Monday, January 7, 2008

Snatches on the 3rd, no, 2nd Minute

Monday is Snatch Day. And I have started to really work my Snatches in preparation of attending an RKC Cert in the Fall. The past two Monday's I performed max rep sessions. Over this weekend I read the article by Steve Freides, "The Party Line for Passing the RKC Snatch Test", which can be found in the article section of www.dragondoor.com.

In the article, Steve's plan consists of 4 specific levels that one could work through to ultimately make their Snatch Test numbers. Since I have been training myself, I have been relying on what I've read, people I've communicated with and mostly on how I feel. So this article was a good objective way to gauge my current level and help assist me moving forward.

After reading the article, I felt that I was probably already somewhere between Levels 2 and 3. So to be safe, I decided to work through the last progression of Level 2 today to see if my suspicions were correct. The last session in Level 2 calls for performing a set of 5 Left + 5 Right Snatches every 3 minutes for a total of 10 sets.

Well first, as always, I performed some warmup exercises...

2-Hand Swings: 16kg - 30, 24kg - 10, 32kg - 10

Windmills: 16kg - 5/5, 24kg - 3/5 (left side does not seem to have the same shoulder stability of the right, must continue to work on this)

After these few exercises it was time to start Snatching. I set my Gymboss Interval Timer to alarm every 3 minutes. First set great . . . . . resting . . . . . the remainder of the 3 minutes felt like an eternity. . . . Second set great . . . . I then decided to reduce the interval to 2 minutes each. OK, this was much better! So I finished off the remaining sets on 2 minute intervals, with gas still in the engine!

Snatches: 24kg - 5/5 for 10 sets (100 Snatches in total)

A little trial and error here, but well worth it. Next session I will begin Level 3 which calls for reduced volume but performing sets "on the minute". I might introduce a second Snatch Day sometime during the week if this seems too easy. Again, a little trial and error, or experimentation, which has a better sound to it, is called for.

Oh yeah, I also reviewed the Z-Health Foot & Ankle section over the weekend and have start working those joints now as well. It's funny how some of these movements have now worked themselves into my every day life. Without thinking, I'm working some of the drills throughout the day. I think some of the foot and ankle will be part of that as well. Only section left is Hand & Wrist.

2 comments:

Mark Reifkind said...

howie,

this works. I did a version of this( ehtan reeves density training) to pass my test and it worked great.When I could do 4x15/15, 25 and 25 was not a problem.

Howie B said...

Thanks Rif. I have found the original article and will give it a good read. Once I get these Snatches rolling, maybe I'll use it for another movement like presses.