Wall Ball – Page 19 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

2013 CrossFit Games Open Workout 13.3

Originally a few of us planned to do 13.3 on Friday, but our quads were still blown up from Wednesday’s squats. Better to take the extra day of rest and hit it hard today. Adam and I did it side-by-side, which helped us to push each other throughout the entire workout.

Open Workout 13.3

Muscle-up Bruising — Bruising from the rings. Is much darker than the picture shows.

12:00 AMRAP

150 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
90 DU
30 MU

My strategy going in was to do sets of 25 to start, then drop down to 20s, 15s, and 10s when I needed to, depending on feel. I think I did 2 sets of 25, a set of 20, and then the rest was a blur. When I broke a set, I stood up against the wall with the ball on my chest, in order to rest my arms and not have to do extra work to pick the ball back up. My strategy couldn’t have worked any better and my splits were even better than I was expecting.

I crushed my “Karen” PR by over 2 and a half minutes, finishing in 6:14. Grabbed a quick swig of water because my mouth was so dry, and knocked out 40 DU. I think I did 3 more sets to finish them out with a split of 8:19. More water and deep breathing. I didn’t even get up on the rings until close to 9:00 on the clock because I wanted to rest and make the most of every attempt. A failed MU is really taxing on the system. I managed to get 7 MU with one failure. After I got my first one I was so happy and the rest was gravy! I’ve never even done 7 MU in one day, let alone in a WOD. Hell, this was my first time even doing a MU in a WOD. Last year I had about 10 or 15 seconds to attempt a MU so this is a huge improvement for me.

On to 13.4…

Hike

Went out for a quick 1.83 mile hike in 31:08, hoping it limits the typical “Karen quads” that can be brutal for 2-3 days.

Float Like a Butterfly

I’m feeling pretty good today, considering how wrecked I was last night. I’m a little sore in a bunch of different areas, but nothing too bad. Went in for the 4:15.

Warm-up

2m Jump Rope
2 Rounds
- 40 Mountain Climbers
- 20 Russian Twists (35# KB)
- 20 Air Squats

WOD

800-600-400-200m Run
15 Pull-ups
15 HR Push-ups
15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target

This was a lot tougher than I expected. I went out hard on the 800m run to work on my conditioning and then really tried to work on my butterfly for the pull-ups. First set was a little rough, but I went 9-6, 10-5, and 10-5 in the last three sets. Had never done more than 7 in a row before today and I only stopped each time because of fatigue, not because of rhythm. I focused on keeping my kick going, kept a tighter kick, and kept my feet together. Tried to just power through the push-ups, but they were the slowest part for me. Did each round of wall balls unbroken. Finished in 18:39.

That was a nice recovery WOD after a tough workout for 13.2 yesterday. Back to hitting it hard tomorrow for 2 hours of work.

Squat Volume

My shoulders, arms, and upper back are feeling spicy today. Went in for the 9am so that I’m free to watch the live stream of Open WOD 13.1 tonight.

Warm-up

4/4 World’s Greatest Stretch
3m Row at 20s/m
2 Rounds
- 16 GHD Sit-ups
- 15 Hip Extensions

I really tried to be explosive with the GHD sit-ups today and lock out the legs. First time doing hip extensions in a long time.

Strength

5 Sets

7-10 Back Squats at 20X1 Tempo
90s Rest

Damn that’s a lot of volume! The tempo is pretty much just normal though, since it takes me about 2 seconds to lower anyway. I did 10 reps each at 135#, 155#, 195#, and 215#. Then jumped up to 235# to really push it on the last set and managed to get 7 before I dumped the bar. At the end I was sweating like I just got done with a 10 minute WOD.

WOD

10:00 AMRAP

7 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
7 Push-ups
7 Pull-ups

I did all butterfly pull-ups and am really starting to get the rhythm down. Completed 10 rounds plus 5 more wall balls, pretty much going non-stop. Had to transition from a wall ball and push-up spot over to the pull-up bar each round, otherwise I bet I could have gotten at least another full round in. 70 butterfly pull-ups is a lot higher than any previous day I’ve done. I’m sure glad I remembered to shave my calluses this morning though!

Oh…almost forgot. Zach Lind, the drummer from Jimmy Eat World, was in to WOD today.

