VO2 Results

There's good news...and bad news. The good news is about 18 people showed for the VO2 night. I was a great effort by a very respectable group. I wasn't kidding when I asked what someone would think if they looked in on the group. People were looking in. From the outside it must look crazy. Music thumpin'. Colored lights pumpin' to the music like a disco. Everyone thrusting weights overhead on cue. Nobody talking. Everyone staring forward. Sweating buckets. Craziness. IT ROCKED ! We will do it again in two or three weeks. We did learn some things. First, it is not about muscle strength. It is all cardiac. People stopped or changed their number because they couldn't catch their breath. Not because muscle gave out. It is a different beast. The bad news is we lost some people the next day. It was brutal on the hands. Technique is King and rules supreme. We knew that going in. But, it was really put to task after 640 snatches. This needs to be figured out by the individual. Nobody can do it for you. Figure it out. This is our challenge. It is what sets us back in training. Sore and bloody hands cannot be dismissed. They command attention and will bring you to your knees. MANY articles have been written about how to spare your hands. If one of them helps you, great! You still need to figure it out. Heal well. More work ahead.
The picture above is Caps' hand. He took a hit but finished. I see two open areas and at least one more 'hot spot'. It gets really rough when one hand has more than one open area. Heal well, Cap.

FOR YOU......PANSIES!

It was just a snow day. We live in Minne-snow-dah. It's what we do. Shoveling is activity, not a workout. Yes, it's cold. There's a shocker. Dig deep and get your training completed. For those that missed it, we covered the snatch. Then, we drilled the snatch. Three different size bells to drill and then one to hang and polish ourselves off. (ya'know, re-reading this...I'm glad we know what we're discussing)

So, today I did a VO2 Max. I grabbed the 24kg (#5) and did 80 sets of 6. Forty total minutes. I don't like the idea of limiting myself. My hope is to continue to advance and outperform myself. Hit personal records until I die. I know it's not realistic. I know years from now I will fall into the "That's great for a guy his age" category. But for now I will continue to strive for improvement and betterment just for the.....health of it. That being said, I think I have hit my limit with the VO2. What I did today was over 25,000 lbs of work in 40 minutes. The adjustments I was making to get the snatches, not to mention the tempo, I think demonstrated some limitations. End game. Here's why. The top athletes in the world put a disproportionate amount of energy and effort into gaining a very small percent of performance which puts them on top. For me to step up in conditioning that allows more snatches (7 or 8 in 15 seconds) I would need to place far too much focus on VO2. I believe I would risk injury and setbacks. I did the full 6 reps every time. The full 6 reps took the full 15 seconds the last 10 minutes. The ballistics were decreasing and I was adjusting technique to fire things off. I made the mistake of trying to spare a hand. I did back to back sets with one arm to give a potential rip a break and all it did was fry my grip on that arm. It did not recover for the remaining time of the event.

So there's the bar. Someday I may grab the 28kg (#6) bell and give it a go. Who knows. For now the bar has been set at 24kg/6 snatches (25,000+ lbs work). By the way, to put things in perspective, you need to snatch the 16 kg (#3) 9 times every 15 seconds in order to meet the work load of 25,000+ lbs. Or, the 20kg (#4) 7 times every 15 seconds. End game. Break those numbers (16kg x 10 and 20kg x 8) and the bar gets raised. One rule. You have to stay with the same number the entire 80 sets in order for the work load to count towards raising the bar. Go ahead...snatch the pebble, Grasshopper.

Here is the long version...

...of what we did on Saturday. The Max VO2 is a long trip but there is a method to the madness. No real magic.  I just think it is a great exercise in management. Pain management. Emotional management. Strength and endurance management. It's the whole package. Here is the link to a very good blog entry on VO2 work. Keep in mind, there is a segment of the fitness community that dismisses this type of training  as pointless. But, we don't train the VO2. We dabble with it. I don't feel a need to go 30 or 40 minutes. Really. What's the point.