

“Murph”

1 Mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Air Squats
1 Mile Run

*Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. It is recommended to do 20 rounds of “Cindy” by doing 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 air squats per round. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got body armor or a twenty pound vest, wear it.

Our mile loop is actually about 1.05 miles, so we worked extra hard! I finished my first run in 6:42, which is about a 6:22 mile, reaching my goal of sub 6:30! The heat and humidity were brutal today. My total time was 44:26 and that second run probably took about 8 minutes. I was dying and could tell I was dehydrated at that point even though I drank nearly an entire 24 oz bottle of water during the WOD. I did end up expanding a blister I formed during yesterday’s workout. At least it hasn’t ripped open, so it should heal faster. All sets of pull-ups and push-ups were done unbroken, and quite a few of the squat sets were as well.

We had 30 people show up on a holiday to do one of the hardest workouts in CrossFit. That’s amazing. I’m so proud to be a member of this community. After the workout, Survival Fitness held a Paleo BBQ, which was perfect since most of us are participating in the Paleo Challenge. Great food with great people. Here’s a look at the T-shirts you get for donating.

Weak with Heavy Overheads

Yesterday I was going to give an update on the Paleo Challenge, but forgot. The challenge officially started last Wednesday, but I started on Monday. After one week I lost 5 pounds and dropped 1% off my body fat. I posted A Week of Strict Paleo on my main blog that outlines what I ate and gives a bit more info if you are interested.

Today is the sorest I’ve been full-body-wise in a long time. Those prowler sprints from yesterday and the back squats on Sunday did a number on my body.

Warm-up

5 rounds:

15 MB Full Squat Cleans
150m Run

Pretty easy warm-up. I used a 20# MB and finished in 8:55.

WOD

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Clean & Press
1 round of “Cindy”

First, I’ll explain how this works. The number of Clean & Presses increases each time around, but there is only 1 round of “Cindy” to do each round. Make sense? Good. What’s a round of “Cindy” you ask? It comes from the benchmark girl WOD of the same name and is:

5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

I’m not sure what it is, but when there is heavy overhead work with a lot of reps I really struggle. Look back to the WOD that had fifteen 95# thrusters in each of 5 rounds as an example. Today had a similar outcome. Maybe it has something to do with my height and long arms. Or maybe I’m just a weak-ass pussy!

I used 135# for the clean and press and snuck under the 33 minute time limit, with 2 seconds to spare, for a time of 32:58. The rounds of “Cindy” were actually pretty easy. I did all of the pull-ups and push-ups unbroken each round. I usually split up the air squats to 10-5, but should have pushed myself more there because my endurance fades fast with air squats.

I was going along and for some stupid fucking reason decided to figure out how many reps were left. In total you have 55 clean and press to do, half of those (27) are in the last 3 rounds! I tried to keep pushing as much as I could, but I was gassed. It was a great workout though and I’ve been wanting to get in some moderately heavy clean work, so that was great. The “Cindy” rounds were a good primer for Monday’s Memorial Day Murph.

Since it took me so long to do the WOD I didn’t get to do the Finisher, which was ten 40-yard sprints with a walk back as the rest.

Smooth Double Unders

No surprise my legs are sore today after the last two WODs. This morning I drove up to Rogers City to visit the family for the weekend, so I have very limited workout equipment.

Warm-up

Went for a 2.62 mile run in 22:59. Pace was nice and steady throughout the run.

Strength

3 rounds:

MAX Push-ups
1m Plank
2m Rest

I set a new PR for unbroken push-ups in the 1st round with 40, then did 25 and 20. The planks were tougher than normal because it was right after push-ups which already work a lot of the same muscles.

WOD

“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

DUs
Sit-ups

I haven’t done DUs more than a couple of times since I left Phoenix, but wanted to test myself in something today. “Annie” seemed like a good one because it doesn’t require any special equipment other than the jump rope I keep in my vehicle and it would be a good chance to practice them.

My time was 8:26. I did the best DUs I’ve ever done! The set of 30 was completely unbroken and there were only a couple of streaks where I didn’t string together at least 10 in a row. For the sit-ups I sat on a towel with my feet flat on the ground. I laid back until my shoulder blades hit the ground and sat up until I could touch the top of my shoes without reaching too much.

Take One on the Chin

Went to class for the 5th day in a row. Probably not the smartest idea, but tomorrow and Saturday are both probably off days since my Dad will be in town.

Warm-up

3 rounds:

20 MB Snatches
30 MB V-ups
20 MB Push-ups

I used a 20# MB and think I finished somewhere around the 6:30 mark.

