How many days a week should I Power Snatch

Do you want to maximize the weight you can Power Snatch?

It’s obvious, that if you want to become better and stronger at the Power Snatch you need to practice the Power Snatch frequently.

It’s a logical consequence, that the question arises How many days a week should I Power Snatch for the best possible results?

This article discusses

How many days a week should I Power Snatch depending on your goals
How many days a week should I Power Snatch to learn the Power Snatch technique
Special considerations for the Power Snatch frequency
An applied example from our training

How many days a week you should Power Snatch depends highly on your training goal. I have outlined the process of starting with the end in mind and reverse-engineering your training depending on your training goals in the articles

In a nutshell, the process look like this

you decide and determine what your training goals are
what other responsibilities you have next to your strength training program, if you are an athlete you have your sport-specific training sessions, you also might have a family, you are working or following an education, etc

I have outlined this process in-depth in the article

How often should you do Strength Training

Once you have clarity on your training goal, you know how many strength training workouts you need to do to achieve your training goal. Your training goal, whether you want to get stronger, gain muscle mass, become faster and more powerful or endure longer in your sport, will determine the training frequency.

I have outlined different the different training frequencies depending on your training goal in the article

How Many Strength Training Workouts Per Week

Now you can combine this information of the training frequency or strength training sessions per week, with the information on how many strength training workouts you can do, based on your other responsibilities and you know the total amount of strength training sessions per week.

An applied example to determine How Many Days A Week My Athletes Should Power Snatch

I want to outline, how the process described in the previous paragraph can look in my case of training and supporting Olympians and future Olympians, where my main responsibility is to improve their sports performance and prevent injuries.

Let’s have a look at an applied example with the BMX riders.

The thought process is, to first understand and determine how much time they need to spend training for their sport, that can be training on the BMX bike, but also the additional training they spend on their road bike.

The training frequency changes throughout the season, depending on pre-season and competitive season, as I have outlined in the article

How much Strength Training

After we determined how many sessions they need to do on their bike, we know how many strength training sessions they can do in a week.

Once we know how many strength training they can do in a week, I can decide on how much time is spend on exercise A, exercise B, exercise C, etc

Most of the times, I want to have

1 movement targeting a powerful triple extension
1 bi-lateral squat variation
1 upper body push
1 upper body pull
1 hip hinge
1 uni-lateral squat variation

From this, you can see, that the Power Snatch will fall in the first category of targeting a powerful hip extension, as I have also outlined in the articles

This thought process outlines, that in my case training my athletes the Power Snatch is just one of many possible exercises to choose from and in most cases we do the Power Snatch 1 – 2 times per week.

It’s important to mention, that for us, different exercises are a means to an end and not the end in itself.

The Power Snatch is no different, as I have outlined, if I use the Power Snatch to train a powerful triple extension and triple flexion, and an athlete can perform a Power Snatch for any given reason, there are more exercises in the toolbox, that can offer the same benefits.

How Many Days A Week Should I Power Snatch, if I want to learn the Power Snatch technique?

If you want to learn the correct Power Snatch technique or you want to improve the technique of your Power Snatch you need to train with higher training frequencies.

If you want to learn a new skill, you need to practice repetition over repetition to perfect that skill. In addition to that, technique training usually doesn’t lead to great levels of exertion and can be practised at a much higher frequency.

If you are interested in different exertion levels, as a result of different forms of strength training, check out the article

How often should I Back Squat

Another important factor to consider is, that consistency and perseverance are much more important than ambition.

What does that mean?

I have seen too often, that people, including athletes, start off very ambitious and at some point, the ambition is starting to drift off. As a result, the required training frequency can’t be maintained and the training frequency approximates zero.

I call it starting strong and finishing slow, but much rather you want to see people starting slow and finishing strong.

As a practical application, if you are highly motivated and you want to work on your Power Snatch technique four times a week, I would recommend starting with one or two sessions a week and if you are able to do that for six to eight weeks, you can add another session.

There is another reason, why it makes sense to increase training frequency over time.

It’s called diminishing returns which is a concept that originates from economics and can be applied to training as well.

The idea is, that when you start your training, you see a linear relation between effort and reward.

What that means is, for the effort you put into training you see the rewards fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, that relation shifts the more advanced you get and you have to put in much more effort in order to see the rewards you want to see.

I have outlined that in the article

How much Strength Training do I need?

Also, check out this awesome graphic from Sustainable Balance

strength training diminishing returns benefits of strength vs strength levels

Source http://sustainablebalance.ca/the-diminishing-returns-of-strength-training/

How Many Days A Week Should I Power Snatch? A word of caution.

I have discussed the topic of training frequency for the Power Clean before in the article

How often should I do Power Cleans?

Whilst many of the points I have outlined also apply to the Power Snatch, there is a very special consideration for the Power Snatch.

In most cases, the weakest link in the movement is the shoulder. And because you have to bring the weight right over your head and stabilise it over your head, the shoulder integrity is challenged.

In very simple words, you can do Power Cleans more frequent than you can do Power Snatches.

What does that mean?

In most cases, one or two sessions that include the Power Snatch are sufficient for athletes.

Please keep in mind, that this recommendation is aimed at athletes or people who want to include the Power Snatch into their strength training program, not necessarily aimed at Olympic Weightlifters.

The reason is fairly simple, I mentioned before for athletes, the Power Snatch or Snatch is a means to an end, for Olympic Weightlifters, the Snatch is the end.

Olympic Weightlifters are evaluated in their competition by how much weight they can lift in a Snatch, consequently, the training frequency for the Snatch as competitive lift and Power Snatch as assistance lift is higher.

More considerations on How Many Days A Week Should I Power Snatch

If you are doing Power Snatches more than once a week, I advise you should also look at the loading pattern over the week.

What that means is, you should use a different loading pattern in each session.

As an example, if you do Power Snatches on the first day fairly heavy, with around 90% 1RM, you should use a different intensity on the second day.

For more details, I have outlined the relation between sets, reps and intensity in the article

The Holy Grail of Strength Training – Sets and Reps

You can also consider changing the movement slightly, for example, if you do Power Snatches from the ground on the first day, you can do Power Snatches from the block or Hang Power Snatches on the second day.

Concluding How Many Days A Week Should I Power Snatch

The training frequency in the Power Snatch depends on your training goal.

However, a special consideration for the Power Snatch is, that the shoulder is the weakest link in the movement and consequently the Power Snatch should be trained as often as other exercises.

In order to get the best results from your Power Clean training, you need to consider more variables than just training frequency.