Vaughn Week 2

Walked 18 holes this morning, relaxed a bit, and got to the gym before 6pm. First day of the 2nd week of the weightlifting program.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95
  • 10×115
  • 10×125
  • 8×135
  • 6×145

Wasn’t a cake walk, but I made all of the assigned percentages and reps today.

Front Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 4×135
  • 2×185
  • 2×225
  • 2×245
  • 4x5x265

Thought about cutting back on the loading but glad I stuck with it. The final set was an AMRAP but I couldn’t breathe anymore and had to bail trying to stand up the 6th rep.

Tall Clean

  • 3×45#
  • 3×95
  • 3×135
  • 3×155
  • 3×175
  • 3×195
  • 3×205
  • 3×215

Felt good, other than my hands. Taped my thumbs early on. Up 10# from what I’ve ever done for a triple (even a double) and 30# more than I did in the first week of the program.

Clean Lift Off

  • 5×275#
  • 2x5x295
  • 5×305

Programmed at 95-105% of clean. Few pounds heavier than that on the final set because I’m a lazy loader.

Skill

8 Rounds (Reverse Tabata)

  • 10s Zeus DU
  • 20s Rest

Never missed, but did have to stop one round a couple of seconds early because I was losing my grip on the rope. Finished with 123 reps. Does this count as conditioning during this “weightlifter” period? haha

Knocked out a 20 minute ROMWOD in the evening.

Back For Sunday

Yesterday I was up early to play in a charity golf tournament. Fun day but I was exhausted when I got home. Took a 2 hour nap! Did a 19 minute ROMWOD late at night. Felt much better this morning. First time back for Sunday after missing 3 weeks.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5/5 Bar Taps
    • 10 Pass thrus
    • 15 Push-ups
    • 20 Squat Jumps

Gymnastics Strength & Barbell Cycling

14:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Strict Chin-ups
  • 5 Power Cleans (135#)

14:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Strict Ring Dips
  • 5 Power Snatches (95#)

Originally I thought I’d do sets of 4 chin-ups but I went with 5 and had no problem hitting every set. Surprised the dips felt so easy after not doing any in quite a long time.

Conditioning

  • 50 Bar-facing Burpees

Had an epiphany with my rhythm right off the bat. Was a lot quicker and used less energy with less movement. Took me 3:29.

Decided to squat after class since I wasn’t feeling tired and the lifting I needed to do later in the day looked like a lot of volume.

Back Squat

First rep in each set has 5 second pause in the bottom. Did the pause with each double. No special shoes, belt, or sleeves today.

  • 6×45#
  • 6×135
  • 2×205
  • 2×235
  • 6x2x265

My traps were already sore (probably from the cleans) and it did not feel great with the bar on my back. First squat session without cutting back the sets.

Evening session to finish up the first week of the Vaughn program. In the garage around 6pm. Started with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Snatch Balance

Three second pause in the bottom.

  • 3×45#
  • 3×75
  • 3×95
  • 3×115
  • 2×135
  • 2×155
  • 1×165

Missed first try with 155, but then got it right after with a little patience. Need a lot of improvement with these.

Snatch

With a 3 second lift off.

  • 2×95#
  • 2×115
  • 1×135
  • 1×155
  • 12x1x165

Did the 12 singles on an every 90 second clock. Missed attempts 3 & 4, but did 2 more at the end of the clock. Fell into a nice rhythm after those misses.

Clean & Jerk

Three second lift off in the clean and then a 3 second pause in the split.

  • 2×135
  • 2×155
  • 1×175
  • 1×195
  • 10x1x215

Did the final 12 every 90 seconds again. Missed the full 3 second pause in the split a few times as I was off balance, but never missed a clean or jerk. Hands were really feeling beat up in the middle of those 10. Perhaps I shouldn’t have programmed so many lifting reps during class today. 🙂

The aftermath

That ends training for the 1st week of the program. It turned out to be a lot more volume than I originally thought. All of the pauses and tempo work really add up. I think I will stick to a 2 off 1 on schedule and not try to push 3 days in a row unless I really need to. Will keep to very limited WODS too, but try to get in 2 Aerobic Capacity workouts each week.

Did a 21 minute ROMWOD late in the night.