44 Minute Competition WOD

Yesterday I rested, but went for a 2 mile recovery walk.

Was up bright and early for event #3 of the Industrial Athlete Championship Series. A bunch of us from CrossFit Full Strength met at the gym at 6:15am and headed out to Mesa.

There were 4 events, but it was really just one big workout with short rest/transition periods. It was scored as one total event with total reps for everything combined as your score.

WOD #1

8:00 broken into 4 rounds of 2:00 Fire Hose Drag/Pull and Calorie Row

You will start next to your rower with the fire hose piled next to you. On GO you will grab the hose and run it approx 100 feet. Once you cross the marked line you will turn and pull the remainder of the hose fully across the line. Once the entire hose is across the line you will run back to the start area to your rower machine and row for calories for the remainder of the 2 min. This cycle will repeat 4 times without rest for a total of 8 minutes.

They kind of screwed things up here and allowed you to carry the entire hose if you wanted. That was obviously much easier and after a few Rx heats everyone was doing it. I paced myself and didn’t go all out on the rower with 3 more events to go. Got 105 calories. Looking back and because of how the overall scoring worked, I wish I would have pushed harder.

* 4:00 rest

WOD #2

8:00 to complete 100 Wall Balls and max Pull-ups.

There will be medicine balls at the bottom of your squat that you must touch and a target set at 10 feet which you must hit with the ball. All athletes over 6′ tall may use a 25# plate under their touch ball to make a more consistent depth for all athletes.

I was worried about this one the most, but I actually did the best here. I went 40-20-10-10-10-10 on my wall balls and was done in around 4 minutes. Then I got 57 pull-ups, but they were pretty slow going. I never did more than 6 in-a-row and was down to doing 2 or 3 at a time at the end. Adam from our gym knocked out 20+ in his first jump up on the bar. If I could do that I would have smoked this WOD.

* 4:00 rest

WOD #3

8:00 broken into three 2:00 max rep cycles with 1 min rest/recovery.

HR Burpee with lateral jump over parallette bars. You may space your 2 parallette bars according to your desired distance preference. You will begin to the right side of the first bar. On GO you will drop to a HR burpee, recover, and laterally jump with both feet (no stepping) over a single parallette bar. Then you will repeat the process, jump over the second bar, and then hand release burpee again for a total of 3 burpees per pass over the 2 bars. So it’s basically burpee, jump, burpee, jump, burpee – that would be one pass earning 2 points then repeat coming back the other direction as many times as possible. You earn a point each time you jump the parallette bar.

* 1:00 rest

Sit-ups from the ground. There will be no supports, ab mats, or feet holding. The movement standard is touch the ground behind your head while laying on the ground then sit up and touch the ground directly in front of your feet. pressed together if desired.

* 1:00 rest

Parallette bars pass throughs. In this exercise you will earn one point each time your feet extend and heel strike the ground in front of your body. The movement standard is to touch the ground in front with knees in full extension and heels on ground then behind with knees fully extended while striking the toes to the ground. You will be holding your own weight up on the parallette bars and are NOT permitted to touch the ground underneath your body or walk through in any form.

I got 26 burpees, 64 sit-ups, and 25 pass throughs. When the guy announced we were only 30 secounds through burpees I couldn’t believe it because I was already dead. I tried to keep a steady pace and just keep moving on them. They were by far the worst. I smoked through the sit-ups and struggled my way through the pass throughs.

* 4:00 rest

WOD #4

8:00 Keg carry with short Wall Clears

In this event you will carry a keg filled at 100# (Men’s RX), 75# (Women’s RX, Men’s Scaled, and Men’s Masters) and 50# (Women’s Scaled and Women’s Masters) to a wall approx 25m away. You will then leave the keg and run back to the start line, touch line, and run back to the keg. You will then lift the keg over the wall, jump the wall, and continue to carry the keg to the next wall where you will again set down the keg, run back to the first wall, jump wall, run back to start line, touch line, run forward to wall, jump wall, return to keg, clear keg over 2nd wall, jump wall, and carry keg to turn around line approx 25m. Keep repeating the process for total distance covered.

