Superman – Page 4 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

One From the Main Site

Long day recovering from a Survival Fitness party last night. I knew I wanted to at the very least get in some rowing. Saw the WOD on crossfit.com and it looked like fun, so I figured I’d give it a try.

Warm-up

1000m Row
3 Rounds:
- 10 PVC Pass-thrus
- 10 PVC OHS
- 10 Supermans

WOD

5 Rounds

10 T2B
10 Power Snatch (75#)
12 Wall Balls (20#, 8.5′ target)

The ceiling in my garage is 9 feet and 2 inches tall, so I added 2 extra reps to make up for the difference of not being able to hit a 10 foot target. This WOD was much worse than I expected. Maybe it was the hangover, I don’t know. I was taking a lot of rest time and had to break up the T2B and snatches. The wall balls weren’t exactly easy after yesterdays massive amount of air squats. My time was 12:12.

Finisher

20:00 Row

If Grace and Cindy Paired Up…

Feeling pretty good today, especially by waiting until 5:30pm to WOD.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

15s Plank
15s Supermans
15s Left Side Plank
15s Right Side Plank

Strength

5×5 Floor Press

I did 115#, 145#, 165#, 185#, and 205#. That’s up from 195 I did last time and equal to what I did a couple of weeks ago for bench press. But the 205# was easier on the floor press, which doesn’t make much sense.

WOD

3 Rounds

10 C&J (115#)
5 Rounds of “Cindy”
- 5 Pull-ups
- 10 Push-ups
- 15 Air Squats

Great WOD! I figured I could break under 20 minutes due to the fact that my “Grace” time with 125# is in the low 4s and I can do “Cindy” rounds in less than a minute. Finished in 17:46, but screwed up in the 2nd round through. I messed up my sticks and was a round of “Cindy” short, so I had to do 6 at the end. Clean and jerks felt good and I didn’t even really jerk them, mostly push presses. Rounds of “Cindy” aren’t too bad, except the push-ups start to get hard and had to break them up a bit. Very solid WOD though, which tested both my improved strength and my conditioning. Both felt solid.

Finisher

DU Practice

I got several streaks of 25-30 and called it a day.

Thrusters Suck

After working out yesterday morning I felt pretty good, until I did the rowing intervals before dinner. After that everything seemed to hurt. Sort of “meh” today, with definite soreness in my hamstrings. I heard about the workout this morning and thought about skipping out because I hate thrusters and knew how bad the WOD would suck. But you can’t improve on a movement if you skip out on it, so I forced myself to go in for the 5:30pm class.

I was there pretty early so had a chance to do a bunch of PVC pass-thrus and around the worlds to warm up my shoulders.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats

4 Rounds

15s Plank
15s Supermans
15s Right Side Plank
15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

10 @ 45#
5 @ 75#
2 @ 95#
1 @ 115#
1 @ 135#
1 @ 145#
1 @ 155#
Fail at 165#
1 @ 155#

Looking back, I probably did too many warm-up reps. I never do it like that. 160# is my previous PR, so went for a new one even though 155# was pretty damn hard. I’ll take hitting 155# twice for the day though. Sounded like most people were doing pretty bad as well because of other work we’d done this week.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

8 Thrusters (65#)
3 Burpees

The Rx weights for the thrusters were 95/65, which is nearly impossible to do. I used 65# and couldn’t even do it all. After the 14th minute, I had to drop down to only 6 thrusters each minute so I could keep doing 3 burpees. Did all 8 and 3 reps in the final minute though because getting 30 seconds of rest no longer mattered.

55 thrusters and 55 back squat thrusters with 115# on Monday, 140 wall balls yesterday, and 150 thrusters with 65# today. I fucking hope we’re done with that movement for the week! 🙂

Gun Show Finisher

5 Sets

20 DB Curls (10 each arm)
MAX Diamond Push-ups
60s Rest

For the curls I used 15#, 20#, 25#, 30#, and 35#. The last set was a struggle to finish. I got 16, 15, 16, 15, and 12 reps on the push-ups. After this and all of the shoulder work, I can barely move my arms.

Definitely not doing a WOD tomorrow, but will most likely go in for the OLY class to work on the clean & jerk.

What a Bear!

Kind of tired this morning, but went to 9am to get it done.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats

4 Rounds

15s Plank
15s Supermans
15s Right Side Plank
15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Front Squat

After hitting my previous 1 rep max (235#) for 3 reps last week, I was looking for a nice PR today. Warmed up with 6 reps at 135# and then went 185#, 215#, 235#, 245#, and 255# for a 20# PR. It was pretty easy too.

WOD

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Modified Bear Complex (Clean Thruster + Back Squat Thruster)
2x DU

I went Rx with 115# and finished just under the time limit with 25:45. Pretty happy with that because a long barbell complex in far from my strength and I held my own. I’ll be feeling that one in my legs for a few days.

