Beginners Guide To Weightlifting

Beginners Guide to Weightlifting
by Clarence Kennedy
Table of Contents
Learning Olympic Weightlifting

The First Step
Information Overload
Why you don’t follow a program as a beginner
Learning as slow as possible is learning as fast as possible
Finding a Gym
What if you’re coming from powerlifting?
Should I work on strength exercises while learning?
How often should I train
Mobility
Best approach to learning the Olympic lifts
Weightlifting Exercise Terms
Why you should learn how to snatch first
Learn “textbook technique”
What weight should I use for practising drills?
How do I progress through these drills?
How long should I spend learning these drills?
What do I mean by “acceptable/decent technique”?
Example Sessions
How to Back Squat (like a Weightlifter)

Mobility
Bar Placement
Rack Height
Grip Width and Tension
Stance Width
Breathing
The Walk Out
The Brace
The Eccentric (descent)
The Concentric (ascent)
How to Snatch
The Hook Grip
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Finding your Grip Width
How many sets and reps should I do for each drill?
What weight should I use for the snatch drills?
Behind the Neck Snatch Grip Press
Overhead Squat
Snatch Extension
Tall Muscle Snatch
BTN Snatch Grip Jerk
Scarecrow Drill
Snatch Balance
Drop Snatch
Snatch Contact Drill
Hang Power Snatch (above the knee)
Hang Snatch (above the knee)
Starting Position and Snatch Deadlift
Snatch Pull
Muscle Snatch
Power Snatch
Snatch
How to Clean and Jerk

Front rack position
Front Squat
Tall Muscle Clean
Clean Extension
Rack Drill
Clean Contact Drill
Hang Power Clean
Hang Clean
Clean Deadlift
Power Clean
Full Clean
Strict Press (like a weightlifter!)
Split Position
Recovery from Split Position
Press in Split
Jerk Balance
The Dip and Drive
Push Press
Power Jerk
Split Jerk
Clean and Jerk
Program
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Learning Olympic Weightlifting
The First Step
The first thing you want to do is just consume weightlifting content. Start watching
videos of weightlifting competitions, watch the Olympics, watch training videos. Learn
the names of exercises and variations, and learn the difference between them.
There’s no need to learn the biomechanics of each lift or read multiple books about
programming, just get a general sense of what weightlifting is.
Here are links to YouTube channels I recommend:
Frank Rothwell - competition videos

All Things Gym - high quality footage of training and competition
HookGrip - similar to All Things Gym
In this guide, I provide a lot of links to videos. Just click on them to view them.
Anything that is underlined is a link to a video.
I’ve coached several people in person, and a thing I noticed is a lot of them are just
unfamiliar with weightlifting lingo. For example, I might tell them to practice hang
power snatches below the knee, then they look confused and ask what that means. I’ve
even been asked to explain the difference between a snatch and clean and jerk.
If someone is familiar with weightlifting, they understand what the lifts are and what
variations look like, this will give that person an advantage over someone who knows
nothing about Olympic lifting.
Also, just watching weightlifting will improve your lifting! It’s the best way to improve
your weightlifting technique without going to the gym. Constantly watching high level
weightlifting technique will give you a sense of what the Olympic lifts look like, what
particular lifters do, and the differences between lifters.
Information Overload
With all that being said, you have to remember as a beginner you’re trying to learn the
snatch and clean and jerk, not learn exercise science.
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If a beginner weightlifter researches too many things on the internet, they might say
things like:
“I heard the Chinese do a lot of jerk dips, maybe that can fix my technique.”
“That Lu Xiao Jun guy squat jerks, maybe I should try that.”
“Mark Rippetoe says weightlifters should low bar squat, I think I should do that.”
“This person’s advice contradicts this other person’s advice. Which one is correct?”
Basically, they “learn” too much information but lack the ability to actually teach
themselves the snatch and clean and jerk. Or they apply principles only intended for
elite level lifters.
Remember, you are a beginner, not an elite level lifter. This means you shouldn’t copy
what elite level lifters do. Instead, ask yourself, “what did these elite level lifters do
when they were beginners?”
The goal of this guide is to teach you how to Olympic lift. It’s not a guide on how to
become an Olympic lifting coach. Learn to be a weightlifter, learn to be an athlete,
don’t have the mindset of trying to understand everything. The goal should always be
on improving your technique and numbers. That’s it!
Why you don’t follow a program as a beginner
I’ll break down the beginner stages of weightlifting:
Stage 1 is a pure beginner who has never done Olympic lifting before.
Stage 2 is a beginner that is able to snatch and clean and jerk with very light weights
with decent technique and consistent technique.
The thing to keep in mind is that you’re learning a skill. You don’t just start by doing 6
sets of 3 in the snatch and make gains. That approach would work with the powerlifts
since you can basically learn them in a week.
When you’re at stage 1 you don’t follow a program. Instead, you break the Olympic lifts
down into easier drills and exercises before you even begin doing snatches and clean
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and jerks. It’s not until stage 2 that you can follow a program, and getting to that stage
can take a couple of weeks to months.