Running For Aerobic Capacity

Soreness is ramping up again after yesterday’s workouts. Really glad I’ve decided to cut back on the squat sets or I’d be in a real world of hurt. Headed to the track around 9:30am. Warmed up with a 400m jog.

Aerobic Capacity

  • 1,000m at moderate pace (4:43 target, 4:56.7 actual)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 400m at fast pace (1:42 target, 1:37.1 actual)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 700m at moderate pace (3:18 target, 3:13.4 actual)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 300m at fast pace (1:17 target, 1:11.2 actual)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 600m at moderate pace (2:50 target, 2:47.6 actual)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 200m at fast pace (0:51 target, 0:47.5 actual)

I was pissed I missed the target on the first interval. I was checking my pace through the first few 100s but stopped looking and slowed too much. Made sure to get under the rest of the targets. Not bad and only 2 miles of volume. Walked 400 meters and headed home.

Sinuses started acting up shortly after the track. Took a little nap during the day and headed to the gym around 5pm for week 1 day 4.  Did some bottom squat hold but got right into it.

Hang Power Clean + Front Squat

  • 3x20kg
  • 3×40
  • 3×60
  • 3×70
  • 3×75
  • 3×79
  • 3×84
  • 3×87
  • 3×90

Was getting rough on my thumbs since I was using the Eleiko bar. I taped them up at some point. Put on my belt for the last couple of sets I think, but didn’t wear knee sleeves today since not much squatting to do.

Clean Deadlifts

  • 5x100kg
  • 5×115
  • 6x5x130

The six working sets were assigned at 80% of an estimated 1 rep max quality clean deadlift. Say what? I have no idea, so I figured I’d go with 100% of my max clean. I used a hook grip on the warm-up sets and 3 of the working sets, then switched to straps for the final 3 sets because my thumbs were taking a beating.

Pause Split Jerks

  • 2x20kg
  • 2×40
  • 2×60
  • 2×70
  • 2×79
  • 2×84
  • 2×89
  • 4x2x93

Assigned 6 doubles at 60-70%, which I was able to do. Maybe slightly off since I used kilos and converted during the workout since I already had my loads planned out in pounds. There was a 2 second pause in the dip and supposed to be 2 seconds in head tilt, but I paused it the split instead. Chad mentions this head tilt quite a bit, but it felt odd when I tried on Monday with shoulder press. Maybe I’ll have to give it another go next week or look up a video to make sure I’m thinking correctly what he’s asking for. These jerks felt heavier than they should have.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 10/10 Side Bends (53# KB)
  • 20 Hollow Rocks
  • 30 Zeus DU

Took my sweet time as I had been the entire lifting session. Was able to do every set of Zeus dubs unbroken. Not sure how many more than 30 I can do at this point because the handles are really starting to slide in the last few reps. With my regular RPM dub rope I can easily adjust my hand position and not lose a beat, but it feels like letting go of any grip pressure with the Zeus will be a disaster.

I’ll get in a 23 minute ROMWOD yet tonight after dinner. Getting up early to play in a charity golf scramble since I have a bit of a drive to get there.

Get It In Early

Yesterday I was so sore! Walking 18 holes and squatting down to line up putts was not comfortable. The heat and humidity was some of the highest of the summer, which didn’t help either. I did a 46 minute ROMWOD later in the evening.

This morning I was out in the garage at about 8am to get in day 3 of week 1 before heading to the golf course and to beat the heat.

Push Press

Pause in dip for 2 seconds and pause overhead for another 2 seconds.

  • 5×45#
  • 3×85
  • 3×115
  • 3×145
  • 4x5x175

Pausing in the dip is tough and it was hard not to do a very small extra dip to drive back up. I work my knee sleeves all workout this morning and put on my lifting belt for the working sets due to bringing the bar back down so many times. I used the assigned weight, but cut the sets down from 6 to 4 due to time constraints and still easing back into it.

Back Squat

  • 5×135#
  • 5×205
  • 5×235
  • 4x5x265

Felt much better than the front squats on Monday. Was able to go with the assigned weight, but again cut it 2 sets short.

Hang Snatch

Pause 2 seconds above knee and 2 seconds in OHS.

  • 2×45#
  • 2×75
  • 2×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 2×145
  • 2×155
  • 2×165

Not supposed to use more than 80% (175), but I was happy to hit 165. I almost lost my grip on the 2nd rep with 155, so I dropped the bar between reps with 165 to reset completely.

