Danish Olympic wrestler Mark O. Madsen and his coach the Dane of Pain Kenneth Jay have upped the ante with VO2 max snatch protocol. Mark recently completed 80 set of 8 reps per side in the 15 second version, using 24kg.

The previous “standard” was 50 sets. I haven’t done much 24kg VO2 max training of late, mostly using the 16kg at the end of my workouts, after heavier interval work of :30-1:00 with 1-2:00 medium effort recovery. Example: last week I did 2x32kg long cyle sets (getting 7-8 reps per set) for 1:00, 16 kg snatches for 20/20 (which took about 1:30-1:40) and began my next set of LC. After 6 rounds of this and a 3:00 break I moved on to 16kg VO2 :15/:15 for 20:00.

So with this 80 sets thing is bugging my mind yesterday, I took a 16kg and set about going the distance. 15 seconds work, 15 seconds rest, switch hands every set, 8 snatches per set. I also decided that for the first 30 minutes, I would not let the KB touch the ground.

The first 10:00 were deceptively easy. I would call it a warmup.

The next 10:00 were still quite easy, and fun, I am groovin’ along.

From the 20:00 mark to the 25:00 mark it started to catch up with me a little, just systemic fatigue.

At about 26:00 I settled into that elusive mind state, the rest of the world kinda got quiet, it was just me and the snatches, with a heighten sense of awareness of the smell of the wood from the shed, the breeze cooling my back where the sweat ran down.

At 34:00, I began dropping the KB between sets.

I finished the 80 sets at the 39:45 mark, feeling hit pretty hard, but good. I decided to keep going for a couple more minutes, finished up with a total of 84 sets of 8 reps per side. 672 snatches with 16kg.

Being the sharp young man that I am I realize that it will take a few weeks to work up to doing this with 24kg. I think the next step will be go the same distance, but introduce the 24kg into the mix for 10-20 sets, then over time gradually increase the number of 24kg sets & decrease the sets with the 16.