I just wanted to explain that because some beginners think that they should start with
a program. You actually don’t follow a program at all. Think about it this way, if you
wanted to learn how to kickflip on a skateboard, you wouldn’t follow a program, you’d
practice a lot of drills.
The approach you take with learning the drills for Olympic lifts can vary depending on
the person. If you're 40 years old and have poor mobility, the majority of your time will
be spent on learning the overhead squat rather than focusing on something like hang
power snatches.
The time you spend doing these drills can vary also, I’ve seen people who can progress
through the snatch and clean and jerk drills very quickly, and they’re ready to start
lifting with weights in a short period of time. And I’ve seen people who take longer to
learn the skill.
Some people just have better motor learning skills, but the time it takes to learn the
snatch and clean and jerk doesn’t matter, anyone can learn the Olympic lifts, some
people just take longer than others.
The important thing is just being patient and only move to advanced drills when you’re
ready.
The ultimate goal of this guide is to get people from Stage 1 to Stage 2 where they’ll
eventually be able to follow a program.
Learning as slow as possible is learning as fast as possible
This is common sense advice you’ve probably heard for well… everything in life, but:
Be patient with the learning process. I talk about this in my video on YouTube:
Learning as Slow as Possible is Learning as Fast as Possible

(click the text above to watch the video, you’ll see more video links like this throughout the guide)
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Finding a Gym
So you have a keen interest in weightlifting, you’re determined to learn the snatch and
clean and jerk. But… where do you practice it?
These days, loads of commercial gyms have platforms and bumper weights. The best
thing is to go on Google Maps and type in “gym”, rather than something specific like
“Weightlifting gym” or “CrossFit gym”. This way you can look at the photos of each
gym and check if they have platforms and bumper weights, because they usually don’t
advertise them.
Even if you can’t find a good gym for Olympic lifting, or you’re currently in a gym
without weightlifting equipment, you’ll still be good for the first 1–2 months of
learning Olympic lifting. This is because you won’t be lifting heavy enough to need to
drop weights on the floor.
What if you’re coming from powerlifting?
Like I mentioned in the beginning, a lot of people who follow me are powerlifters, so it
makes it worthwhile talking about them specifically.
I talked about this topic on my YouTube channel:
Why Powerlifters SUCK at Weightlifting

(click the text above to watch the video)
Should I work on strength exercises while learning?
No. Learning the snatch and clean and jerk will take up a lot of your time, so taking
time away from that and spending time and energy on strength training will not
benefit you.
This seems to be a problem with ego, I guess. People don’t like the idea of lifting less
than 40kg for 1 or 2 months and feel the need to lift heavy weights. Just be aware that
taking time away from practising the snatch and clean and jerk is detrimental to
progress.
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You may think gaining strength while learning the Olympic lifts seems like the logical
thing to do, but gaining strength in something like the squat is relatively easy
compared to becoming technically proficient in the snatch and clean and jerk. So
spending 100% of your time on learning the snatch and clean and jerk is best.
Many beginners will make the mistake of thinking they need to work on strength
because they believe it’s lacking, they think they need to do a “squat cycle” because
“their squat is weak” when that’s never the case.
Even when you reach stage 2 of the beginner phase, the main focus will still be on the
snatch and clean and jerk. This doesn’t mean you won’t gain strength, you’ll be doing
strength exercises related to the Olympic lifts.
Instead of bench pressing, doing exercises like behind the neck snatch grip presses,
overhead squats and pause front squats will help you strengthen key positions in the
Olympic lifts.
Just be patient. If your squat drops 30 kg from putting all your time on the snatch and
clean and jerk, there’s no need to worry at all.
How often should I train
Beginner weightlifters usually ask me the general question “do you have any tips” the
thing I usually say is: “try to train often, very often, 5 or 6 times per week is best”.
The snatch and clean and jerk are highly technical movements. The more often you
practice these movements, the better.
To put this is another way, The SRA curve (stimulus, recovery, adaption curve) is a
simple way to represent progress with training.
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The SRA curve
The horizontal line shows the baseline of performance. When you train, you become
fatigued from the stimulus. You allow yourself to recover and after recovering your
performance increases. This is adaptation.
But here’s the key fact, for technical movements such as the snatch and clean and jerk
the SRA curve is shorter than the SRA curve for strength movements such as squats and
deadlifts.
The SRA curve for the snatch and deadlift.
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Imagine you train consistently for weeks to improve your squat. You’ll make progress
of course. But, If you then decided to stop training, you’ll detrain. Your squat max will
decrease.
This can happen with technique! If you stop doing Olympic lifting, you’ll “forget” how
to snatch and clean and jerk. The movements will feel foreign to you.
So, since the SRA curve is shorter for Olympic lifts If you treat the snatch and clean and
jerk like squats and deadlifts and train 3 times per week, this means detraining will
occur. It’s like benching once per week, sure you’ll make progress, but not as much if
you benched 3 times per week.
Obviously, this is just a simple way to represent what I’m saying on a graph, but the
point stands: training with high frequency is better when it comes to Olympic lifting.
So if higher frequency is better, why not train 9 times per week or 12 times per week?
