Dumbbell Snatch | Power Series

Hey everybody, Coach Jared here. So for the last exercise in the power series, we’re gonna be discussing the dumbbell snatch. So getting right into those common mistakes, the first one I often see is people squatting and not hinging. Now this movement’s a little different than the kettlebell clean or the kettlebell swing because of the fact that the dumbbell is not traveling through your legs, it’s more of an up and down vertical motion, but you still wanna be hinging and not squatting. The reason being, all power movements are hip hinge based movements. If you’re squatting, you’re gonna be using more arms and you’re not gonna be able to get as much weight up.

So starting grabbing that dumbbell, your palms gonna be facing you, you’re hinging back, and then bringing that dumbbell up again. If you’re squatting, it’s gonna be harder to get it up.

You’re not gonna be able to get as much weight up and putting pressure on that lower back. Getting to that second common mistake, which I often see is again, similar to that kettlebell clean where, when you’re doing this, you’re doing more of an arc motion, bringing the weight out and then bringing it back in. So again similar to the clean, that center of mass, you wanna try to keep that weight as close to your body as possible. So coming up, bring it in, pushing that fist up to the ceiling. So it’s gonna be the same movement as the kettlebell clean, bringing that elbow back and then pushing that fist up to the ceiling. The main difference is the position of where you’re doing it. It’s gonna be higher up and you’re gonna be adding a slight shrug when performing the movement. So grabbing the dumbbell, again palm is facing you, you’re gonna hinge back a slight shrug, bring that elbow back and then pushing that dumbbell up to the ceiling. 

So again, when you’re doing this, you’re gonna shrug up, bringing that elbow back slightly, and then that elbow comes up punching that fist up to the ceiling above your head. So it’s very similar to the way you do a kettlebell clean, just you’re doing it at a higher position and adding that slight shrug to that movement as well.

So the third common mistake I see is not necessarily a mistake, but in order to put your shoulder in the safest position, when you have that dumbbell overhead, we start with the dumbbell palms facing you. As you bring it up, you actually wanna rotate your hand. So your palm is facing towards you and your thumb is facing behind you. That’s gonna put your shoulder in that safest position when you have that weight overhead. So again, starting with your palms facing, you’re gonna shrug, bring that elbow back and punch that fist up to the ceiling while rotating your hand. 

So your thumb’s facing behind at the top. So hinging down, shrug pumps facing back, control it down to your shoulder and then bring the weight back down. So again, the last common mistake I have to see is when people bring it back down, they’re kind of just letting that weight fall. You don’t want to do that again, that’s gonna strain your shoulder. You want to control it back down and then bring it back all the way down to that starting position. All right. So I hope you’ve enjoyed the power series. I hope you guys try to implement all these forms and techniques that I’ve shown you throughout these three exercises. Please don’t hesitate to come up to me, whether it’s before a session or after a session, if you want to kind of help me guide you through it a little more, but I hope you all have gotten a lot out of this power series and that you’ll practice each and one of these and, become experts at these as soon as possible, keep pushing and always remember you gotta hustle for that muscle.

-EarthFIT Coach Jared