The Muscle Snatch: You're Probably Doing it Wrong

The purpose of the muscle snatch is to strengthen the turnover and reinforce proper mechanics; if the movement diverges from the motion used in the third pull of the snatch, its effectiveness is reduced if not eliminated entirely. I consider a muscle snatch successful only if the elbows never drop from their highest point prior to the turnover.

Unfortunately, the majority of muscle snatches are performed with an often dramatic drop of the elbows before the arms are flipped over, or with the turnover occurring prematurely before the elbows reach an adequate height, in both cases with the trunk leaned back for nearly the entire movement, changing the motion completely from what occurs in the snatch. While this snatch-grip clean and press may be an impressive feat of strength, it contributes little to improving the snatch itself because of its divergence from the very movement it’s intended to strengthen and reinforce.

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[Sean-zzlj]

Calling out a snatch world record holder for a shitty muscle snatch. Lol I love it

[joelmaricel]

This is a great video. I always come back to it when I see a workout with muscle snatches.

[jjamo]

The most important video I'll watch this year.

[StoutNerd]

You can also smash your forehead with the bar if you do this wrong. Believe me, I was a unicorn for a few days.

[PhilosophicalWeightlifting]

Boom!!! Thanks for the clarification, Greg.

[jacksonvile]

The purpose of the muscle snatch is implied in the title. It's not intended to build any kind of technique and should not be used by anyone but advanced lifters as it could reinforce poor technique. The muscle snatch is used to build turn over strength/power which is very important as there is no better strength exercise for this purpose. It emphasizes the deltoids, traps, and all other upper posterior muscles of the back/shoulders.


When we snatch properly the legs are emphasized in the lift specifically when we contact the bar to the hips. Novice and intermediate OL usually lack the full contact with the hips and do not make full use of the hips. They end up relying on the upper body to lift the bar instead, resulting in an emphasis on the upper body.


As for Greg's exercise, perhaps we could call it the speed muscle snatch as the hip contact will require less of the upper body, however because we are finishing straight and overhead we are still strengthening the upper body while maintaining hip contact which may be ideal for novice and intermediate lifters, or those that want to help reinforce hip contact technique and stay on the power/speed side of the turnover.


For high level pros it would be very difficult for them to deteriorate their form at all. In fact when talking about the Chinese in particular we must remember they do not prep with the classic European/Russian system. The Chinese reduce technique based work and focus almost primarily on their strength exercises, maxing out etc.


Their philosophy is that the technique is already perfectly ingrained and is not going anywhere, and the goal over the competition is to lift the most weight. If technique and speed are maxed out then there is nothing left but strength to increase the ability to lift more weight at this point.


Now, if they go too long without working on speed/power they will inevitably slow down and this will reduce the ability to lift more weight, however they only do this before competitions.


Strength + Speed = Power / S+S=P

[alyssashanks]

These are fantastic videos. I appreciate your through and clear explanations and instructions.

[keithlittle]

Always great content!! And STRAIGHT to the point!! My man

[aprilharper]

This is perfect. You are so awesome!!!!

[dyloak]

Honestly… I was wrong. My point still is that people get to caught up on doing particular exercises and not enough focus on training purposes/using variations of exercise’s to accomplish training goals.

[aznericxD]

thanks again! glad i got myself to weightlift

[sharko]

Have a problem with snatch transition, been told to do muscle snatch, have issues with muscle snatch, check that video and see doing the 2 wrong form.. Now i've the right thing to work thank ! ahah

Wow this was a really good explanation. Thanks for this! it will help me in my own performance but also with the coaching!

[jacksonchan]

i got this tip from another video: knuckles pointed down will help the bar glide in a straighter motion during the pulls. it has helped me

[justwatching]

When the best lifters in the world are doing it "wrong" or "ineffectively", you might want to examine if the purpose you have allocated to the movement is incorrect.

[עידונווה-קס]

Using Lu Xianjun as a negative example- ouch!

[ErikfromEarth]

Great video, Greg! Best explanation on YouTube by far. Does performing this exercise without hip contact serve a different purpose other than to reinforce strength? What are some examples of instances in which you would do either or? Thanks!

[hilmyrahmadani]

Did he just critique the muscle snatch of a world record holder for snatch?

[LuckyXerxes]

May be a nomenclature thing. But pretty much everyone does it in the "wrong" way. Lu is axiom. He is the definition of correct.

[sideshowlol]

Very helpful vid. Thanks. In view of all the potential positional problems with this movement and the temptation to use too much weight inevitably turning it into a wide grip press variation, why not just do more actual snatching?