Yes, assuming you allow time to adapt to higher volume and frequency, 9 or 12 times
per week is better. But the amount of additional progress you can make with that
frequency vs just training 6 times per week is very small. Like 2-5kg of extra progress.
There’s a point of diminishing returns. Of course, that 2-5kg is huge if you’re
competing at a high level.
You might assume as a beginner, you should start small and only train 3 times per week
and then gradually increase the frequency of your training. This is incorrect, it is
actually best to begin training 5 or 6 times per week.
Now a lot of you reading this will think “I can’t commit to training this much, I don’t
have the time”. That’s fine. You can still make progress. I’m just telling you what’s best
for progress. Training 5 or 6 times a week is vastly superior to training 2 or 3 times a
week for weightlifting.
If your goal is to learn to weightlifting as best as you can, then it’s best to get as close
as possible to training 5 or 6 times per week.
As a beginner, you’ll be lifting very light weight, so if anything you can get away with
training more than advanced lifters since it won’t be fatiguing. I’d even encourage pure
beginners to train outside the gym. Casually playing around with drills and mobility
exercises (with a broomstick) at home will help a lot.
How long should you train?
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Weightlifting sessions should be 1.25-2 hours long. If you only train for 45 minutes,
it’s not enough.
I just want to be brutally honest here, letting you know exactly what’s best to make
meaningful progress as a beginner. Training 3 times per week for 1 hour per session is
simply not enough to make meaningful progress in the long term. Will you progress?
For sure, but it’s far from the point of diminishing returns.
It’s important you prioritize frequency over time per session. If you have the choice
between training 3 times a week with 2 hours sessions and training 5 times a week with
1-hour sessions. Then it’s preferable to train 5 times a week, even though the sessions
and overall time spent in the gym is shorter.
Mobility
A lot of you will struggle with mobility. This could be the main issue with learning the
snatch and clean and jerk.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of awful information online when it comes to mobility. It’s
getting better, it’s nothing compared to the early 2010s. But I still see a lot of people
wasting their time on useless warm-ups, banded stretches and whatever to improve
their snatch mobility.
A problem I see is beginner weightlifters focusing entirely on mobility. They think if

they lack the mobility to Olympic lift, they need to work on mobility before anything
else. This is not the best approach.
If you lack the ability to squat ATG that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice the snatch
or clean and jerk. Here’s the key point: Learning the snatch and clean and jerk is
mobility work.
This is real mobility work because it’s specific to weightlifting. In a way, I don’t even
like calling anything a “mobility exercise”. It should just be called practising the snatch
and clean and jerk. Mobility should be worked into the exercises you want to improve.
Mobility shouldn't be a separate thing to work on.
Do you have poor mobility for the bottom position of the snatch? Then you should
practice overhead squats with a slow descent. Not only will this improve your mobility,
but also stability and improve your technique for the actual snatch.
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Of course, there are people that even lack the mobility to even practice an overhead
squat with a PVC pipe. I’m not saying those people should never do isolated mobility
exercises. They should only be done temporarily for a short period of time to allow you
to practice exercises specific to the Olympic lifts.
Also, people with poor mobility will absolutely need to spend a lot more time on
exercises targeting their mobility issues.
Once you’re able to practice exercises like the overhead squat, snatch balance and
pause front squats, then I honestly don’t see any need to do isolated mobility exercises,
or at least only occasionally or as a short warm up.
In the tutorial section, I will go over the mobility exercises I recommend.
Best approach to learning the Olympic lifts
So what is the approach to learning the Olympic lifts? Do you just try to snatch and
work on improving it from there?
No, that would not be an ideal approach, since the Olympic lifts are complex
movements. When you have a complex movement the best approach is to break the
movement down into multiple parts (drills), master those drills and join it all together.
Firstly, you pick easy drills and then move onto more complex ones. You treat the
easier drills as prerequisites for the more complex. For example, a behind the neck
snatch grip press is a prerequisite for the snatch balance.
Weightlifting Exercise Terms
You probably asked yourself in the last paragraph: “what the heck is a behind the neck
snatch grip press?”
To help you understand these terms I made a video since lots of examples are used and
this is best shown in video format:
Weightlifting Terms Explained (click here to watch)
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Why you should learn how to snatch first
When learning Olympic lifting, it’s best to learn how to snatch first. This is because the
snatch requires more mobility, the pulling mechanics are similar to the clean, and it’s a
more technically demanding lift. If you learn to snatch, learning to clean and jerk will
be a breeze.
Now, I don’t mean you should spend months mastering the snatch and then move onto
the clean and jerk. What I mean is, you should spend the majority of your time learning
to snatch. Something like 80% of your time on learning the snatch over the clean and
jerk for the first couple of sessions, then 50/50.
When I teach pure beginners Olympic lifting, typically they spend 5–10 sessions purely
learning the snatch, and then I eventually show them how to clean and jerk. I would
recommend that number of sessions for people following this guide. I give a range
because some people learn faster than others.
Learn “textbook technique”
People reading this guide may have watched a lot of weightlifting. They may have seen
lifters do unconventional things with their technique. They may have seen Lu Xiao Jun
squat jerk, Klokov lift with a staggered stance or Columbians jerk with a very wide grip.
