Thursday, February 2, 2012

Fast is Not Boring

Thursdays are turning out to be great swing workouts for me....but seriously when do I have a bad swing workout?  Never!  I go out into the garage gym with an idea, I get to train the idea for about 15 minutes before my training partners (now only a single partner) show up and then I get to take them through a longer, harder version of what I had practiced before they got there!  Then I get to do it all over and tape it for all of you guys! (I'll post the new swing workout before the weekend)

I only have about 2 hours in total to train, and video taping sometimes takes up more of that precious time than I predict (batteries run out, I flub up the instructions, etc).  When I finished all of my swings, I had to do some sort of snatching, since I did only swings and jerks on Tuesday.  What to do, what to do... I know I'll do 10/10 (R/L) 12kg snatches as fast as I can "on the minute" for 15 minutes!  That's 20 snatches per set and in only 15 minutes that equals 300 snatches...zowie...cool!

Well, I managed to squeak out another 5 sets for a total of 20 sets of 20 reps, 400 snatches in 20 minutes time.  Although I repeated only one set over and over 20 times, in no way would I describe it as boring!  I just didn't have time to be bored!

If you cannot snatch this many reps, at all, or this fast, the good news is that you don't have too!  But remember that the point of these sets is speed, not rep count!  If you can only do 5/5, or 6/6, or 8/8 and use the remainder of the minute to rest enough to start the next set strong and ready to go. But do them as quickly and cleanly as your ability allows.  Do not "short" the snatch reps.  If you can do 11/11, 12/12 or more, great!  The training goal is to know how to go right up to the edge, your edge, not over, BUT leaving a little room for the next workout.  I may do more reps, I may ladder up or down, or I may use a different weight next time, neither is better or worse, just different.  In fact, you know I will indeed do another version of this workout on Saturday....haven't decided what yet, only that it will be just a bit more challenging...or maybe this exact workout, repeated, will feel more challenging than it did today.  Different day, different body...I'll see which one shows up this weekend!

What is the fastest way you would do 300-400 snatch reps? (not counting doing them continuously)  these were done at a 30 rep per minute pace btw.

video demonstrates the last set of 10/10 "on the minute" (40 sec work/20 sec rest)

2 comments:

Maribel said...

who says fast is boring? not me! fast kicked my butt this morning...kicked it hard and bruised my ego. LOL! nope, fast is not boring at all.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

You have been training for about, or over 1 1/2 years now, consistently and you have never missed a workout....can you imagine how hard this is for someone that hasn't and doesn't train as hard and often as you/we do?

Oh, and how long have I been training? Haven't missed a workout in 6 years (and Meg hasn't missed one, with me, in basically over 3 years!) You're doing awesome!