Hmm. I have irresponsible advice and responsible advice. The irresponsible advice is: VWC training sessions are relatively long periods of high intensity intervals with minimal rest. You could still do something like that with dumbbells, for instance, do a bunch of snatches for 15 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds, for 20 minutes or more. It could produce a similar effect to VWC, but it certainly wouldn't be the same thing.
The responsible advice is a little more involved. I should point out that ballistic exercises with dumbbells and barbells are not as "fatigue friendly" as kettlebells. That is, the downswing of a KB swing, clean, or snatch, sets you up for the next rep. Not so with DB or BB ballistics, where you have to reset from the ground for each rep. This opens you up to much bigger technical errors, and injury, since it can be difficult to set up consistently while fatigued. This issue becomes dramatically more important in someone with less than a couple years of moving well under load (which is a category that you will belong to for a while). In your case, I would find a conditioning program that does a better job of avoiding fatigue.
To be clear, I would not advise you, under any circumstances, to engage in a program that has you generating a lot of force in a fatigued state. Not until you are a very competent mover, which usually takes a while (often years).
If I were to design a basic conditioning program for you, based on the DB snatch, it would be something like:
- Set a timer for 20 minutes
- Every minute, do 3 snatches, and recover for the rest of the minute (switch arms every minute). Pick a weight that allows you to be fresh and recovered by the time you start each set. You shouldn't be gassed or exhausted by the end of the 20 minutes
- Do this 3-6 times a week (depending on what else you're doing and how much you can recover from) and make it the last part of your workout, unless you plan on doing some long, slow aerobic work, in which case the long slow aerobic work should be last
- Every week, add 2-4 minutes to the total time of the session
- Once you work up to 30-40 minute sessions, restart at 20 minutes, with the same weight, but do 4 reps instead of 3. Repeat the process.
- Go through this entire process again with 5 reps. Once you're at 30-40 minute sessions, doing 5 snatches at the top of each minute, then increase the weight y 5-10 pounds and start over at 20 minutes and 3 reps.
Obviously, this a very broad program, and exactly how you implement it depends on how strong you are, how much you can recover from, and what else you're doing.
But the idea is to stay relatively fresh for each set (which allows you to practice moving well), while you create a period of prolonged, increased oxygen uptake. There are way better program designers out there than me, though, and I thought of this in about 10 minutes, so it might not be the best option
. Think of it more as an example of how to use the DB snatch as a conditioning tool for a novice.