If you’re a pure beginner and all the way up to early intermediate (first year of
weightlifting), I wouldn’t recommend you mimic what these lifters do. It’s best to
learn “textbook technique” or “standard technique”. That is the technique that will
work for the largest number of people. The technique as outlined in a lot of
weightlifting textbooks, hence “textbook technique”.
Here are good examples of lifters who have “textbook technique”:
Gabriel Sincraian | Snatch 180kg | Clean&Jerk 215kg 🏋️‍♂️

Tatiana Kashirina | 2011 - 2018 Clean & Jerk Progression
Once you become more advanced, you can then experiment with certain changes to
your technique, such as having a wider jerk grip. There are two reasons you should
learn textbook technique:
1) It’s unlikely you’re a unique individual that will need to stray far away from standard
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technique.
2) It’s a waste of time experimenting with technique changes when your standard
technique sucks, lol.
In a way, learning the standard snatch and clean and jerk technique is a prerequisite
for experimenting with changes. For example, if your split jerk technique sucks, that
doesn’t mean you should squat jerk, it means you should improve your split jerk
technique.
If you think you're a squat jerker, you're an idiot. If you can't squat jerk, you suck
What weight should I use for practising drills?
When you’re going through the snatch drills, you shouldn’t use any weight. With the
snatch, It’s best you start learning with a PVC pipe or broom stick. This applies to
everyone, even someone who can deadlift 300 kg.
When learning the snatch drills, it’s best to do 100s of reps, so you get more practice.
Lifting a PVC pipe will not be as fatiguing as lifting a 15 kg/20 kg barbell. Just
remember, the more reps you do (practice), the better.
Only once you’ve gone through all the drills should you start using a barbell and
weights for the snatch.
With the clean and jerk, it’ll be best to use a 15 kg/20 kg barbell straight away, since
it’ll make it easier to rack the bar, as you’ll learn later.
How do I progress through these drills?
I ordered the drills from most basic to advanced. As a general rule, you should follow
the order I list them and only move on when you got a good grasp of what you’re
practising.
For example, the first drill you’ll do for the snatch is the BTN snatch grip press. You
should learn to execute this correctly before moving onto the drill after that, which is
the overhead squat. The BTN snatch grip press is a prerequisite for the overhead squat.
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You don’t have to follow this rule too stringently, though. If you have a lot of mobility
issues, then you might struggle to get into a deep overhead position. It may take you
weeks until you’re able to overhead squat, so going through the later drills while you
work on improving your mobility is best.
Remember, spend 40-60% of your training time working on mobility if it’s an issue.
If it’s not an issue, and you can get into good positions, then there’s no need to do
mobility work at all. Just practice the drills.
Each drill does not have to be perfect, but performed with acceptable technique. You
should film yourself and see in a mirror how you are performing these drills. Does the
technique appear to look correct and follow the guidelines? Ask yourself those
questions. You will have to be the judge. Remember: Learn as slow as possible, and take
your time.
How long should I spend learning these drills?
As I mentioned in the beginning, there are two stages. Stage 1 and Stage 2. Below, I
detailed the amount of time it should take to learn the snatch and clean and jerk. This is
stage 1 in detail.
Beginner Stage 1
Stage Definition What you should do Estimated time
to move to next
stage (number
of sessions)
Stage 1A Pure beginner. Never Learn the snatch drills until you’re able to 5-10
learned Olympic snatch a PVC pipe and barbell with decent
lifting before technique
Stage 1B Can snatch the Continue to practice the snatch (and 3-6
barbell with decent drills/variations you’re bad at) with the barbell
technique and very light weight.
Learn the clean and jerk drills until you’re able

to clean and jerk the barbell with decent
technique
Stage 1C Can snatch and clean Continue to practice the snatch and clean and 3-6
and jerk the barbell jerk (and drills/variations you’re bad at) with
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with decent the barbell and very light weight
technique
Stage 1D Can snatch and clean Continue to practice the snatch and clean and 10-15
and jerk with decent jerk (and drills/variations you’re bad at) with
technique with light the barbell and light weight
weight
Stage 2 Can follow a Follow a program n/a

weightlifting
program
The average time it will take you to get to stage 2 (where you can follow a program) is
21–37 sessions. Assuming you train 5 times per week, it will take you around 4–7
weeks.
This basically means after 4–7 weeks you’ll be able to snatch 30-40 kg and clean and
jerk 40-50 kg with acceptable technique, assuming you’re the average male. For the
average female, this means 20-25 kg snatch and 25-30 kg clean and jerk. This is
what I define as “light weight”.
If you reached stage 2 faster than that, you’re either a very fast learner or you rushed
through the stages (more likely).
Now, this seems like a long time, especially if you’re an older male with poor mobility.
But remember what I went over in the beginning, “learning as slow as possible is
learning as fast as possible”. Always keep that in mind.
It would absolutely be possible for someone to lift more than 40 kg in the snatch in the
first week. But rather than having a goal of lifting big weights after a few weeks,
instead you should have the goal to lift light weights with good technique.
