The hang power snatch is a variation of the world’s most powerful lift, the snatch. Requiring a combination of great technique and strength, the hang power snatch is a valuable tool in any fitness program. Read further to learn everything you need to know about the hang power snatch:
- What Is the Hang Power Snatch?
- Hang Power Snatch Benefits
- Muscle Groups Worked
- How To Prepare for the Hang Power Snatch
- Equipment Needed
- How To Warm Up for the Hang Power Snatch
- How To Perform the Hang Power Snatch
- Common Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
- Hang Power Snatch Modifications
- Hang Power Snatch Variations
- Common Hang Power Snatch Workouts
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What Is the Hang Power Snatch?
The hang power snatch requires the athlete to lift the barbell from a position off the ground, usually just above the knees, to overhead in one continuous motion. To accomplish this, the athlete sets the bar just above the knees, then aggressively jumps to fully extend their hips and legs to impart speed and upward momentum on the bar. With the bar moving vertically, the athlete immediately pulls themself down under it, while aggressively punching the barbell overhead, receiving the bar in a quarter or half overhead squat position, or power position, where, in the lowest position still considered a power position, the hips do not pass below the tops of the knees and the thighs remain parallel with the ground. To complete the lift, the athlete stands the weight up to a position with legs and hips extended and arms locked out with the weight overhead.
The hang power snatch develops superior athleticism by training qualities such as power, speed, strength, flexibility, coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance. While the technical demands of the hang power snatch are high, a skilled coach can teach an athlete how to hang power snatch with a light barbell or PVC pipe in one session. The hang power snatch is a versatile tool that can be used in many different workouts, incorporating heavy loads and low reps to light loads and high reps.
Hang Power Snatch Benefits
The hang power snatch trains many skills necessary for optimal fitness. In addition, it can be easier to learn and use for many lifters because they are not forced to develop the hip, shoulder, and ankle mobility required to pull themselves into a full overhead squat position at the bottom of the lift, as is required in the snatch.
Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance
Sets of high-rep hang power snatches — 15 reps or more — confer similar cardio benefits to 800-meter runs because of the distance the weight travels at a relatively high speed.
Strength
Hang power snatches develop full-body strength as athletes must apply significant force into the ground and the barbell to jump the bar overhead. Given the same great technique, every pound added to the bar increases the strength development potential of the snatch.
Power
To calculate power, we look at the load used, the distance traveled, and how long it takes to complete the movement. When a large load is moved long distances and quickly, high power is produced. With its capacity to move relatively heavy loads from around knee height to overhead with blinding speed, the hang power snatch is a pure expression of power and produces powerful athletes.
Speed and Agility
Hang power snatches teach the ability to extend and then flex the hips rapidly. This action improves cycle time in repeated sprints, agility movements, jumps, or squats.
Coordination
The hang power snatch involves the coordination of every joint and every major muscle group to move a load from around the knees to lockout overhead. The hang power snatch is an efficient, blazingly fast example of precise coordination when done well. Athletes who master the hang power snatch technique learn other complex movement patterns well.
Balance
For the lifter to stay balanced in the hang power snatch, they must resist the pull of the weight forward and away from their body by maintaining their weight in the heels throughout the lift and keeping the bar close to the body as they move around it. Hang power snatches challenge and develop balance like few other lifts can.
Accuracy
The hang power snatch requires great accuracy throughout the movement pattern. The hang position must be consistent every time in terms of back angle, weight distribution in the feet, degree of knee bend, and hamstring and glute activation. The finish position must be the same on every rep, and the bar must travel consistently along the same path. Athletes must be precise as they pull themselves down and around the bar into the quarter or half squat position to ensure the bar settles in the perfect spot, balanced at arm’s length overhead. All of this must be accomplished at high speed and to the inch.
Muscle Groups Worked
The hang power snatch is a full-body power movement that incorporates every major muscle group.
Lower Body
The muscles of the legs, especially the hips, quads, glutes, and hamstrings, are prime movers in the hang power snatch. These muscles are engaged in all phases of the lift: setting the bar in the hang position, exploding vertically to launch the bar overhead, receiving the bar in the quarter or half squat, and standing the weight up.
Upper Body and Core
The shoulder girdle, back, and core muscles are engaged throughout the hang power snatch. These muscles contract isometrically to allow for the efficient transfer of forces from the ground into the bar. As the lifter sets the bar in the hang position, these muscles keep the torso angle consistent. When the athlete jumps the bar overhead, these muscles keep the midline stable, so the force produced from the rapid hip and leg extension will pass through the midline into the bar. Once the bar is overhead, these muscle groups keep the midline stable to provide a strong platform for supporting the load overhead in the receiving and finish positions.
How To Prepare for the Hang Power Snatch
Preparing to hang power snatch requires assembling the proper equipment and performing a general and specific warm-up to get the body ready to move through the ranges of motion required.
Equipment Needed
To train the hang power snatch, an athlete can use a PVC pipe or barbells of various weights, from 10 to 45 lb, as needed. The barbells used should spin freely to accommodate the speed of the turnover in the lift and protect the athlete’s wrists. The weights used should be rubber bumper plates so the athlete can safely drop the bar when needed.
