Super Sweet Exercise you Should be doing - Chapter I - Volume 3 - The Snatch Balance
David Fleming
If you're new to training or have an extensive background in training like a clueless maniac - this series on barbell exercises is ideal to get you doing real exercises and doing them right. Having brought you the Snatch Grip Deadlift and Overhead Squat, next up we bring you a discussion of the Snatch Balance.
While i may at some point attempt to describe the technique of a full squat olympic snatch, i have decided to continue to provide you with details of movements that are derivatives of the olympic lift. These movements, if trained correctly will help to give you the basic mobility and strength to learn the classical lifts later on.
The first two instalments of this series introduced you to the snatch grip deadlift and the overhead squat. If you are able to handle those through a full range of motion with good form, you might just be ready to try out this beast of a lift. Introducing, the snatch balance.
The snatch balance is an advanced exercise. It involves high speed, stability, mobility and balls! If you find it too intimidating or difficult to begin with please refer to some of the regression options in the article as a place to start.
How to:
Once again with more technical lifts, start with an empty bar. Set the bar at shoulder height in a squat or power rack & position yourself as if you were going to do a regular back squat (bar resting on traps along the top of the shoulders behind the neck)
Once standing with the bar, adjust your hand position to the snatch grip & space your feet around shoulder width apart or slightly wider. Turn your toes out by about 10-15* & spread the weight to the outside of your feet. Push your knees out slightly to the sides & stick your bum out a little by arching your low back. Your chest should be puffed up with your elbows held under the bar.
From here, it is a good idea to warm up with some bar press outs to overhead squats. Perform a press behind neck, lock the the elbows, stabilise the bar and smoothly sink in to a deep sqaut. Spend a couple of seconds in the bottom position to feel it out and get comfortable while maintaining your form. Keeping the bar locked out, stand forcefully back to the start position, return the bar to the shoulders and repeat. Try this for 5 repetitions or so.
Now onto the real thing. The snatch balance is one of the movements used to develop the speed of dropping under the bar. You must achieve the full squat ‘catch’ position as quickly as possible. Set the bar up as described above but keep your toes pointing straight ahead, make sure you have enough space around you with no chance of any other gym goer getting in the way. To initiate the lift you need to give the bar a small amount of upward momentum. From your ready position quickly push up on to the toes and start the bar on its journey upwards. As soon as this happens, you need to reverse the motion and drop as quickly as possible underneath the barbell in to your full squat, spreading the feet slightly wider apart and turning the toes out as you descend and land.
To help you get the idea, imagine that the barbell is far heavier than you could ever press from behind neck. To get the weight overhead, instead of pushing the bar up, you would want to straighten the arms and drop under the bar.
When you first try this movement it will more than likely go wrong. You may hit yourself in the back of the head, screw up the squat and end up on your toes battling with the bar either falling backward or forwards. This is pretty normal, so just slow it down and try to smooth the motion out before attempting it explosively.
Gradually work on the coordination between the lower and upper body. After coming up on to the toes the knees and hips should move at the same time. Sitting the hips back and driving the knees forward and outwards simultaneously. The faster and smoother you are able to drop in to the perfect squat position, the easier it will be to straighten the arms and lock the bar out over head. From the bottom position, hold for 1 or 2 seconds to allow your body to learn and map the stance. keep the bar overhead and stand. As you return the bar back on to the shoulders, bend your knees slightly to help absorb the impact. Bring the feet back to the more neutral position. If you made it this far, congratulations you can now explain to the small crowd that has gathered you’re training the snatch balance.
How many?
Starting with the empty bar, try & shoot for between 5-10 reps for 3 sets 3 times x week! The real time to terminate a set is right before your form starts to go. With experience you can monitor your breathing during each rep and watch for any deviations in the technique. You should be able to predict when things are going to get ugly and stop. There is nothing to be gained form poor form but everything to be gained from perfect practice. With a difficult new movement like this there is a certain amount of 'feeling out' & 'motor learning' that must occur so frequency is important. Be conservative as you start to add weight to the bar. I've heard recommendations in the past to aim for 10 reps with body weight on the bar. I feel for the average trainee this might be a bit much, so try working up to 5 sets of 5 reps with 80% of body weight as a general guide.
Why?
The main reasons to train this movement are as follows:
1: Speed strength: This lift should be performed at speed and as such develops power.
2: Eccentric strength or force absorption: When performing the snatch balance the legs must deal with a rapid eccentric contraction. dropping at speed under the bar to a solid squat position. The strength developed here is very applicable to sports as you are training your legs to become better decelerators of high loads. Think about a sudden and rapid change of direction when running at speed.
3: Mobility: As ever, the mobility you must have to perform the lift and the strength you will acquire by loading the end ranges of the motion are hugely beneficial. There can be no lazy muscles when training these movements and the snatch balance really hammers the the musculature that has become very weak and sometimes dormant in the classic desk jockey. The load must be equally balanced between the flexor and extensor chains and all joints must be free to move to acquire the necessary ankle, knee, hip, pelvic, spine, shoulder, elbow and wrist mobility.
4: Muscle. The glutes, erector spinae, trapezius, deltoids and triceps can all be thickened up by the snatch balance especially if this is a completely new and novel movement for your nervous system.
Regressions
As I mentioned above there is a rapid eccentric loading that occurs as you drop under the bar. This alone makes the snatch balance an advanced exercise. It is a good idea to make sure you have good 'landing mechanics' before you start jumping around.
'Landing mechanics' refers to your ability to absorb the impact from the ground and force of the descending body at speed and under load through the appropriate joints.
To train this, start with your feet in a comfortable squat. Rise up on to the toes and quickly drop in to a full squat while counter balancing with the arms by swinging them up in front of you to shoulder height. This movement should be as smooth as possible. remember, the proper mechanics for an olympic style squat involves breaking at the hips and knees at the SAME time. Not hips then knees. this creates a disjointed movement for the lower extremities and looks nothing like jumping.
Once you have this down, move on to basic plyometric drills. Try basic body weight jump squats and stick the landing on each rep trying to land as quietly as possible. Once again I prefer lower reps for these movements. Quality over quantity will yield the best results.
After jump squats start increasing the amount of eccentric force. A depth jump involves jumping down from a raised surface and absorbing the landing gracefully through the entire system.
Following 4- 6 weeks of this kind of training you will be far better equipped to tolerate the forces involved with the snatch balance.
In future articles of this series i shall be highlighting some very useful and effective dumbbell and body weight movements for to include in your programs. Stay tuned!
About the Author
David Fleming is one of London’s top personal trainers. He is obsessed with helping people get stronger and helping people to get More-Athletic. He has studied and learned from the best strength coaches in the world. He is happily married and can lift heavy weights. His mother is very proud of him and he writes a good article.It took him until the age of 30 to pass his driving test, but other than that he is a solid chap.
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