Be a Warrior

Got to sleep late last night, but feeling pretty good today, other than my lower back of course.

Warm-up

400m Run
30 Air Squats
20 PVC Pass-thrus
30 PVC OHS
4 rounds
- 15s Jumping Jacks
- 15s Air Squats
- 15s Mountain Climbers
- 15s Jump Squats
4 rounds
- 15s Plank
- 15s Supermans
- 15s Side Plank L
- 15s Side Plank R

Long warm-up, but just what my body needed.

WOD

Cool partner WODs today. I was paired up with Laura. You keep alternating each part of the workout, so while one person is running, the other is doing the movement for reps inside.

10:00 AMRAP

150m Run
Over the Box Jumps (24″)

We got 198 reps total. Great WOD that keeps up the intensity the entire 10 minutes. There is no place to rest here until you’re done.

We rested for 5 minutes before moving on to the second part.

10:00 AMRAP

150m MB Run
Alternating one-arm DB Snatches (40#)

We got 175 reps in this one. MB runs are never easy. Another 10 minutes where there is no place to rest because snatches are such a full body move.

Now I’m off to run the Warrior Dash at 4:30 this afternoon. It’s only 3.25 miles and from what I’ve heard there is a lot of waiting at the obstacles, so I don’t expect it to be too hard on the body. I’ll use it as a recovery from this morning’s WOD. Then tomorrow I’m heading out-of-town for the weekend to golf with my Dad and a couple of buddies. Looking forward to the rest days.

First Grace

Saturday night we had a great time at the 2nd annual Survival Fitness Picnic. I didn’t get home until 2am and slept in until 9:30. I spent the entire day watching the finals of the CrossFit Games. Amazing and inspiring! One of my favorite parts is seeing elite athletes cheer each other on, which never happens in any other sport.

After the Games ended, I decided to take a shot at rigging up my gymnastic rings in the garage. I made a quick trip to Home Depot for supplies and started working around 8pm. I quickly found out that both of the batteries for my drill were dead, which made things a lot harder because I had to keep switching batteries on the charger. I also had to make a run to buy some nutdriver attachments for the drill. A little before midnight, I finally had everything up. The project turned out to be much tougher than I expected, especially for one set of hands. I wish I had a taller ceiling in the garage, but these will be just fine for the limited use I’ll give them.

Yesterday was my second rest day in a row and a much-needed one. I did get an hour-long deep tissue massage, which really helped loosen up my back. I’m going to have to get massages more often. It’s supposed to hit 100 degrees today so I went in to the 9am class, which was already in the mid 80s. I was the only guy in a class of 9, which was kind of odd.

Warm-up

4 rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats

Immediately followed by:

4 rounds

15s Plank
15s Superman
15s L Side Plank
15s R Side Plank

I was already sweating bullets at this point it’s so hot and humid.

WOD

“Grace”

30 Clean and Jerks (125#)

This was my first time doing “Grace” and I’m pleased with the results. We had a 6 minute time cap so I was deciding between 115# and 125#, but glad I went heavier. My time was 5:10.

Finisher

10 Prowler Sprints (5 high, 5 low, loaded with 135#)

I’ve done these heavier, so this wasn’t too bad. Being able to go faster does some different work.

One-arm Snatches

My back was still a little tight this morning, but feeling better than yesterday.

Warm-up

400m Run
3 rounds
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 10 Supermans
- 20 Russian Twists (50# KB)

Using the 50# KB for the Russian Twists was HEAVY, but worth it.

Strength

5 sets

MAX rep Pull-ups (on rings)
2m Rest

I was able to do sets of 10, 6, 5, 5, and 4. The set of 10 is a new PR!

WOD

100 Alternating one-arm DB Snatches (50# DB)
* 5 Burpee buy-in at the beginning of every minute, including the start

I did at snatches every single minute, only doing 6 for one or two minutes at the end with 8 or 10 for all of the other minutes. Finishing time was 11:49.

Finisher

50 K2E (on rings)

I didn’t time these, but took very little rest in between sets. I did 20 reps in the first set, beating my old PR of 10, and then did 3 sets of 10 to finish off the 50.

A lot of great work in this workout. Really liked it!

Buh Bye CrossFit Full Strength

Today was my last workout at CrossFit Full Strength in Phoenix, AZ. I’m starting the drive back to Saginaw, MI later today after I pack and clean the apartment. I’m going to miss everyone here. It’s been a lot of fun making new friends and hanging out with the crew from the box. I’ve learned a ton of new movements and techniques. My strength has progressed more than I could have imagined over 3 months. Hopefully I’ll be back soon.

