36:36:36! 994 Snatches

If you do any kind of Max Vo2 training at some point you finish 15:15, and then you have no choice but to switch it up to 36:36 (even though the original protocol starts with 36:36, most start with 15:15...why? see note*). Although my own personal Max training veers off from the original protocols because I've been training Max for so many years, I've been able to build my conditioning to exceed equal work to rest w/12kg. So, for at least the past year, I've been adding much more work to change the w/r ratio to better suite my abilities.

The obvious progression, once someone has completed 80 x 8 (15:15), and 16-20 x 35 (36:36) is to increase the weight of the bell and start all over. But, in my opinion, the increase from 12kg-16kg for women is a big jump......80 sets of 8 is no joke! Here's my Max PR w/16kg (15:15).

5/5 x 4
6/6 x 6
7/7 x 10
8/8 x 42
7/7 x 8
total 518 snatches w/16kg
35 minutes

Now that we have a 14kg available, sure we'll go back to some of the original protocol, we'll even go back to the challenge of the 16kg, but we have the rest of our lives to train, so let's mix it up a bit, lol! But don't think for one second I think I can come close to using the 16kg for any of these longer "Max-based" workouts!

36:36 equal work to equal rest

16/16 x1
17/17 x2
18/18 x 17
20 sets total

1 minute rest

36:36:36 2 work intervals to 1 rest interval

#1
18 R, 18 L x 5

1 minute rest

#2
8 R, 8 L, 8 R, 8 L x 5

1 minute rest

#3
4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L, 4 R, 4 L x 5

In other words, all snatches were done taking 72 seconds, and then we rested for 36 seconds before repeating the above snatch rep combinations 5 times each. (#1 36 snatches 1 tr, #2 32 snatches 3 tr, #3 32 snatches 7 tr)

Since I almost always design our training routines moments before, and sometimes during each workout I had no idea how much work we were doing, and afterwards I mentioned to Meg, "I wonder how many snatches we did?" knowing she would count them because she's doing the 50,000 rep snatch challenge. She emailed me later in the morning....994 snatches! What? Only 6 away from 1000!

I personally did no warm up snatches as I had been swinging in my previous class, but we did plenty more snatches in my next Intermediate Class (along with at least 800-1000 swings)..... Meg shared her 4th of July weekend snatch goal with me....1776 snatches by the end of the weekend! Hopefully she'll take today off and finish up tomorrow....who wants to bet she'll do more than 1776....maybe 2010!



Here is video of me training 36:36 back Sept 2007. I was snatching 20 reps per set....looks like Meg and I have some stepping up to do!

note* Mark was the first to take this type of training past the 6-8 week protocol Kenneth designed it for, and as we all know many, many, many have followed. Here, in his own words is the reason he started with the 15:15 version

When Kenneth Jay first gave his presentation on his Advanced Strength Strategies at the July 2007 Level 2 cert, the research he presented centered around the 36:36 protocol. This is where he unveiled the research about Max Vo2 training using the KB snatch as the tool. While it was interesting to me, because of my wonky shoulders and forearms that pumped up at the sight of high rep anything I wasn't all that interested in trying it.

When I found out there was a second protocol one could do;one which involved only 15 seconds of work I knew it was for me. I can either go long distance with low intensity or use high intensity for short work periods. Trying to go high intensity for long periods isn't for me. After all, I'm not Tracy.