Snatch Lift Off

  • 5×200#
  • 3x5x220

Supposed to use 90-100% of full snatch 1RM. First set at 90% felt good so I went to 100% for the others. Much better than the snatch deadlifts felt the other day, but I think the pauses probably had something to do with how heavy it felt that day. I did use lifting straps for all sets of these.

Decided to ride in the cart today on the golf course with another hot day; two in a row would have been a bit much. Headed out to the garage a couple of hours after getting home for a 2nd session. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 3 Strict Chin-ups (knees up)
  • 6 Evil Wheels
  • 8/8 Landmine Rows (80#)

As you can see I also had a 25# plate holding down the end of the bar, which added some more weight. Played around with different grip positions for a few sets too.

Conditioning

  • 1,000m Ski Erg

My previous best was 3:45.6 almost 2 years ago. Number in my head was a 1:45/500m average but 20 seconds in I knew that would be a bad idea. Early on 1:47-1:48 was feeling good. Then things started to take a turn similar to how they do on the rower. Managed 3:36.9 for a nice PR.


Finished up with Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap and then a 22 minute ROMWOD later.

 

Snatch Day

Will take a few days to get adjusted back to Eastern time. Little sore in some odd places today. Not as bad as I was expecting though. Out in the garage before noon and warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation. Day 2 of week 1 on the lifting program.

Snatch Push Press + 3 OHS (3s pause in bottom)

  • 45#
  • 75
  • 95
  • 115
  • 125
  • 135
  • 145
  • 155

Was supposed to keep it below 80% (175), which wasn’t a problem. 😉 Little shaky with my OH stability after the time away from the bar, but made all of the reps. Dropped the bar to my back trough 135, then tried with 145 but I was too wobbly and didn’t commit. Dropped it down my back and then didn’t try with 155.

Tall Power Snatch + OHS

  • 45#
  • 75
  • 85
  • 95
  • 105
  • 115
  • 125
  • 135

Yay!! Wasn’t expecting that much. Haven’t done much more than this when dropping into the squat (triple with 145 I think). Actually it was the first time doing the power variation of tall snatches. Thankful for powers to save my legs a bit while I adjust to squatting again.

Snatch Deadlift (3s pause at knee on descent)

  • 5×135#
  • 5×185
  • 5×200
  • 3x5x210

Horrible, but did the assigned %. Wore lifting straps. How did I ever snatch more than this? haha

Meant to start back on ROMWOD yesterday but it was a long day and I didn’t finish with the lawn until late. So today I’ll do a double. First 20 minute session after lunch.

Had a chiropractor appointment at 5 and then went to CrossFit Intuition.

Warm-up

2 Sets

  • 5s of StrongFit Triceps & Biceps Openers (5#)

Went light since I haven’t done them in weeks and I never really liked the 10# DB at the gym anyway.

Midline & Gymnastics

E2M – 10 Sets

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 3 Strict Pull-ups

I’m sure I’ll be sore for the next couple of days after not getting in my GHDs last week. No pain doing the pull-ups!! Finally. 🙂 They were actually really easy but I didn’t want to push it with too much volume. Patience.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 30 Zeus DU
  • 10 Burpees

The heavy Zeus rope is no fucking joke! It wants to fly out of your hands and is so much more work on the shoulders and grip. My biggest set was 17 unbroken I think. Took me 4:28 to finish. I think I went 11-17-2, 8-8-8-6, and 12-12-6. Forced myself to break after the first round because missing did not feel good. I’m interested to see if this helps the shoulder fatigue that comes in to play with regular dub on large sets or if it completely messes up your rhythm.

Did an easy 5:00 cool down on an old Air Dyne someone brought in and then did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap. Knocked out another 20:00 ROMWOD at home.

Home Sweet Home

It’s so good to be home after only being here less than a day in the last 2.5 weeks. Slept for 12 hours last night! Walked 18 holes and golfed pretty well for not touching a club in 2 weeks. Out in the garage in the evening. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Had decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to do a lifting program, so might as well jump in today. I found a 4 week program by Chad Vaughn I really liked. Didn’t seem like crazy volume and has a good mix of exercises each day. Had been thinking about something that was only 2-3 days a week, but I can afford to cut back on conditioning a bit right now, especially since I’ve been out of the gym so long anyway. At 4 weeks long I can change switch gears after or jump into something different.