This includes someone like Larry Wheels, if he really wanted to learn Olympic lifting,
what would be the point of him muscle snatching 120 kg if he can’t even full snatch 40
kg with good technique.
Anyway, I thought I’d just give a time frame on how long you should spend learning,
because a lot of people wouldn’t know how long they should spend on each phase and
end up rushing the process.
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What do I mean by “acceptable/decent technique”?
This is a loose definition. But I define “acceptable/decent technique” as:
1: No mobility or minor mobility issues. Has the mobility to go into the bottom position
and hold the bar overhead in the snatch. Has the mobility to rack the bar in the clean.
2: No big technical errors with very light weights and the barbell.
3: Very little or no misses with very light weight (consistency).
4: No stability issues with light weight. Can comfortably pause in positions such as the
bottom of the snatch with very light weight.
Once you’ve read through the guide, you’ll understand what good technique is and be
able to judge your lifts.
Example Sessions
Of course, all this information on how to learn the Olympic lifts is all very vague, so I
thought I’d give you a few examples of what sessions should look like.
Example 1: Bob is 37 years old and has poor mobility. He can only train 4 times a week
with 1.5-hour sessions.
He starts training at 1pm and has to finish at 2:30pm. This is a session from his 1st
week of training:
1:00pm - 1:45pm (45 mins): He does a lot of mobility work for the overhead squat. This
includes back squat mobility exercises, the back squat, practising the BTN snatch grip
press and the overhead squat.
1:45- 2:30pm (45 mins): He does multiple sets of the snatch drills, such as tall muscle
snatches and hang power snatches. He does more sets of the drills he’s struggling with.
Example 2: Joe is 16 years old and has excellent mobility and previous sport experience.
He can train 6 times a week with 2-hour sessions.
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He starts training at 1pm and has to finish at 3:00pm. This is a session from his 2nd
week of training:
1:00pm- 2:15pm (1 hour and 15 mins): He warms up with drills he’s struggles with for the
snatch, then he does multiple sets of hang power snatches, once that feels comfortable
for him, he moves onto hang snatches, then eventually snatches off the floor.
2:15pm-3pm (45 minutes): He practises the clean and jerk drills, but because this is only
his second session practising the clean and jerk he focuses on the jerk, since he
struggles with it more. He does multiple sets of press in split, push press, jerk balance
and split jerks.
Example 3: Mary is 28 years old, although she struggled with mobility in the beginning,
her overhead squat is improving. She trains 5 times a week with 1-hour sessions. This is
a session from her 5th week of training.
She starts training at 1pm and has to finish at 2pm:
1:00pm-1:40pm (40 mins): Since her mobility is less of an issue, she doesn’t spend too
much time on mobility. She spends 10 minutes warming up the overhead squat. After
that she does multiple sets of snatch balances, hang snatches and full snatches with
the barbell and very light weight.
1:40-2:00 (20 mins): She doesn’t dedicate as much time to the clean and jerk since it’s
the snatch she’s struggling with. She does multiple sets of hang cleans and clean and
jerks.
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How to Back Squat (like a Weightlifter)
Being able to squat is essential for learning the Olympic lifts.
A barbell back squat is where the bar is placed behind your head, and you perform a
squat. Now there are many ways to do this, low-bar squat, high bar squat, wide stance,
narrow stance, but I’ll go over the Olympic style squat.
Mobility
If you’re able to squat deep with a stance around hip width with minimal lower back
rounding, then congratulations, you have sufficient mobility for the Olympic squat.
If you’re struggling to squat deep while keeping your back straight, then the culprit is
ankle and/or hip mobility.
There are tests you can do to see what is lacking. For hip mobility, if you can’t bring
your knee close to your chest while lying down, then you lack hip mobility. For ankle
mobility, you can test to see how far your knees can go over your toes.
Pulling Knee to chest while lying down (Carpet gym 3.0 leaked image)
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There’s no real need to perform these tests because, like I mentioned earlier, it’s best
to just practice the exercise you’re trying to do (squatting).
However, if you’re really struggling with mobility, then I’ll show you mobility
exercises to do. I’ll list them from most basic to most advanced. Once you’re able to
move onto the advanced exercises, there’s no need to do the basics.
I’ll include recommended hold times for each exercise. The number of sets you do is
really however much is needed or how much time you have. The more, the better. It
isn’t a mistake to spend over an hour working on mobility (assuming you practice drills
alongside them).
If you have time to train for 2 hours, then spending 40-60% of your time on mobility
(50-70 minutes), isn’t a bad idea if you really struggle with it. Keep in mind, this
mobility work involves practising the lifts too, but with a focus on mobility, such as
pausing in the overhead squat.
Rack Ankle Stretch
Against a wall, but a rack is better since you can pull yourself in
Place your toes against a rack (or wall) while keeping your heel on the floor. Bend your
knee and lean and pull yourself towards the rack, focusing on bringing your knee as
close to the rack as possible. You should feel a stretch with your achilles, not your
calves. If you feel it more on the calves, then you will need to bend your knee more.
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Recommended hold time: 20–30 seconds
Leaned over Hip Stretch
Place one foot on a bench (or something similar) and lean down, trying to push your
torso/chest past your knee. You should feel tension in your hip as you perform this.