How To Warm Up for the Hang Power Snatch
To warm up for the hang power snatch, the lifter should perform general movements that work every joint through their full range of motion. Goblet squats, ring rows, lunges, pass-throughs, shoulder circles, and push-ups are good choices for the general warm-up. For the specific warm-up, a great option is the Burgener Warm-Up, followed by skill-transfer exercises like the heaving snatch balance and snatch balance.
How To Do the Hang Power Snatch
The hang power snatch can be broken down into distinct phases, which all blend smoothly when the lift is done efficiently.
Start Position
In the start position, the lifter generally sets the bar just above the knees, with the torso inclined forward at about 45 degrees, the chest out in front of the bar, the hips pushed back, legs only slightly bent, and glutes and hamstrings “on stretch.” This looks like a wide-grip Romanian deadlift. The weight should be distributed through the mid-foot, feet set at hip width, and the lower back arched. The hands are set wide in a snatch grip, with a hook grip, and the head is up with eyes focused forward.
The Jump
With the bar set above the knees, the athlete jumps through the heels aggressively, rapidly extending the legs and hips to accelerate the bar vertically. The bar must stay close to the body during its upward travel.
The Pull Under
Once the athlete has completed the jump (i.e., the full extension of the legs and hips), they pull themselves down and around the bar with a violent shrug and by bending the arms — elbows high and outside — to receive the bar in a quarter or half squat position. Again, the bar stays close to the lifter as the arms bend to pull the athlete down, the feet slide quickly from hip width to shoulder width, and the athlete aggressively turns the wrists over and punches under the bar to receive the bar in a stable and strong overhead position. Once the bar is secured overhead, the athlete stands to complete the lift.
Common Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
There are several common hang power snatch mistakes lifters should be aware of and avoid.
Not Fully Extending the Hips in the Finish Position
When the athlete jumps the bar overhead, the athlete’s legs and hips should be fully extended. However, it is a common fault for athletes to cut the jump short by not fully extending the hips and trying to “sneak” under the bar to receive it overhead. This limits the power transferred into the bar and diminishes the bar’s upward travel and speed. Athletes should focus on jumping hard before they pull themselves under the bar. Tall hang power snatches are a good drill to ingrain the finish position.
Swinging Bar Path
The bar should stay close to the athlete’s body throughout the lift. However, when the athlete jumps, if they displace the hips horizontally too much or bump the bar with the hips too hard, they may send the bar away from the body into an arching bar path on the way overhead. This is inefficient. To keep the bar close, athletes should focus on a vertical jump and a light brush of the bar at the hips. During the pull under, the elbows move high and outside to guide the bar close to the body.
Soft Receiving Position
A proper receiving position sees the athlete in a quarter or half squat position, chest up, back engaged, pushing up on the bar with arms locked out overhead. Often, athletes fail to receive the bar in this strong position. Instead, they let the shoulders and chest roll forward and the back round, making it almost impossible to support the weight overhead. To properly receive the bar, athletes should aggressively turn the bar over and punch under. Ingraining the proper position in the receiving position, sitting tall in the quarter or half squat position with the chest up, and armpits facing forward is also critical.
Hang Power Snatch Modifications
The hang power snatch requires not only strength, but also decent flexibility and mobility. In training, any lifter can be accommodated by modifying the load and positions.
PVC Hang Power Snatch
When learning the hang power snatch technique, a PVC pipe is a great tool to allow the athlete to move properly without concern for the bar’s weight. Using a PVC pipe also allows the athlete to perform a high volume of reps without breaking down due to fatigue.
High Hang Power Snatch
For many, fully extending the hips and finding the proper finish position for the hang power snatch can be challenging. Using the high hang power snatch can help ingrain the proper finish position.
Hang Power Snatch Variations
There are many hang power snatch variations athletes can use to simultaneously develop speed, power, flexibility, and many other skills.
Various Hang Power Snatch Heights
The hang power snatch can be done with the bar set anywhere from mid-shin (with the weight only an inch or two off the ground) all the way up to the high hang snatch, where the bar is set at the hips. Each version helps the athlete work on different phases of the snatch.
Split Hang Power Snatch
In the split hang power snatch, the athlete jumps the bar overhead, but instead of receiving the weight in an overhead squat, they receive it in a high (or “quarter”) lunge position. This version of the hang power snatch is great for athletes who experience mobility restrictions at the shoulders that make even the quarter or half overhead squat challenging. It’s also a great version of the hang power snatch to use with sports athletes, as it builds excellent athleticism that transfers to the field.
Common Hang Power Snatch Workouts
AMRAP 15 minutes: 30 air squats / 20 hang power snatches / 10 strict pull-ups
21-15-9 reps for time: Hang power snatches (65/95 lb) / Box jump-overs / Handstand push-ups
Thor: For time, every 3 minutes, complete: 15 hang power snatches (55/75 lb) / Max-reps push-up + taps *Repeat the sequence every 3 minutes until 100 push-ups + taps are completed