My hands are beat up from the last few days of pull-ups, T2B, and death by deadlifts. Oh look, more pull-ups today! Two off days are going to feel great.

Yesterday I went in for one last session at the chiropractor. He was able to get in and adjust my neck so much easier than even last Friday.

Warm-up

90s-60s-30s
- Sit-ups
- Plank
20 Supermans

Strength

4 Sets

3-5 Shoulder Presses, 2-0-X-1 tempo
90s Rest
2-3 Weighted Pull-ups, 2-1-X-0 tempo
90s Rest

I did a couple of warm-up sets today, starting with the bar for 8 reps and then 75# for 5 reps. Started with 95# for the working sets and moved up to 105#, 115#, and 125# for the full 5 reps each time. Last time we did this I was only able to get 125# up 3 times, so good progress there. I used an 18# KB for the first set of weighted pull-ups and did 5 reps because that’s what we usually do. I should pay more attention sometimes. Switched to a 25# KB the rest of the way and was able to stay in the 2-3 reps.

WOD

3 Rounds

10 Pull-ups
30s Rest
15 KBS
30s Rest
20 DUs
30s Rest

Not a timed WOD today, other than the rest periods, which was weird. I used a 62# KB for the swings and did well on pull-ups and DUs. No new tears on my hands and I did all 10 kipping pull-ups in a row on the last round.

I’ll be back in a few days. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it in to Survival Fitness on Saturday if I get home at a decent hour on Friday night. I know I’ll need the workout after 3 days of driving.

Upper Body Blast

I had a golf lesson this morning and couldn’t make it to the 9am class, so I attended the 7:15pm. It was the first time I attended one of the night classes so I wasn’t sure how my energy would be.

Warm-up

400m Run
20 reps each of 5 Direction Pitcher Stretch for shoulders (I forgot what it was called on the board)
20 Swimming Superman
25 GHD
10 PVC Pass Over

The pitcher stretch warm-up was a new one. We hold a 2.5# plate in each hand and by the end my shoulders were burning up.

Strength

4 Sets

3-5 Push Presses
90s Rest
3-5 Weighted Chin-ups, 2-1-1-0 tempo
90s Rest

Started off with a warm-up set of 6 with just the bar to get loose. Working sets were 105#, 125#, 135#, and 145# for 5 reps each set. New PR there. It can’t be normal to keep setting a new PR in something every workout, so I’ll keep mentioning them while I can. For the weighted chin-ups I hooked an 18# KB of my foot. On the first 2 sets I got 5 reps, then 4 and 3.

WOD

10-9-8…1 Pull-ups
1-2-3…10 Dips

Ugh, not exactly a WOD for me to “dominate” at being average. All I did was try to survive the pull-ups without ripping my hands to pieces. I was successful by breaking each round up into small sets on 2-3 and then even 1 pull-up at a time. I did the dips on rack dip bars and was able to go unbroken up until the set of 7 I believe when I had to start breaking them up. As I got into the round of 10 it was 1 dip at a time and then rest for a few seconds before hopping back on. I did figure out how to kip which really helped me get through the workout. I think I was the last guy in class to finish, which isn’t a surprise on these movements. My time was 14:49.

After a heavy back squat day, a heavy deadlift day, and now this upper body blast I’m looking forward to a rest day tomorrow!

Over on my main blog I wrote about my experience in the 2012 CrossFit Games Open as my first CrossFit competition.

PR Twice

Another great night of sleep, so I’m feeling great.

Warm-up

400m Run
2x
- 10 Groiners (5 each leg)
- 10 Supermans
- 10 PVC Sit-ups
- 10 KBS

I used a 35# KB for the warm-up swings.

Strength

3-2-1-3-2-1 Back Squats with 2-3m rest between sets

Sort of a weird rep/set scheme, but it actually worked out really well. Warmed up with 6 reps of just the bar and then 6 reps at 135#. For working sets I used 185# (3), 195# (2), 205# (1), 195# (3), 215# (2), and 230# (1). The 230# was a PR and we had time left so I went for 240# and got another PR. Squats felt great today. As the weight got heavy I made sure to take a deep breath and hold it until the bottom of the squat. I always forget to focus on that and it really helped to keep everything tight and ready for the way back up.

WOD

10m AMRAP

5 Burpee Pull-ups
10 KBS
15 DB Walking Lunges

No hiding out in this WOD. Everything was pretty intense. The pull-ups weren’t too bad because it was mostly a jump from the burpee. I used a 62# KB for the swings and held 45# DBs for the lunges. I was able to finish 4 rounds plus 5 burpee pull-ups, 10 KBS, and 10 of the DB walking lunges.

Only one week left in Phoenix after today and then it’s back to Michigan. I’m going to miss the 9am crew at CrossFit Full Strength!