Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Do It Once, or Do It Twice! Swing and Snatch Ladder Workout

Tuesday I train with my class @ Girya from 6:00-7:00am, and then I dash off to Equinox for an Intermediate/Adv workout. I never really know what the hell I'm going to do until I start doing it! Usually my first class inspires a "theme", but today I decided to simply repeat, kind of, the first workout at the second.....here it is,

6-6:30am (this first 1/2 hour caters to the beginning students)

joint mobility w/Mark
short swing sets (15/15 work to rest warm up)
work into rest swings (you'll have to buy my DVD to know what I mean by this, lol)

6:30-7:00am....
Work Sets
Swing and Snatch Ladders w/12kg

The work sets were done "off of the clock". The only part "on the clock" were the rest periods. The Work Set Ladders were of undertermined time, but the rest periods were set at only 30 seconds. Starting point.....alternating 1 swing ladder with 1 snatch ladder, progressively working up the ladder from 1-5, to 1-10.

1st Swing Ladder

1 sw, 1 tr, 1 sw, 1 tr
2 sw, 1 tr, 2 sw, 1 tr
3 sw, 1 tr, 3 sw, 1 tr
4 sw, 1 tr, 4 sw, 1 tr
5 sw, 1 tr, 5 sw, 1 tr

Lucky me, this set is 40 reps....1 minute

1st Snatch Ladder

1 sn, 1 tr, 1 sn, 1 tr,
2 sn, 1 tr, 2 sn, 1 tr,
3 sn, 1 tr, 3 sn, 1 tr,
4 sn, 1 tr, 4 sn, 1 tr,
5 sn, 1 tr, 5 sn, 1 tr,

I didn't time this first snatch set, but snatches take longer than swings, so it had to take more than 1 minute.

Repeat each ladder adding one additional progressive rep per set. For instance, 2nd rotation,

2nd Swing Ladder

1 sw, 1 tr, 1 sw, 1 tr
2 sw, 1 tr, 2 sw, 1 tr
3 sw, 1 tr, 3 sw, 1 tr
4 sw, 1 tr, 4 sw, 1 tr
5 sw, 1 tr, 5 sw, 1 tr,
add
6 sw, 1 tr, 6 sw, 1 tr

2nd Snatch Ladder

1 sn, 1 tr, 1 sn, 1 tr,
2 sn, 1 tr, 2 sn, 1 tr,
3 sn, 1 tr, 3 sn, 1 tr,
4 sn, 1 tr, 4 sn, 1 tr,
5 sn, 1 tr, 5 sn, 1 tr,
add
6 sn, 1 tr, 6 sn 1 tr

Laddering up one rep at a time until reaching,

Swing Ladders

1 sw, 1 tr, 1 sw, 1 tr,
2 sw, 1 tr, 2 sw, 1 tr,
3 sw, 1 tr, 3 sw, 1 tr,
4 sw, 1 tr, 4 sw, 1 tr,
5 sw, 1 tr, 5 sw, 1 tr,
6 sw, 1 tr, 6 sw, 1 tr,
3rd set, add
7 sw, 1 tr, 7 sw, 1 tr,
4th set, add
8 sw, 1 tr, 8 sw 1 tr,
5th set, add
9 sw, 1 tr, 9 sw, 1 tr,
6th set, add
10 sw, 1 tr, 10 sw, 1 tr

Snatch Ladders

1 sn, 1 tr, 1 sn, 1 tr,
2 sn, 1 tr, 2 sn, 1 tr,
3 sn, 1 tr, 3 sn, 1 tr,
4 sn, 1 tr, 4 sn, 1 tr,
5 sn, 1 tr, 5 sn, 1 tr,
6 sn, 1 tr, 6 sn, 1 tr,
3rd set, add
7 sn, tr, 7 sn, 1 tr
4th set, add
8 sn, 1 tr, 8 sn, 1 tr
5th set, add
9 sn, 1 tr, 9 sn, 1 tr,
6th set, add
10 sn, 1 tr, 10 sn, 1 tr

Good Lord! I wasn't able to time this exactly, but it should take about 35-37 minutes total depending on how fast you snatch....yikes! In my first class I paced the snatches a bit slow, so I sped them up at the second class....much harder!

