My quest to nail a clean snatch!
 

Hey all!!

Im going to have my first attempt at making my own routine. I love doing the Oly lifts (Snatch and Clean and Jerk) and I love doing squats, bench, deadlift and overhead press. So this is my attempt to combine them!

I have taken my influence from the book "Weightlifting, Olympic Style" by Tommy Kono, glwanabe and the book "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe (the 3x5 routine). As well as looking at everyones logs on MAB.

I have been testing and tweaking this routine for close to a month now, making changes here and there. I think I am happy with it so far :D.

So far I have made some pretty good progression, I also started light because its a new routine and I had a hip flexor injury. Also doing clean and jerk and snatches were new, so I didnt think it was smart to start too heavy. Even though I started light, I have noticed considerable size gains on my legs, shoulders and upper back.

If anyone has any comments or anything like that, I will be more than happy to hear them :D. I have never made a routine before so its all new to me :D.

Here is the routine:-

Warmup (Done every lifting day at the start)
Warmup the knees, hips and ankles
Warmup shoulders using a dowel rod performing rotations from front to back in the snatch grip. I started with a wide grip, making it more and more narrow as my shoulders get more flexible. (I can go into more detail on the stretch if you want, I just dont know the technical name for it).
Overhead squats with the dowel rod, focusing on keeping a strong arch in my back all the way down, going into a complete deep squat


Monday
Warmup Sets
Overhead Squat bar 2x3 (in a snatch grip)
Snatch 3x3 (no hook grip and working my way up over the 3 sets to around 15% less than working weight)
Working Sets
Snatch 3x3 (hook grip with working weight. Normally all sets are with the same weight, but if I can progress more than planned I do)

Warmup Sets
Powerclean/Front Sqaut/Jerk 1x3 (no hook grip 30% of working weight)
Clean 2x2 (no hook grip each set is 2 cleans and 2 jerks)

Working Sets
Clean 5x1 (hook grip, the 1 rep is 2 cleans and 1 jerk)

High Pulls (clean grip)
3x3 (hook grip, ideally should be around 95%ww of clean and jerk, but Im still developing my clean and jerk so at the moment I can high pull more than my clean and jerk)

Front Squat
3x3 (clean grip, completely down to full deep squat)

Bench
3x5


Wednesday
Squat 3x5 (powerlifting stance)

Overhead Press 3x5

Deadlift 1x5 (working up to a top set of 5 reps)

Rows 3x5


Friday
Warmup Sets
Overhead Squat bar 2x3 (in a snatch grip)
Snatch 3x3 (no hook grip and working my way up over the 3 sets to around 15% less than working weight)
Working Sets
Snatch 3x3 (hook grip with working weight. Normally all sets are with the same weight, but if I can progress more than planned I do)

Warmup Sets
Powerclean/Front Sqaut/Jerk 1x3 (no hook grip 30% of working weight)
Clean 2x2 (no hook grip each set is 2 cleans and 2 jerks)

Working Sets
Clean 5x1 (hook grip, the 1 rep is 2 cleans and 1 jerk)

High Pulls (snatch grip)
3x3 (hook grip, ideally should be around 95%ww of snatch, but Im still developing my snatch so at the moment I can high pull more than my snatch)

Front Squat
3x3 (clean grip, completely down to full deep squat)

Bench
3x5


As I get through the routine, I will see how the volume feels. But at the moment I have been progressing on all my lifts.

Routine looks solid. Glad you've incorporated my favourite part about the olympic lifts: snatch jokes :D

LtL

Here is todays workout

Monday
Warmup Sets
Overhead Squat (in a snatch grip) 2x3
bar 2x3

Snatch (no hook) 3x3
30kg 1x3
35kg 1x3
40kg 1x3

Working Sets
Snatch 3x3
42.5kg 3x3

Warmup Sets
Powerclean/Front Sqaut/Jerk 1x3
42.5kg 1x3

Clean 2x2 (no hook grip and 2 cleans and 2 jerks for each rep)
55kg 1x2
60kg 1x2

Working Sets
Clean 5x1 (hook grip, the 1 rep is 2 cleans and 1 jerk)
65kg 2x1
67.5kg 3x1

High Pulls (clean grip) 3x3
75kg 1x3
80kg 2x3

Front Squat (clean grip, completely down to full deep squat) 3x3
67.5kg 3x3

Bench 3x5
85kg 1x5
85kg 1x4
85kg 1x4.8 (it was more than 4 reps, but less than 5 because I was about 1/2" from my chest on the last one)

Notes:-
Snatches - Im getting there, I dropped a 2 snatches. They are feeling more and more comfortable each session!! Though I am pulling with the center of gravity (COG) on the middle of my foot, instead of my heels. The 2nd pull the weight shifts to toes to get the complete extension. I think this little issue stopped my from catching those 2 snatches.

Clean and Jerk - The clean is getting on well I think. The jerk needs a bit of work though, using still just a little too much shoulders in it. Also having same problem with the COG of the first pull being in the middle of my foot instead of the heal.

High Pull - This is a great exercise, loving it. It really helps me work on completely extending my body and doing pull 1 and 2 properly :D. This is where I picked up my error with the COG being to far forward.

Bench - Progressing slowly, but progressing none the less. On 2nd set I messed up my setup which I think prevented me from getting another rep.

Front Squat - This is getting better, still need to work on keeping my back arched and bum out.

Hahahah thanks!!!!

I don't have much experience with olympic lifts unfortunately, but il definately be following this.

And great thread title.

I will start making some videos of my doing the Oly lifts to see what needs fixing :D

Thanks!! hahah I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a title lol!

Awesome looking routine mate. Just one thing, why did you deciede on the wide stance for the squats, just curious really ??

and a GREAT title.. I love that. I am hoping to nail a good snatch sometime soon buddy :rockon:

Carl.

The front squats with the back upright have a lot of carryover to the Oly lifts, they are done 2 times a week.

I do the lower bar back squat with a stance about shoulder width (so not as wide as powerlifters go i dont think?), but also learning forward more to engage more muscles. That means you can squat more, but this sort of squat has less carryover to the Oly lifts. If you did the back squat with the bar higher up on the shoulders, and kept yourself upright more, it would have a lot more carryover though. But for me it came down to personal preference really and just changing the emphasis a bit as well.

Good routine, Spartigus. It's great to see more people here doing the Oly lifts. I'd love to do them, but frankly I don't have the flexibility to do them quite yet.. but I'd love to do them one of these days.

I'd add in some pics of clean snatches for.... inspirational purposes... but I wouldn't want to make this thread NSFW :D

Same here. But very interested to see how things go.