The power snatch and its variations is a great strength and conditioning exercise for an athlete. Usually this exercise is done in conjunction with lower body and upper body exercises in a strength training program. However, there are times during the year when due to travel or competition you may not have as much time to train. In those cases, it’s time to become more efficient with your training. This can be done by combining the snatch with other exercises. This post will cover several exercise variations that combine the snatch with other exercises to maximize your training time. This post will cover how to use several exercise variations that combine the snatch with other exercises to maximize your training time.

Examples of these include:
Snatch + Overhead Squat

Pull + Snatch

Romanian Deadlift + Snatch

With each of these variations, the lifts should be performed one at a time. For example, let’s say that you are doing snatches + overhead squats, for three sets, with three snatches and six overhead squats in each set. Ideally in each set you should perform all three snatches first, then do the six overhead squats. This helps to keep you focused on each exercise. With these type of exercise combinations, you are going to be limited by your weakest exercise. As a result, you should adjust the volume on your stronger exercise accordingly to keep things challenging. Using the snatch + overhead squat example, you can probably overhead squat more than you can snatch.

When I was working with competitive Olympic lifters, I would select one day of the week and make it combination exercise day. This would serve to overprepare the athletes for the rigours and fatigue of competition. For example, a workout session might look like:
Snatch + Overhead Squat, 3×3+4×70%
Snatch Pull + Snatch, 3×6+3×75%
Back Squats, 3×4-8×80%
Back Raises, 3×12-15

I don’t do a lot of this with the athletes that I work with, I find that for them the snatch exercise is sufficiently technically complicated that this is not a good idea. But for weightlifters combining exercises using the snatch is a great way to introduce variety into a program and maximize training time!