Recommended hold time: 20–30 seconds
Rack Squat (Hips)
Not a rack exactly, just find something to hold as you squat down.
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This is one of the best mobility exercises for the squat. Everyone should be able to
attempt this exercise, since you’ll be able to guide your way down with the rack (or
something you can hold onto). Even if you can’t get close to the bottom, you should be
able to progress over time.
Hold onto the rack and slowly lower yourself as deep as you can go. You should feel
tension in your hips if you’re lacking mobility in that area. It doesn't matter if your
back rounds excessively, just focus on getting as deep as possible and holding this
stretch.
Recommended hold time: 30 seconds—2 minutes
Once you gain more mobility in this exercise you can focus on straightening the back,
and you can try this without holding onto a rack! Just a freestanding squat. Maybe try
the 5-minute squat:
The simplest SQUAT MOBILITY routine — The best mobility video ever made.
Rack Squat (Hips and Ankles)
This is a variation of the previous mobility exercise. Once you’re comfortable with a
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regular rack squat, you can try leaning to one side and attempt to push your knee as far
as possible over your toes. Do this on both sides.
Recommended hold time: 30 seconds each side
Pause Back Squat
This is the most specific mobility exercise you can do (and the best). Simply back squat
with the barbell (you should know how to squat after reading this section) and pause at
the bottom.
This can be performed with just the barbell or a small amount of weight, 15 kg - 50 kg
is best.
Recommended hold time: Sets of 3–5 reps with 15–30 pauses.
Bar Placement
So what is the Olympic squat, and how is it different from every other type of squat?
Specifically, the Olympic style squat is a high bar “ass to grass” squat. High bar means
the bar is placed on the trapezius muscles:
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Gabriel Sincraian with a high bar back squat placement.
A low bar squat is where the bar is placed across the rear deltoids:
A picture of clarence0 low bar squatting?!
A high bar squat is generally more upright and uses more of the quadriceps muscles
compared to the low bar squat which is generally more forward leaning utilizing more
of the back muscles.
Keep in mind, this isn’t black and white. The bar can be placed anywhere between these
points, some people define this as a “mid bar squat”. It doesn’t really matter. What
does matter, is as a weightlifter, you’d want to squat high bar or close to high bar.
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Zack Telander with a “mid-bar” squat. Not the highest placement possible, but still close to
high bar.
There are many arguments why you should high bar squat as a weightlifter, but the
main reason is that it’s closer (more specific) to the Olympic lifts. It’s also less
fatiguing than a low-bar squat, so it can be trained more often.
Rack Height
The first step is to set the racks to the correct height. Now, I see many people get this
wrong. A common mistake is people set the racks too high, making the bar difficult to
unrack as the weight increases.
It’s best to set the bar to a height where the bar is lined up with the middle of your
shoulders.
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The height you pick also depends on the racks you’re using, some gyms have horrible
racks with not a lot of settings. It’s best to pick a height that is too low rather than too
high if that is the situation.
If you’re using the same racks for every training session, then memorize where it’s set.
You’ll not only use this height for back squats but also for every exercise off the rack:
front squat, snatch balance, jerk, etc.
Grip Width and Tension
The ideal grip width is the grip that allows you to create ideal tension in your upper
back. This is typically a half a hand to a hand width outside shoulder width. When
looking at the back squat from the front, the elbows should be in line with the wrists or
inside.
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My grip is about half my hand width from my shoulder width and my elbows aligned with
my wrists
If your elbows are outside your elbows, then it will be hard to create enough tension in
your upper back.
Tight set up, this is good. You should not have a relaxed upper body.
Try to pull your elbows into your lats to get your elbows in line or inside your wrists.
Also focus on pulling your chest out. This will create tension in your upper back. This
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position will be tight and possibly uncomfortable, but just because it’s uncomfortable
doesn’t mean it's a bad position. Over time, you’ll get used to this tight set up.
Stance Width
The best stance for the Olympic squat is the stance that generates the most power
while allowing you to squat deep. This will vary based on your anatomy, but generally
this is around hip width.
The toes should be turned out to a degree that you’re most comfortable with. Again,
this will vary due to hip anatomy, but typically it should be around 25 degrees from
center. This is the standard squat stance, the stance the majority of the population
would use (we’re all human after all, there shouldn’t be massive differences).
The ‘standard’ squat stance.
The stance you choose shouldn’t differ drastically from the standard stance. The best
way to test what stance is best for you is by practising the back squat with a PVC pipe.
Squat down and make adjustments to feel what is best and allows you to squat deep.
Now, if you have mobility issues, the stance you choose may be incorrect. You may
choose a wide stance with your toes pointed out excessively to make up for poor
mobility. You’ll know if you have poor mobility if you can’t push your knees over your
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toes and/or your lower back begins to round with a normal stance. These are issues
with hip and ankle mobility.
Breathing
This is a part of the squat that I think many lifters overthink. When I teach the squat to
beginners, I don’t even instruct them on how to breathe. I just let them squat and most
of the time, they naturally breathe and brace close to the correct way and only minor
adjustments are needed.