This final WOD was kind of a joke because of the scoring. You got a rep/point for each time you threw the keg over a wall. At the end, the spread in the men’s Rx divisions was 8 to 14 reps. That was a shit ton of work for so few reps, compared to all of the other WODs where I got over 100 reps in each. I ended up with 12 points here.

I’ve been worried about my cardio the last couple of weeks and this was a good test. I’m really happy with the outcome. I got 389 points and finished in 8th place out of 43 men in the Rx division. There were some beasts here and I held my own.

All Legs

My hamstrings and triceps and still pretty sore from Sunday. Maybe I shouldn’t have done those extra 300 air squats that night. Took some extra rest today since tempo back squats were on the menu and hit up the 5:15pm class.

Warm-up

500m Row
3/3 World’s Greatest Stretch
2 Rounds
- 10 Inch Worms
- 10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S, each leg)
- 10 Flamingos (each leg)

Strength

5×5 Back Squats with 3-2-X-1 Tempo

These are never easy. Entirely different ball game from regular squats. I focused on good form through each rep and keeping everything tight by holding my breath until the ascent out of the hole. Used 135#, 165#, 185#, 205#, and 215#. Don’t think I could have gone heavier either. Felt solid in my lifts even though it’s nowhere near the 255# I used for a normal 5 reps recently.

WOD

20 Hang Power Cleans (155#)
30 Box Jumps (30″)
40 OH Weighted Walking Lunges (45# plate)
50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)

Phew! I went 10-5-5 on the cleans, unbroken 30 on the box jumps (but not rebounding), 17-15-8 on the lunges, and 5 sets of 10 for wall balls. Finished in 9:06, one of the top Rx times of the day, but am pissed at myself for the finish. I know my wall balls are a weakness and I pussed out by doing sets of 10. I should have pushed harder for bigger sets, especially starting out.

Finisher

So to punish myself and get in some extra work, I strapped on the 20# weight vest when I got home and did 100 unbroken weighted air squats. They were pretty ugly since my legs were fried, but I did them. Took me 2:29.

So Much For Resting

I couldn’t help myself. Saw the WOD posted and figured it wouldn’t be too bad and decent for recovery, so I went in at 9am.

Warm-up

3m Row at 20 spm
4 World’s Greatest Stretch (each side)
Tabata Sit-ups

For the first 6 intervals I got 13 sit-ups and then 12 each in the last two for a total of 102.

WOD

3 Rounds

250m Row
20 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
15 T2B
10 Front Squats (145#)

The Rx weight was 165#, which I probably should have done, but 145# sure wasn’t easy. I did sets of 6-4 every round on the front squats. For the wall balls I did 20, 12-8, and 10-10. Then for T2B I did 10-5, 8-7, and 10-5. Total time was 12:02. Glad I decided to workout today.

2 Hour Saturday

I had a great rest day yesterday and went in for the 8am Competitors WOD and stayed to do the regular WOD as well.

Warm-up

500m Row
PVC Pass-thrus
PVC OHS

Strength

Work up to a heavy snatch single.

I started out with a few at 75# and a few at 95#, then started going up by 10# after one or two reps at each weight. Focus was on keeping the bar close and getting hip extension instead of looping the bar out, which I have a problem with. I got up to 155# and got under it for the first time, but it was a little too far forward and I couldn’t steady it before standing up. Took another shot and wasn’t committed to it. Nailed it on the 3rd try, which is a 10# squat snatch PR. I’ve hit 155# with an ugly power snatch in competition before, so this felt good to finally get out-of-the-way. Took the personal win and stopped there for the day.

WOD #1

This one comes from event #5 of the 2010 CrossFit Games.

7 Rounds

3 Cleans (185#)
4 Deficit HSPU (10# bumpers)

I scaled of course because it calls for 205# cleans and ring HSPU. I did power cleans the whole way through and reset for each rep. It was heavy, so I picked a good weight. My neck and collarbone are already showing some bruising. I can’t believe how much my HSPU have improved in the last few weeks. We’ve been doing them once or twice a week, so I’ve had plenty of work on them and it’s really paying off. I did each set unbroken. Final time was 8:36.

Since I was already warmed up, I skipped out on the warm-up the regular class was doing so I could cool down a bit.

