"100 Snatch Transfers" Sunday Finisher

Sunday Workout

My strict press training is moving along, as programmed, and I'm quite happy actually.  In the past I had never had any real goals with my strict press, mostly snatch goals, reps / weight / time, because I tend to enjoy the ballistics, which I'm fairly good at, as opposed to the grinds, which I'm not naturally good at!  (I don't have any video mostly because I train with a couple of other people and it can be awkward and time consuming to set up the camera in the middle of workouts)

Currently I'm alternating my strict press training cycles between a single bell press, and double bell press.  I completed my 5x5 double 16kg program (double presses on Thursday mornings), and so I only train "maintenance" double 16kg reps, 3 x 5 every week, and I increase the loading of my single bell press on Sunday.  Yesterday I completed 3x5 w/18kg, easily on my R, and not so bad on my L.  I'm confident I'll get my 5x5, as scheduled in two weeks time.  Once that goal is completed I'll maintain my 18kg single press (3x3) while increasing my double 18kg press.

I'll program the next double bell press cycle starting with 3 sets, 1 - 3 reps each, and base it on how many I can complete, if any, at about 80-90% effort.  It is never my intention to press /push as hard as possible in any workout, except the last one, the one with the end goal :)

7:15-8:00am
5 min swing warm up
10 minute press warm up
heavy single press, 18kg 3 reps x 5 sets, every 2 minutes = 10 min
heavy double cleans, 20kg's, 5 x 5 OTM = 5 min
goblet squat, front squat/press complex "I go, you go" 10 min (40 squats/30 press total)
swings, 6 sets of 10

My training partner Matt finished his double press cycle w/18kg's yesterday so he'll be moving on to either double 20kg's, or a single bell, his choice.  He's also working toward the Strength Matters Swing Test, so that's the reason we ended the workout with some sets of 10 swings (Matt used the 20kg).  We would have done more, but we simply ran out of time.  I could have cut the squats short, or not done them at all, but I was being selfish! I knew I still had a ton of swings to do during the last part of the morning and this would be my only chance to practice some squat reps. :)

8:00-8:45am GS
double jerk 10kg's 2 min
double jerk 12kg's 2 min
swing snatch 14kg 6 min

I'm playing around with double jerks these days, but I'll write more about that another time.  I haven't been practicing GS regularly for a number of reasons, mostly because I'm lacking in inspiration, therefore I'm not really motivated.  Having that horrible flu for over 3 weeks, then breaking my toe, and  then having one of my training partners gone for almost 3 weeks all didn't help either.  It's no wonder the 6 min14kg swing snatch set felt as difficult as ever, but awesome at the same time because I was still able to do it after weeks and weeks of no practice.

8:45-9:30
740 16kg swings 33 min
16kg snatch transfers, 6 min, 100 snatches, 100 swings (video above)

I started "Skypercising" with my friend Emily on Wednesday mornings, but she missed her workout last week so I tried connecting with her to swing during the last part of our workout.  Unfortunately we lost the connection 1/2 through the swing workout, but she later messaged me to tell me she continued to finish on her own!  The connection in the garage gym is sketchy but I'm happy we were able to get some work done at all :)

I swung really heavy last Sunday so anything above the 16kg was off limits, besides the 16kg for over 700 swings in about 1/2 hour is plenty challenging enough!  All of the swing sets were done in sets of 10 or 20 reps, with equal or less rest than work.

Now the Finisher..... 100 snatches, 100 swings ("snatch transfers")

We had about 12 minutes left on the clock so it had to take less than that, and besides, last Sunday the Finisher took me over 20 minutes, so again, no need to go that long this week.  I needed to snatch "heavy" (snatch test weight), but two hours of training already completed is not the time for hundreds of snatch reps. I knew 100 would be plenty....but how to make them just a wee bit harder?  Do them one at a time!  No more than one rep at a time means that you have to transfer R/L each rep with a swing! 100 snatches, 100 swings, for time!

I finished in 6 minutes exactly.  If I calculate correctly, based on 40 swings per 60 seconds (2.5 min.), that leaves 3.5 min it took me to do 100 snatches.  I'm pretty pleased with that result....could I have gone faster?  Maybe just a little, but I haven't trained specifically to improve that particular goal.  If I were to want to I would guess being able to shave 30 seconds off would be top speed (with that weight).

"snatch transfers" have always been part of my snatch progressions, similar in the same way "swing transfers" are part of my swing progressions.  I've calculated that one can complete 16 snatch transfers (8 R/ 9 L) in 1 min, on average.  Taking that experience into account it would have taken 6 min, 15 seconds at a "normal pace", so I did actually shave off 15 seconds, which ain't bad!