It’s beginners that are consciously aware of their breathing that tend to mess it up. So
my advice is just practice the back squat without thinking about your breathing (focus
on other cues) and then make minor adjustments.
The Walk Out
Once you’ve set the bar to the correct height, the first step of the squat is the walk out.
First set yourself under the bar and adjust your grip. Bend your knees slightly and keep
your hips slightly back, your hips should be under the bar.
For the unrack, the inhale and brace doesn’t need to be as dramatic as right before the
squat. Take a small breath and brace by pushing out your obliques.
Taking the bar off the racks
I’d recommend taking 2 or 3 steps back from the rack. When taking steps back, you
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can look down at the floor slightly. As you walk back out of the racks, you can exhale
slowly until you set your feet into the squat position.
Walking back from the racks
Set your feet to the correct stance. You can ensure this by looking down and moving
your feet in or out.
Setting feet to correct stance
The Brace
Once you’ve set your feet into position, you should wait 2–4 seconds before inhaling
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and bracing. This is to allow the bar to stabilize and mentally prepare yourself for the
squat.
Take a big inhale through the nose and the mouth and push your obliques out. Hold
your breath. The goal should be to create pressure all around the torso. Ensure that you
pull your elbows into your lats and pull your chest out to create upper back tension.
Your back should not be arched and should be neutral.
Taking a breath in
The Eccentric (descent)
As you squat down, you should maintain this tight position. You can let out a small bit
of air as you descend, but you certainly don’t want to exhale all the way.
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A common misconception for the Olympic style squat is that lifters just drop and
bounce hard out off the bottom. This is not how it works, you have to keep tension all
the way through, you don’t just ‘drop’ into the hole.
The bottom position
The ‘bounce’ out of the bottom, the stretch reflex, is a skill you need to learn. The main
thing you should ensure is that you stay tight. At no point should you relax. It’s wise to
slow down the beginning of the descent and then gradually speed up, so you can get a
strong bounce out of the hole.
The speed of the eccentric will vary across lifters, but as a beginner, it’s important to
intentionally slow down the eccentric to give your self time to think about it and learn
to squat correctly. It may also be wise to do pause squats to learn the positions before
learning the ‘bounce’.
Over time, you can begin to speed up the descent, the key is to choose a speed which is
comfortable for you where you can maintain technique.
The Concentric (ascent)
As you come out of the hole, you should focus on keeping everything the same as on the
way down, the torso angle and bar path should be the same. Film yourself from side
view to ensure this is happening.
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The concentric (coming out of the bottom)
Here you should exhale and drive with your legs as hard as, possible.
Once you complete the squat, stand with the bar for 2 seconds to allow it to stabilize.
Then walk it back to the rack.
My lower back is rounding at the bottom (butt wink), is that bad?
This is a common question I get. The short answer is: minor lower back rounding at
the bottom is nothing to worry about in terms of injury and power output. Major
lower back rounding that is very obvious is something that should be fixed.
It’s usually due to inadequate hip or ankle mobility, so simply doing more of the
mobility work I listed should solve the issue. It could also be due to an incorrect stance,
you can try experimenting with stance width to eliminate it, however you should not
do this to compensate for poor mobility.
How to Snatch
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A few years ago, I made a video with Omar Isuf on how to snatch. It’ll be very useful to
watch that video before going through this section, as it’ll show you each of the drills
you’ll be doing.
OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING 101: How To Snatch (Full Guide) Ft. Clarence Kennedy
I recommend you read through this entire guide, go to the gym and practice the drills.
Between sets, you can read over each drill and watch the videos again to ensure you’re
following them correctly.
The Hook Grip
With the Olympic lifts, the hook grip must be used. This is because barbells rotate,
making it difficult to grip for the snatch and clean.
A hook grip is where you wrap your thumb around the bar and tighten with your
fingers. The number of fingers you can get around your thumb will depend on the
length of your fingers. Most people should be able to get the index and middle finger
around the thumb.
Hook grip and the Casio watch
Now this sounds painful, and it is. When you first start doing hook grip it will be
painful, but over time the pain will subside, and you’ll adapt, the same way it's painful
for your collarbones when you first learn front squats.
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Some beginners will avoid the pain and not bother hook gripping. While they may be
able to lift fine without a hook grip, this is a mistake. As they become more advanced,
and lift more weights, they’ll struggle to grip the bar. Also, technique is slightly
different when you use the hook grip, so it’s best to use it from the beginning.
Even when learning with a PVC pipe, I recommend you hook grip.
Finding your Grip Width
The snatch is performed with a wide grip. This reduces the range of motion required to
bring it overhead, therefore making the lift easier.
The grip width will vary across lifters, larger lifters with long arms will need to grip the
bar wide, sometimes out to the extremities.
Smaller lifter with small arms—narrow grip (credit Rob Mackiem)
Larger lifter with long arms—wide grip
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Even though widening the grip reduces the range of motion. You can’t just use the
widest grip possible and assume it will be easier for you, this is because there are other
things that matter. For example, having a very wide grip will put more stress on the
wrists, making it difficult to support overhead.
The optimal grip width to use really comes down to where the “contact point” is. This
where the bar will appear to “bang” off the body before you drop under.
