The snatch is a technically challenging movement, we know that. All the more reason to spend a full day on practicing this movement. Yes, yes, yes, today was Snatch-day!
Starting off with a 20 minute EMOM of doing 1 power snatch and 1 squat snatch. For those of you that are still a little bit confused with the term: the power snatch is pulling the barbell overhead and catching it with your hips above you knees, while in the squat snatch, you pull the barbell less high and catch it deeper, in the deepest squat you got.
While both lifts have a lot of similarity´s (The lifts are identical until the barbell is in the hips, making contact and you start to pull the bar up for the last pull), both exercises serving a completely different purpose.
The squat snatch´s purpose is clear: it is absolute the way of getting the most weight possible overhead in 1 fluid motion, simply because the barbell doesn´t have to come up that far. You just pull it up till about the hight of your bellybutton, and then you pull yourself under the bar. Another purpose of doing it today is just to practice the whole movement. The power snatch can be seen as an accessory exercise of the squat snatch. That means that it is a practice exercise to make you better at the squat snatch. You cannot move that much weight as in the squat snatch, the bar has to come higher to serve a higher catch position, but it is also a simpler movement. For somebody just learning the movement, doing power snatches is easier and teaches you a lot about the movement itself, without adding the complexity of catching it in a full overhead squat. For the more experienced athletes the power snatch is a really helpful tool. Because you need to pull the bar higher, it teaches you to really finish your pull before trying to get your body under the bar. You have to pull harder, higher, more aggressively. If you for example can pull 100kg really hard up in the air, if you then put 110kg on the bar and pull with the same energy on the bar, it won´t come that high and you have to squat snatch it. But training that energy, that force of pulling the bar up, is an excellent goal of the power snatch.
After practicing these both snatches for 20 minutes, there was 10 minutes of only squat snatches. 1 rep every 2 minutes, allowing you enough rest to go a bit heavier today, see if you can push the limit a bit! And pushed were the limits. A fantastic day to start a fantastic week of training. Enjoy yourself!
Weightlifting Course is back!
Speaking of snatches: You might have already seen it on facebook, but if you liked today and would like to practice snatches/weightlifting more often than 2 times per month in a class, we have a 90 minute weightlifting class every monday. It is a really fun class where we practice weightlifting and all it´s fun parts without a running clock and really focus on technique. For everyone who wants to start taking these weightlifting classes, I´m hosting a new Intro to Weightlifting Course on saturday the 31st of oktober, 13:00 – 16:30! This course is the start of your Weightlifting-career at Verftet, allowing everyone, experienced or non-experienced, to start weightlifting regularly and making huge steps within no time.
The course is 999 NOK, after that, taking part in the Weightlifting-class is always for free. Send a mail to mart@crossfitverftet.no to sign up or for more information.
