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Always Be Smashing

WhatWouldHulkDo said:
Thanks for checking in, sir.

One of my guiding principles lately has been time management - I don't want to spent more that 1 hour in each training session. That means snatches are always "on the clock" - 10 minutes, 1 set per minute, get it done. That means I don't have the time to do a proper A+A volume session like you are doing. Instead, I have two variables to play with - more weight, or more reps. My plan right now is to alternate between the two - a couple weeks of higher weight, a couple weeks of higher reps.

I really like the recent article put out by @Tony Gracia

www.strongfirst.com

The Snatch Pyramid: Optimize Your Snatch Training | StrongFirst

Take your high-volume kettlebell snatches to the next level.
www.strongfirst.com

I think that's a solid idea on how to structure snatch training; long A+A sessions are the base, with a smaller amount of heavy weeks mixed in, and very rare glycolic peaking. I've certainly been thinking about how I could incorporate more of that kind of base training in... but, the real question is, what am I willing to give up to do that? Today, snatches aren't the main course for me. They are a heavy appetizer with a nice pre-dinner cocktail. The barbell is the main course... at least for now.
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I've now read the Snatch Pyramid article by @Tony Gracia at least 4 times. Some of it I had already incorporated, and some of it I hadn't done programmatically (like the higher rep days of 25, which I just did this morning). He's outlined a fantastic approach.

@WhatWouldHulkDo If you haven't already tried it, it's worth making snatches the main dish for a period of time at some point, just as an experiment (6-8 weeks) and gauge how you look, feel, and perform.

I've always found snatches to be the most efficient (and yet still sinister) tool in the StrongFirst arsenal, followed closely by double C&J or C&P. While I love the barbell dearly, whenever my time is crunched, I always come back to some flavor of these two.
 
Thanks for your input, @Mike Torres ... between all the folks around here who subsist on a steady diet of snatches, and the fact that @Alexander Halford currently looks like he's carved from granite, I've certainly given it some pondering... strength endurance is valuable, I'm just of the mindset that it's more valueable if your max strength is higher, and I feel like I've got some weak links in the chain. Maybe I can work out some kind of cycling protocol.

11/28 10:00

Mobility warmup
KB snatch 10x5 32
SQT 3x5 250#
Pullups 3x5
Grip work
Hang board

11/30 08:00

Trifecta
Shoulder sequence

11/30 16:30

Mobility warmup
KB snatch 10x5 32
BP 3x5 190#
LTK 4x6
Joint plyo series
 
WhatWouldHulkDo said:
Thanks for your input, @Mike Torres ... between all the folks around here who subsist on a steady diet of snatches, and the fact that @Alexander Halford currently looks like he's carved from granite, I've certainly given it some pondering... strength endurance is valuable, I'm just of the mindset that it's more valueable if your max strength is higher, and I feel like I've got some weak links in the chain. Maybe I can work out some kind of cycling protocol.

11/28 10:00

Mobility warmup
KB snatch 10x5 32
SQT 3x5 250#
Pullups 3x5
Grip work
Hang board

11/30 08:00

Trifecta
Shoulder sequence

11/30 16:30

Mobility warmup
KB snatch 10x5 32
BP 3x5 190#
LTK 4x6
Joint plyo series
Click to expand...
I totally hear you on max strength. Every so often, I focus on increasing limit strength in 1-2 key lifts. Though I’ve also found personally that max strength doesn’t generally respond over the long haul to a direct, head-on attack, and that cycling in blocks is the (only) way to get at “everything” over time.

I’ve mentioned this before (and it was actually in the Q&D book) but the way I got my max KB press on both sides was from snatching - not at all something I expected - but sometimes the body just needs a new stimulus. Similar to a recent post I made about getting a max barbell DL after doing double KB clean + press, something I wasn’t able to do while deadlifting all the time. The body works in mysterious ways ;)
 
Mike Torres said:
I’ve mentioned this before (and it was actually in the Q&D book) but the way I got my max KB press on both sides was from snatching - not at all something I expected - but sometimes the body just needs a new stimulus. Similar to a recent post I made about getting a max barbell DL after doing double KB clean + press, something I wasn’t able to do while deadlifting all the time. The body works in mysterious ways ;)
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In mysterious indeed.
In my case I can press certain kettlebell for less reps now, than I could before I just started with giryas, but I was doing enough of barbell military press for max strength. And my snatch volume is quite ok.
Go figure ?
 
12/1 07:30

45min treadmill run/walk 3.4m
Foam rolling, bretzels + forward fold

Good run today, HR let me push pace a little. Also feel like, while I'm not getting that much further in the forward fold, I'm exposing different limiting points. Just a lot to work through there.