WOD #2

3 Rounds

5 Wall Walks
20 cal Row
15 K2E
25 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)
15 Ring Dips
50 DUs

This was a non-stop suck fest! It was the first time I’ve ever done wall walks and after the 28 deficit HSPU they were not easy. Finished in 22:57.

I’m actually not feeling too bad after all that, but I suspect tonight I’ll be exhausted, especially if I head out for a round of golf this afternoon. Felt good to get really heavy in a WOD with the 185# cleans.

I jumped on the scale after everything and was at 191.5 with my shoes and clothes on, so I’d say the diet changes are working. I certainly am feeling good with the healthy food changes and getting a lot of sleep.

Cardio Times Three

I used the rumble roller a few times yesterday and I think it really helped with my recovery. My ass and low back are still spicy from Monday, but not as bad as they were last night. Shoulders, triceps, and lats are kind of sore from yesterday. Went in for the 9am and was the only one to show up.

A day of 3 WODs, with each WOD having a 10:00 time cap. If you finish early, you get to rest for the remainder of the 10 minutes. No breaks or extra time between each WOD, so it’s a 30 minute running clock overall.

A couple of weeks ago we did a similar format, which was a lot of fun. When I saw this posted I was definitely looking forward to it after hitting the lower body hard on Monday and the upper body hard on Tuesday. In need of a light day!

Warm-up

Multiplanar (ankle/knee/hip mobility) – 10 each leg
- Back to front leg swings with a knee dip on the forward swing
- Leg swing out to the side with a knee dip
- Skaters with a knee dip
10-15 Each Side
- Glute Bridge Marching
- Human Snowflake
- T-Stabilization
600m Run
50 feet World’s Greatest Stretch

Good to get in some solid mobility work after the last couple of days.

WOD #1

4 Rounds

15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
250m Row

All unbroken, not too difficult. Finished in 6:44.

WOD #2

4 Rounds

200m Run
20 KBS (53# KB)

Not very fun. Runs got progressively slower and the KBS sucked, but I did them all unbroken. Emily says my technique could use a lot of improvement to help me expend less energy. I was just trying to survive during the last 2 rounds. Finished around 6:40.

WOD #3

4 Rounds

25 Sit-ups
25 Push-ups (chest to deck)

I knew this would be the worst one due to the push-ups. All of the sit-ups were unbroken and I tried not to get to the point of failure on my push-ups, but 100 is a lot no matter what you do. I had to split them up a lot after the first 25. Finished in 8:13.

First Competitors WOD at CrossFit Full Strength

Got up bright and early to head in for the 8am competitors WOD. Everyone who goes tries to Rx as much as possible and the quality of the athletes pushes everyone to train harder. Wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since the WOD wasn’t posted ahead of time.

Warm-up

500m Row
5 Deadlifts (225#)
4 Deadlifts (315#)

WOD

This is event #6 from the 2012 Regionals

3 Rounds
- 7 Deadlifts (345#/225#)
- 7 MU
3 Rounds
- 21 Wall Balls (10′, 20#/14# MB)
- 21 T2B
100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
28 Burpee Over the Box Jumps (24″/20″)
100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
3 MU

WOW! As Chayet was writing the WOD on the board we all were getting scared. Yes, that’s all one workout. No rest times in there.

I decided to only use 315# for the deadlifts and did jumping bar muscle-ups, but went Rx on everything else. We used loaded up barbells for the farmer’s carry, which was quite the challenge because you had to find a good balance point in each bar.

I got pretty light-headed in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the deadlifts, so I’m glad I didn’t go the extra 30#. My low back was tight as soon as the WOD was over. Even doing the jumping bar muscle-ups wasn’t easy, but got through them. I broke the wall balls down into 11-10 each round and the T2B went 11-5-5, 11-5-5, 8-5-3-2-2-1 I think. Hips were kind of shot for that last round. The farmer’s carry was a lot easier than I expected as far as picking up the weight and carrying it, but the balance made it a challenge. Suffered through the burpee box jumps slow and steady without stopping. Forgot about the 3 more reps at the end, but rushed over and knocked them out on the bar. Finished in 21:29. Compare that to Rich’s top time of 12:22, which was obviously Rx.

Hiking

In the afternoon I went out for a hike and did 4.71 miles in 1:40:49.

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