The power snatch is an extremely effective total body exercise that develops an athlete’s explosiveness. However, it is also fairly technical and difficult to learn. This post is going to describe some exercises to help teach this exercise.
Snatch Grip Shrug:
Take a snatch-width grip (i.e. wider than shoulder-width) on the barbell. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulders back. Place your feet hip-width apart. Unlock your knees and push your hips back. As your hips are pushed back, allow the bar to slide down your thighs until it is at mid-thigh level. Keeping your arms straight, extend your hips, rise up on your toes, and shrug your shoulders up.
Snatch Grip Upright Row:
Take a snatch-width grip (i.e. wider than shoulder-width) on the barbell. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulders back. Place your feet hip-width apart. Unlock your knees and push your hips back. As your hips are pushed back, allow the bar to slide down your thighs until it is at mid-thigh level. Keeping your arms straight, extend your hips, rise up on your toes, shrug your shoulders up, and pull the barbell up until it is at chest height.
Muscle Snatch:
Take a snatch-width grip (i.e. wider than shoulder-width) on the barbell. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulders back. Place your feet hip-width apart. Unlock your knees and push your hips back. As your hips are pushed back, allow the bar to slide down your thighs until it is at mid-thigh level. Keeping your arms straight, extend your hips, rise up on your toes, shrug your shoulders up, and pull the barbell up until it is at chest height. When the bar reaches chest height, lower yourself into a quarter squat so that you receive the bar overhead on extended arms. Keep the bar in line with your hips when it is overhead.
Once you are comfortable with the above, you are ready to try to power snatch:
Power Snatch, hang, above the knees:
Take a snatch-width grip (i.e. wider than shoulder-width) on the barbell. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulders back. Place your feet hip-width apart. Unlock your knees and push your hips back. As your hips are pushed back, allow the bar to slide down your thighs until it is at mid-thigh level. Keeping your arms straight, violently extend your hips, rise up on your toes, shrug your shoulders up, and allow the barbell to travel up your body until it is at chest height. When the bar reaches chest height, lower yourself into a quarter squat so that you receive the bar overhead on extended arms. Keep the bar in line with your hips when it is overhead.
These exercises help to teach the power snatch, they also train parts of the lift. With that in mind they can be done for sets of three to six repetitions. If they are being done to assist the power snatch, then care must be taken to keep the weight light enough so that technique doesn’t break down and eventually impact the power snatch’s technique.
These exercises also make a great warm-up progression for the power snatch. For example, after mobility work:
- Snatch grip shrug, 6 reps
- Snatch grip upright row, 6 reps
- Muscle snatch, 6 reps
- Power snatch, hang, above the knee 3 sets of 3 reps
Revised September 21, 2024
