Kettlebell Snatches
In a previous post, I mentioned that Cali and I completed the StrongFirst Level I certification in June of 2019. Taking on this challenge was incredibly fun, rewarding, and full of good instructors and fellow, like-minded training partners. We both learned a ton about how to effectively use kettlebells and how to step up to the challenge of making it through a very long weekend with the infamous “Snatch Test” as pretty much the grand finale. The StrongFirst weekend is a full day of training and instruction on Friday and Saturday, with testing done mid-morning on Sunday. Candidates have to perform specific movements with certain loads based on their weight and gender, all under the watchful eye of a certified StrongFirst instructor. The final test of the weekend is the aforementioned snatch test, which for me was 100 snatches with a 24 kg kettlebell in five minutes. My months of preparation and top notch instruction from Phil Scarito paid off and I was able to meet the standard on each evolution, but, had I tried this eight months prior, it would have been a much different story. This article is going back to a time when all I knew about kettlebells is that I was fascinated by them and kettlebell sport athletes looked and moved like they had the work capacity of a diesel engine. Oh, and I had heard they were Russian, and Russians are tough and strong so maybe there was something to these hunks of iron.
Cali and I got married and moved to South Carolina in 2010. The duplex we rented had a small one-car garage, which was all we needed to start building a killer home gym. After getting a rack, bars, plates, and some other essentials, we bought a full double set of competition style kettlebells. Looking back, it’s crazy that we spent so much money on kettlebells because we had zero clue how to use them, what weights we could handle, or if we could find a coach in the area who might know what he/she was doing. We just thought we’d figure it out as we went along.
Our old kettlebell set of 8-36 kg in 4 kg jumps. The color of these did not match up with the standard colors. I ended up selling these on Craigslist when we switched over to the cast iron bells.
Fast forward to 2018. Cali and I still had this set of kettlebells, but hadn’t really learned a thing about using them. Sure, we’d do some swings now and then, but that was pretty much it. Our beloved garage gym had expanded and moved several times by this point, following us to Pennsylvania to start my new career after getting out of the Navy. My new job required me to travel a good bit, sometimes to locations that were a bit out of the way without any quality gyms nearby. In August of 2018, work had me heading to Connecticut for a few days, and I decided to throw my 24 kg kettlebell in the truck. Safety tip: Use a seat belt to secure your bell in one of the seats. It will violently fly all over your vehicle while driving if not secured properly.
Around that time, I had started reading and watching YouTube videos about this so-called snatch test. I didn’t know anything about StrongFirst at the time, but I was seeing all kinds of people talk about the male standard of 100 reps with the 24 kg bell in five minutes (this is technically for males with a bodyweight between 150 and 220 lbs). One article mentioned the U.S. Secret Service snatch test, which for males is as many snatches as possible with a 24 kg bell in ten minutes (ladies use a 12 kg). There is no set number a person needs to get, so long as he/she doesn’t quit, but it is stated in Pavel’s Enter the Kettlebell! that 200 reps gets respect. So on Tuesday of that week, August 8, 2018, to be exact, I figured I’d give this five-minute snatch test a try out in the parking lot of my hotel. Honestly, I wasn’t too worried about it. After all, I’ve always considered myself an athlete and knew how to push myself a little bit. I had recently competed in a bunch of powerlifting meets, performed regular slow, steady-state cardio, and figured I was fairly well conditioned over all. I had read some things about protecting your hands, but I had good calluses built up from deadlifts, chins, and farmers walks, and I brought chalk with me, so this didn’t scare me. in the least.
I was mistaken. This five minute effort handed me my ass like nothing I’ve ever encountered. My plan was to do 10/10 (10 with each arm) on the minute for a total of 100. After the first minute, I realized my technique, or lack thereof, only left me about 10 seconds to catch my breath before it was time to go again. And speaking of breath, I didn’t know how to breathe through each rep so I was pretty much just randomly gasping for air as I went along. In the second minute I only managed to do eight with each arm because I couldn’t breathe and my crappy form meant I was basically just muscling the bell up overhead and pressing it out over the last few inches. By the third minute, I began to get concerned, as my stomach started feeling weird. I’m not a puker, but shitting my pants suddenly seemed like a very real possibility and I was only about 50 or so reps in. After the fourth minute, my rep count reached 70 and the amount of skin left on the palm of my hands reached zero. Well, not really zero, but enough to make me want to stop, especially when combined with the fact that I couldn’t breathe or see straight. The picture below is my right hand the next morning. This picture isn’t meant to show you how tough or hardcore I am, but rather how stupid I was for ignoring proper technique, and how it hindered my training for the next week or so. My carelessness also made for an awkward week at work as I met new people and had to refuse to shake hands for fear of getting blood and pus on them. The left hand was actually worse as I managed to also tear off a big section of my palm.
So much for tough calluses.
One of my high school teachers, Mr. Lynch, used to tell us, “It’s okay to be stupid, but it’s not okay to stay stupid.” This snatch test attempt taught me several things.
Good technique is very important, and I didn’t have it.
Kettlebells can get one’s heart rate through the roof in a very short period of time.
It was gut check time. After getting thoroughly humbled, I didn’t really want anything to do with kettlebells for a while. I wanted to run back to my barbell and just stick with what I knew and what was familiar.
In November of 2018, just a few months after this, Cali and I went to Phil’s one-day kettlebell workshop, and you know the rest. I’ve already told that story. It has now been seven months since I completed the Level I certification, and kettlebell snatches are still an integral part of my weekly training. They are an amazing movement for building work capacity, testing myself, and/or getting in a quick and intense session when I’mi pressed for time.
The regular snatch test with a 24 kg kettlebell is a good baseline that I like to maintain. Working with heavier bells and building in volume lets me add in some variety and work on strength through the movement pattern. With the heavier bells, I’ve been doing a lot of “on-the-minute” training. For example, my training log from last Tuesday shows I used the 28 kg bell and did 7/7 snatches every minute on the minute for 9 minutes. This comes out to 126 total snatches with about a 30/30 seconds work/rest ratio.
Today’s training log shows how I mixed in heavy snatches and dips. There is no limit to the number of sets, reps, and combinations a person could develop to get in a good training session. Use your imagination and have fun with it.
Kettlebell snatches are kind of like the last step in a beautiful progression, the coup de grace, if you will. When I first started learning about kettlebells, I first learned the hinge that is necessary for the deadlift. Next, I learned the two-handed swing, then the one-handed swing, then the clean, and finally the snatch. Each of these movement patterns builds on the next. Dan John has said, “The swing is a swing. The clean is a swing. The snatch is a swing.” I didn’t really get what he was talking about until I started working up in weight on my one-handed swing. Snatching the 24 felt like nothing after doing one-handed swings with the 32, 36, and 40.
I’m thinking about setting some kind of snatch goal to work on this summer, but I haven’t pinned it down just yet. Putting a rabbit out there to chase is a great way to focus and prioritize your training. Plus I love a good challenge. Here are a few candidates in no particular order.
200 reps with 24 kg in 10 minutes (U.S. Secret Service snatch test)
100 reps with 32 kg in 5 minutes (I’ve done the 28 a few times but it’s been a while)
100 reps with 36 kg in 10 minutes (I’ve never snatched the 36 so I have no idea what this would take)
I’ll pick something in the next month or so and hit the ground running as the weather improves. I’m sure it will be fun and brutal.
This was at ~0445 on 2/4/20. Cali calls this my, “Murder face.”