WOD

5 rounds:

15 Thrusters
15 Burpees

Absolutely fucking brutal. I used 95# on a barbell for the thrusters. My total time was 23:39. After doing clean and jerk yesterday and a whole bunch of shoulder related stuff today, my shoulders are on fire. The humidity was really high today due to the rain we’ve been getting. My clothes were completely soaked through and the sweat kept dripping down my arms on to my hands, making it hard to keep a hold on the bar. I think I might start wearing wrist sweat bands or at least give them a try.

Oh, almost forgot, I smacked myself on the chin with the bar during the 3rd round doing one of the thrusters. Seems like I do that once every couple of months in some movement or another.

Finisher

Death by K2E, by 2s. So that’s 2 the first minute, 4 the second minute, and so on. I made it through the round of 14 and then got 14 in the round of 16. I probably could have gotten it, but I felt my hands getting close to the ripping stage and it just isn’t worth it.

8 is Great

Warm-up

1.1 Mile Run
Mobility and Stretching

Didn’t push hard on the run, just a nice easy pace and did it in 9:14.

Strength

5 sets

5 Rotary Shoulder
MAX Pull-ups
1-2m rest

For the rotary shoulder I set the machine to 100#, 115#, 130#, 145#, and 160#. I set a new PR on my first set of pull-ups by getting 8. For the other sets I completed 6, 6, 6, and 5 reps.

WOD

5 rounds

20 Sit-ups
15 Push-ups
10 Push Presses

I used 35# DBs for the push presses and they got really tough after the 2nd round, but I powered through and finished in a time of 10:14.

Overlooking the Beach

Yesterday I took a well-deserved rest day after the race. Flew out to Seaside, FL and will be here all week for a meetup with some people from work. This morning I headed out for a run and a WOD on the beach. I ended up doing my WOD on the flat part of this stairway with a view.

Not a bad way to start the day!

I ran a 1.1 mile warm-up.

WOD

8 Tabata Rounds:

Plank (on hands)
Push-ups
Sit-ups
Air Squats

Then I ran back the 1.1 miles again at a faster pace.

Angie Rx

Since I worked out later yesterday it would have been a short rest to hit a morning class, so I went to the 5:30pm again.

Warm-up

3 rounds

1m Flutter Kicks
1m Side Plank (30s each side)
1m V-ups
1m Mountain Climbers
1m Bicycles
1m Rest

Great ab crushing warm-up.

WOD

“Angie”

100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Squats
100 Sit-ups

I had only done “Angie” once before, nearly 4 months ago. At the time I did all jumping pull-ups and some kneeling push-ups to finish in 35:10.

Today I performed everything as prescribed, doing kipping pull-ups the whole way and all normal push-ups. I didn’t even rip my hands on pull-ups, so I’m getting better at recognizing when I’m close and readjusting my position or taking a break. I broke the pull-ups down into pretty small sets. It took me just under 12:00 to complete the pull-ups, which is by far the longest part of this WOD. I started out strong on push-ups, but was breaking them into sets of 2-4 at the end to get through. For squats I started out with 2 sets of 20 and then pretty much did 10s the rest of the way. Sit-ups were pretty easy and I knocked those out in 50-30-20.

My total time was 24:42, which is over 10 minutes faster and that’s even doing everything as it should be done!

Quad AMRAPs

Went to a night class since the only morning class is 5:45am on Tuesday. It was kind of nice, even though I really like how I feel throughout the day when I workout in the morning.

Warm-up

5 rounds

1m Russian Twists
1m Plank

I used a 20# KB for the twists and got a total of 292 (counting each side) through the 5 minutes.

WODs

4 different 3:00 AMRAPs

At each station perform the buy-in exercise and reps. Then do max reps of another movement for the remaining time of the 3 minutes. Keep track of max reps for each station. Rest 2 minutes between stations.

20 Box Jumps
-MAX DB power cleans
20 Burpees
-MAX Push-ups
300m Run
-MAX Ring Rows
20 KBS
-MAX Wallballs

I used a 24 inch box for box jumps, 35# DBs for power cleans, a 53# KB for Russian swings, and a 20# MB for wallballs. I think my reps for the MAXs were 31, 41, 37, 35, but I might be off by a few on some of those.

Strength

Find 1 rep MAX for clean + thruster. We broke into groups by strength and formed lines to each take a shot at a weight before moving up. I think we went 65#, 85#, 105#, 125#, 145#, 165#. Those all went up pretty well for me. I was the only one left, so Matt pushed me to go for my body weight of 180#. I got the weight up with a power clean without too much trouble. I normally would do a full clean as it gets this heavy, but I knew I needed to squat for the thruster. The clean was a 15# PR. I went for the thruster and got it about half way over my head. I think if we had done this before the WOD I could have gotten it, but I was pretty fried. I’m thrilled about the clean PR especially since it was a power clean. 165# is a lot more than I’ve ever attempted with a thruster as well.