I started the first "trail run" of these progressive swing and snatch ladders at 6:30am, but I wasn't able to complete the last snatch ladder (1-10) with my Girya class. I left Meg to lead and finish with the other students the last snatch ladder, which she chose to "ladder down"....smart girl! (I'll explain in a moment) So instead of laddering up , one rep at a time, snatches from 1-10, they laddered down, starting at 10, ending with 1. If you don't think it makes a difference, then do it and let me know how it goes for you, lol!

So, here I am, 15 minutes later @ Equinox. I brought the 14kg with me for the swing ladder portion of the same workout, for the snatches I would use the 12kg. Somehow the 12kg suddenly felt much heavier than it did only 15 minutes earlier. I was determined to complete the swing ladder portion of this same workout , now with the 14kg......it was hard! But I knew there was no freakin' way I wasn't going to do it. The last 2 swing ladders (1-9, & 1-10) tested my will. Three things that made my second workout harder.....

#1 it was my second workout afterall!
#2 I used the 14kg for all swing ladders (the last ladder had a total of 130 reps. That's over 3 minutes of swinging)
#3 I picked up the pace of the snatch ladders. Boy, was I sorry near the end!

My second workout took a few minutes less than the first one because of reason #3. And that's exactly why I just couldn't "ladder up" for that last set! The last snatch ladder takes 4 1/2 - 5 minutes.....the longest, and hardest set is last! All 12 of these worksets start at around 1 - 1/1/2 minutes and end with 3-5 minutes sets, with only 30 seconds in between all 12.....

Totals within about 35 minutes (only 6 minutes of resting)

Swings 490
Snatches 430
Transfers 81 (inbetween snatches. count them as swings and the swing total increases to 571)

Do it once, or do it twice!

9 comments:

huong said...

yes, thank you meg for laddering down! that was a good way to end the class. don't know why i struggled so much with the snatches on tuesday.thanks for the class tracy. - huong

Tracy Reifkind said...

huong....we'll be doing this one again in the future, so you'll get another chance!

Unknown said...

Hi~I'm Gun Jung, South Korean RKC.And I'm trying to publish a book which introduce RKC and Kettlebell to my fellow Koreans. So, I want to introduce your case in my book. Can I use YOU and your husband 'the master RKC Mr. Reifkint' s photos and stories on your blog? If you give me a very kind and honorable permission May be I can show you a Korean book that introduce your Great story , At August. Because me and my wife will go to Budapest, Hungary at August for RKC cert.(me=Level 2, others=level 1) Thanks~

Unknown said...

Actually, I sent you a mail to your yahoo address.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Gun,

I haven't gotten the email yet, but I give you permission to use Mark and my story for your book.thanks for your interest and support and see you in Hungary in just a few weeks.

Tracy and Mark

溫淑芬 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Giacinta said...

Tracy, I would like to try this workout. What is a "trail run"?

Giacinta said...

nevermind, i realized the tr means transfer!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Giacinta,

It seems as if you figured out that "tr" means transfer, not "trail run"....but if anyone else is wondering what "trail run" means....

This was a interval workout that I had never done before, in addition to the interval "work sets" being of an undetermined rep count, I had no idea how long it would take to ladder up from 5 to 10.

My method of interval, high volume training is based on a specific pace of 10 swing reps per 15 seconds (40 reps per 1 minute), and snatch reps will vary 10-15 per 30 seconds....etc...

This workout had intervals that increased "unevenly", so I tried it on a "trail" run, to see if I could make it "fit" into a pre-determined time frame....

I'm working on it! That's why I kept the rest period consistent....always 30 seconds only.

But, in the mean time, the great thing about training high volume is that the # of reps, and the time it takes, is secondary to getting the work done!