Snatch drops improve your upper and lower body power output.
Have you been keeping up with the CrossFit Games lately? CrossFit exercises are known for their high intensity, significantly boosting fitness levels and enhancing body composition (1). Given their advanced nature, these workouts demand precise timing, speed, and accuracy. Interestingly, CrossFit routines often overlap with Olympic training, particularly in exercises like the snatch drop.
Favored by CrossFitters and Olympic lifters alike, the snatch drop combines a deep squat with a complete lockout, making it an excellent drill for those aiming to boost their power and speed during lifts.
This article delves into the snatch drop, focusing on its key advantages and the specific muscle groups it targets. We’ll provide a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on how to execute this complex exercise with perfect form. Additionally, we’ll suggest alternative exercises that target similar muscles, ensuring you maximize the benefits of your training sessions.
Techniques & Muscles Worked
The snatch drop is a weightlifting routine that works your deltoids, back, glutes, arms (forearms, triceps, and biceps), hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. It also stabilizes the abs and obliques, stabilizing the body during exercise. Joints like your shoulders, wrists, elbow flexors, hips, and knees also get worked during this routine, making it an effective full-body exercise.
The snatch drop requires a lot of practice and proper form. It combines a barbell back squat with a full snatch, improving your lockout. Beginners can even try out this exercise without weights to get the right form and movement.
For safety, you can also use a non-weighted barbell or PVC pipe. To be extra cautious, you can wear a lifting belt, knee straps, wrist straps, and flat light shoes when doing this routine. Below are step-by-step instructions on how to do the snatch drop using a barbell.
- Place the barbell carefully on top of the muscles in your upper back, and stand with your feet slightly less than hip-width apart.
- Use a wide grip to hold the barbell for extra support and stand upright. Keep your shoulders pulled back, head straight, chest out, and back straight. This is your starting position.
- Next, take a deep breath, brace your core, and lift your feet into a shoulder-width stance. Fully flex your hips and knees, aggressively drop under the bar into a squat position, and fully extend your elbows and arms.
- Pause in this position for about one or two seconds, keeping your arms locked out.
- Slowly raise your torso back to the starting position by driving from your heels until you fully extend your hips and knees to complete a rep.
- Perform for as many reps as you desire.
Benefits
The snatch drop is a full-body compound exercise that works multiple groups. One significant benefit is the ability to switch directions, which gives athletes an edge and can help improve their performance in various sports. Below are more benefits of this exercise.
Improves Speed Under the Bar & Power
Doing this exercise improves your catching speed under the bar. So, if you’re a slow lifter or tend to be careful when lifting, this exercise helps improve your speed and power. You’ll find this very useful when performing a snatch.
Builds Upper & Lower Body Muscles
This exercise effectively works your upper and lower body muscles. The snatch drop combines going under the bar in a squat position with explosive power to push the bar up and fully extend your body with the weights in your hands.
Better Coordination
Snatch drops require proper timing, precision, and speed to execute. If you make any wrong move, you expose yourself to injuries. However, with practice, you can better understand the mechanics and coordinate your body to do this exercise. This can translate to better execution form and coordination, leading to more strength and muscle gains.
Activates Core Muscles
Doing this exercise requires a lot of stability and proper form. The snatch drop activates your core muscles and puts constant tension in them, strengthening them. A strong core helps with better exercise form and execution, better posture, and equal load distribution. A strong core can also reduce your chances of injuries, especially when exercising.
Better Mind-Muscle Connection
Performing the snatch drop requires a lot of focus. Particularly when lifting a weight from a squat position into an overhead position in one fluid movement. This helps you improve your mind-muscle connection, essential for strength and muscle growth.
Improves Your Range of Motion
We know the snatch drop exercise works the upper and lower body muscles. However, the joints are also engaged in it. The constant flexion and extension of these joints strengthen them and improve their range of motion, which improves overall mobility and stability.
Carryover to Other Routines
Regularly performing the snatch drop improves and works your upper and lower body muscles. This improves your form of other isolation and compound exercises like deadlifts, bench presses, curls, and rows. It can also improve your form for routines like the Olympic snatch and clean.
Snatch Drop Alternatives
Snatch drops are weight lifting and strengthening exercises that work multiple muscle groups, making it the perfect full-body conditioning exercise. However, experts advise mixing other similar muscle-building exercises and techniques to avoid a training plateau (2). Below is a list of excellent alternative exercises you can incorporate into your workouts.
Rack Pulls
Rack pulls work on your posterior delts and increases your pulling strength. They’re excellent exercises for training your lockout, which helps hit your muscles differently and improves your form for Olympic lifts.
Good Morning Squats
The good morning squat combines a good morning and back squat, giving you the best of both exercises. It works similarly to muscles in the snatch drop and is an effective alternative. Additionally, if you want more resistance, you could add resistance bands or weighted vests to this routine for extra strength and muscle gains.
High Hang Cleans
High hang cleans target the same muscle groups as the snatch drop. If you want to develop your explosive power, then the high hang clean is one exercise to try. However, if you’re looking for a deeper range of motion from a squat position with this exercise, you can try the high hang power clean.
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References
- Wagener, S., Hoppe, M. W., Hotfiel, T., Engelhardt, M., Javanmardi, S., Baumgart, C., & Freiwald, J. (2020). CrossFit® – Development, Benefits and Risks [CrossFit® – Entwicklung, Nutzen und Risiken]. Sportorthopa¨die-Sporttraumatologie, 36(3), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orthtr.2020.07.001
- Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897