12/1 16:45

Mobility warmup
DL 5x1 355#
KB C&P 4x6 28
TGU 10x1 32,40x3,32

After the TGUs with the 40, the last reps with the 32 felt like I could have done a "Turkish jump up". Awesome. Good session.
 
WhatWouldHulkDo said:
I got really good height on the jumps, could have punched a hole in the ceiling if I felt like it.
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I'm trying to work on my High Jump (just GTG so it doesn't conflict with my main training). I had made some progress but now I've seemed to regress.

Do you have any advice I can implement to make my GTG Jumps better?
 
Kiacek said:
I'm trying to work on my High Jump (just GTG so it doesn't conflict with my main training). I had made some progress but now I've seemed to regress.

Do you have any advice I can implement to make my GTG Jumps better?
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Not answering for Hulk, but are you doing any depth jumps?
 
Kiacek said:
I have yet because Pavel cautioned against them in the article.
Do you think it would help?
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It probably falls into the category of... you don’t know until you try.
That being said... it’s something I would gently ease into. It’s also probably not GTG material; maybe once a week stuff?

A lot of athletes employ depth jumps and other forms of plyo. What are your reasons for wanting to work on jump height? New career in the NBA?
 
offwidth said:
What are your reasons for wanting to work on jump height? New career in the NBA?
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Lol, no I eventually want to meet Anatoly Taras's goal of "Jumping back and forth over a stick set up level with the navel or the back of a chair" 25 to 50 times (my boss recommended I sub Box Jumps).

I have to build my high jump quite a bit to make that goal.
 
We have by now thoroughly hijacked Hulk‘s log, but as he enjoys volleyball hopefully he won‘t mind the diversion too much. My old man used to be able to stand next to a 45gal oil drum and jump onto the top of it.
 
Kiacek said:
I'm trying to work on my High Jump (just GTG so it doesn't conflict with my main training). I had made some progress but now I've seemed to regress.

Do you have any advice I can implement to make my GTG Jumps better?
Click to expand...

Well... in my mind, aside from just working on the "skill" of jumping (which you can get through GTG practice), increasing your jump height is all about the limit strength of your legs. Back when I was a much bigger squatter, I also had much better hops than I do today. I could almost dunk a basketball from a dead stop, and I could clear a 10-foot standing long jump pretty easily, despite being a pretty heavy guy. Can't do those things these days. That's part of why I decided to take up the barbell squat again, hoping to get some of my old hops back.

So, if all options are on the table, I'd say work on your loaded squats.

As @offwidth mentioned, depth jumps can be effective. In additional to all the motor-neuron and stretch flex stuff they do, I think that there's a limit strength effect there - you are using gravity/momentum to increase the force demands on your legs, almost like artificially increasing your bodyweight. But, they absolutely are taxing - the eccentric part of a jump (landing) is harder on the body than the concentric (takeoff), and a depth jump doubles up on that. Definitely something you would want to ease in to, and not plan to do in high volume. Perhaps the sort of thing where you plan a few weeks here and there where depth jumps are the "main course" for you leg work, and you don't do any other leg work those weeks?

I also think having a jump target helps. Part of the problem with just practicing jumps in a vacuum is that you don't get any objective feedback on how high you're getting, and getting that neurological feedback is important. If I had unlimited resources, I personally would get a burpee setup where I had a volleyball hung by a rope from the ceiling, and I would jump up and smack it - and gradually increase the height of the volleyball over time. That requires a much taller ceiling than I have in my house, of course - my feedback mechanism right now is based on how much bend I can have in my elbows and still tap the ceiling with my fingertips. Box jumps are really good for getting feedback. You can tell how high you are getting based on how easily you are landing, and you can increase the height of the box over time. Plus, by taking out the landing, they are easier on the body - as long as you step down rather than jumping down.

offwidth said:
We have by now thoroughly hijacked Hulk‘s log, but as he enjoys volleyball hopefully he won‘t mind the diversion too much. My old man used to be able to stand next to a 45gal oil drum and jump onto the top of it.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Just be careful you don't getting me started on some physics tangent ?
 
I was a long jumper back in high school and I’ve gotta say, we did jump drills daily (obviously, it was our raisin d’etre). I can say with certainty, looking back, that deadlifts helped my horizontal distance while Front Squats helped my high jump. It’s interesting to note with regards to body type, stronger squatters (Olympic lifters like) can jump higher while deadlifters (long lanky) seem to jump further. Interestingly I had a friend, of the squatters build who’d destroy everyone off the blocks in the 100 meter but at about 40 meters, us long limbed folk would overtake the lil guy. Oddly, same thing happens with Gatlin and Bolt in the past olympics.

Anyways...did that help @Kiacek??? ?
 
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