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×75
  • 10×105
  • 10×115
  • 10×125
  • 6×130 (2 short of the 8!)
  • 2×130

Should have been a set of 8 at 135# to finish, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen and even the 5 pound drop didn’t happen. I took about 20 seconds rest before hitting the final 2 reps. Assigned % were 60-65-70-75 for the 4 working sets. Could tell I’m not used to holding a bar because my wrists were feeling it in the last couple of sets.

Front Squat

  • 5×135#
  • 5×205
  • 4x5x225

Oh my! The warm-up set with 205 was rough so I scaled back from the assigned 70% (240#) and then even scaled back to 4 sets instead of the assigned 6. I’ll probably still be sore as hell from not squatting. Two twenty-five never felt so heavy! Forgot to wear knee sleeves, which would have helped.

Tall Clean

  • 3×95#
  • 3×135
  • 3×155
  • 3×165
  • 3×175
  • 3×185

Felt decent and getting out of the squat wasn’t nearly as bad here. It was written to go by feel and these felt ok. No gas to push it though.

Clean Lift Off

  • 5×225
  • 4x5x255

Didn’t have to scale here, but stayed on the bottom of the range (90-100% of max clean). Did wear straps so I wouldn’t kill my hands too much yet. Need to get used to holding the bar again.

Time to get out and mow the lawn.

Ready for the 2016 Games

Got out to Cali yesterday, watched some of the teens and Masters at the Games and then watched the team Murph event. Froning’s Mayhem Freedom team was impressive in their pacing, as expected, and blew everyone away after coming in at about 20th place after the first run.

Bryan and I went to the hotel’s fitness center this morning before heading out around Los Angeles for touristy stuff. Warmed up with 400 meters on the treadmill.

5 Sets

  • 10 DB Bench Press (50# DBs)
  • 10/10 Single Leg RDL (45# DBs)

4 Sets

  • 10 Push Press (45# DBs)
  • 20 Russian Twists (50# DB)
  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (50# DB)

Worked up quite a sweat! Probably won’t do much of anything until Monday.

Home For Less Than A Day

Drove back home this morning. Got some things done and got to the gym before 6pm.

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 4×155
  • 4×205
  • 2×245
  • 2×285
  • 2×315
  • 2×325
  • 2×335

Squats have not felt great the last couple of weeks. Too inconsistent with all of the travel and stuff lately. I wore my belt for the last 3 sets. No close to the assigned percentages for this week but it wasn’t feeling great so I wasn’t going to get hurt before leaving on the trip in the morning.

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×75
  • 4×95
  • 2×115
  • 2×135
  • 2×152.5
  • 2×162.5
  • 2×170
  • 1×180 (PR)

Now the presses were a different story today, even though the last couple of weeks didn’t feel great. I hit the 65-75-85-90-95% and it felt good so I went for the PR since I’ll be gone. No issues with it. PR by 5#; always a win with shoulder press.

Warmed up with 3×95 and 3×135. I really didn’t want to do this after the strength work but Bryan was patiently waiting for me.

Open 15.4 – 8:00 AMRAP

  • 3 handstand push-ups
  • 3 cleans (185#)
  • 6 handstand push-ups
  • 3 cleans
  • 9 handstand push-ups
  • 3 cleans
  • 12 handstand push-ups
  • 6 cleans
  • 15 handstand push-ups
  • 6 cleans
  • 18 handstand push-ups
  • 6 cleans
  • …

I haven’t done this since the 2015 Open, when I got through 15+6 (66 total reps). I can’t remember the last time I did a HSPU though. :-/ I tried a different strategy today. Wanted to go unbroken on cleans as much as I could. I had done all singles back then. I was able to get all of the sets of 3, then went 2-1-1-1-1, and 4 unbroken to finish. On the HSPU I only did a 3 for the round of 3 and to start the round of 9, then all other doubles except in the set of 15 I went to singles for the last 6 reps to try to shorten my rest time. So got through 15+4 today, which I’m really happy with.

I control my descent in HSPU way too much though, fatiguing my shoulders a lot. I need to work on dropping like a rock. I also need to utilize a bigger kip earlier because I’m using too much of the press early on.

Midline

5 Sets

  • 12 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20#)

Might be time to go heavier.

Flying out to the CrossFit Games in the morning!