The other week we had a work out that included a 1-stop snatch. Many people wondered why we implement the pause in this lift. i found a posy from Spencer Arnold on the topic and he breaks down what practicing this lift helped him accomplish.
One of my favorite exercises and one of the hardest exercises is a snatch or clean with a pause at the bottom of the knee. This lift, while despised by many, creates a situation where you’re forced to be strong and stable with a heavy load, an immense amount of pressure on the back and hamstrings. This forces me to be strong where I am weakest. Since the first thought off the floor should always be knees back and shoulders over the bar then this position is pivotal for a effective and efficient second pull. More often than not my weakness in this area causes me to enter the second pull early and over rotate my shoulders behind the bar the sending the bar out in front of me in a big rotating arc. If you struggle to be strong in the first pull and you struggle getting the bar to come back off the floor efficiently than this is a lift that you should add to your training. It’s hard, your underload for longer, but the strength gains that come from this movement are incredibly effective at making you stronger off the floor.
Below are some examples of this movement done well with some misses thrown in. Take a look:
As you can see, by practicing this movement it increases you are increasing your the effectiveness of your lifts. Spend some time playing around with stopping at different points (below the knee, above the knee, and at pocket height).
Image from allthingsgym.com
Open Gym (downtown):
- 8:00am – 9:30am
- 10:30am – 12:15pm
- 1:15pm – 3:30pm