It’s optimal to contact the bar above the pubic bone:
The bar should contact the crease of the hips above the pubic bone
To find how wide your grip should be, widen your grip until the bar is in contact with
the area right above your pubic bone with straight arms. Then lean over with your
torso.
If your arms are bent here, then your grip isn’t wide enough
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If your arms are bent in the position above, then that means you will have to widen the
grip until your arms are straight.
And that’s it. This is where your grip should be for the snatch. You should memorize
where this is on the bar/PVC pipe (I’m just going to say ‘bar’ from here).
Memorizing how many finger widths from the bar rings is the best way to memorize
where it should be.
You can see my snatch grip is about 2-3 finger widths away from the bar rings. These
bar rings are standard across almost all bars.
With a PVC pipe, you can perhaps mark it where your ideal grip is.
Some lifters with very long arms will still have bent arms when their grip is out to the
extremities of the bar. These lifters will have to shrug their shoulders and/or bend their
arms slightly to get the bar to contact above the pubic bone.
How many sets and reps should I do for each drill?
This will really comes down to the individual, on each drill I listed the recommended
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reps you should do, the number of sets is up to you (and how much time you can train).
If you’re really struggling with a drill then I would recommend you do multiple sets, if
you find it easy you should just do it as a warm-up and focus on other drills you’re
struggling with.
The key is to practice these drills a lot. It will feel tiring like cardio when you practice
these because the number of reps you’ll do is high.
The time you rest between sets shouldn’t be so long when you’re practising these drills
and light weight exercises. It can be anywhere from 15–50 seconds, but don’t be too
strict with this. Just give yourself enough time to perform each drill as best as you can.
If you’re panting when practising, you’re going to have difficultly concentrating on
what you need to do.
This rest time is very short, but remember you’ll just be lifting a PVC pipe and/or
barbell. Once you start to add weight, the rest time should increase.
This is all very vague, because as a beginner you cannot follow a program. If you were
trying to learn a backflip, you wouldn’t just do 5*5 backflips. Treat the snatch and clean
and jerk the same way. It’s a skill, you have to learn it.
Once you’ve learned all the drills, another option is to do complexes. This is when you
combine exercises together into 1 set. For example, if you’re struggling with the
snatch deadlift, and you have difficultly applying it to the actual snatch then you can do
something like:
Snatch deadlift for 4 reps followed by a snatch
If you’re struggling with the overhead squat, you can do:
Snatch followed by 5 overhead squats
The options are endless, and it depends on what you’re struggling with.
The goal should be to train 5-6 times per week with each session lasting 1.25-2 hours
including warm-ups. It’s best to focus on this rather than focusing on the number of
sets you’re doing. If you don’t train this much then progress will be slower, I think this
is the best amount of time and frequency for beginners.
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What weight should I use for the snatch drills?
For all the snatch drills (excluding the actual snatch and snatch deadlift), it’s best to
just use a PVC pipe or a 5 kg barbell. The reason for this is to allow you to do multiple
reps with ease. Doing these drills with a 20 kg bar can be tiring.
Behind the Neck Snatch Grip Press
(The title above is a link to a video of the drill, each title for the drills has a video attached)
Yes, quite a long name for an exercise, but let's break it down. 1) ‘Behind the neck’
means the bar is placed behind the neck. 2) ‘Snatch grip’ means you use a snatch grip.
3)‘Press’ means a strict press, so no use of the legs.
1) Put the bar on your back like you’re going for a back squat, but widen your grip to
where your snatch grip is.
2) Press the bar overhead and ensure the bar stays behind your head, the bar should not
be pushed forward.
3) Fully lock out your arms, focus on pushing up hard. In this final position, the bar
should be behind your head and your elbows should be behind your ears.
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It’s a common mistake to let the bar and your arms go forward. This is not a stable
position overhead, and it’ll be a struggle to hold heavy weights above your head like
this:
Imagine holding a heavy weight above your head like this, impossible. With all these drills,
imagine the weight is heavy.
The only prerequisite for the snatch is that you’re able to perform an Olympic style
squat. This means you should have enough mobility, knee, and hip wise to be in the
bottom position of the snatch.
However, that’s not all that is needed for the snatch. Some of you may struggle to with
this exercise due to lack of upper body mobility. Your overhead position may look like
the picture above.
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The best shoulder mobility exercise is the shoulder dislocation stretch. This can be
done with a broomstick, but preferably it should be done with a band as it’s safer.
Grab the band with a wide grip and swing your arms overhead so that your elbows are
behind your ears. Make sure to keep your arms straight, hold this position (picture 2)
for 10–15 seconds. You can attempt to swing your arms all the way around, but this is
dangerous without a band.
Repeat this multiple times to improve your mobility, then narrow your grip. This
exercise is perfect for improving your shoulder mobility for both the snatch and the
jerk.
Just practising the BTN snatch grip press and related exercises is a great way to
improve not just mobility, but stability, technique, and strength. So once you’re able to
get close to doing a proper BTN snatch grip press, the majority of practice should be on
that and related exercises.
Overall the BTN snatch grip press is quite a straight forward exercise, all you have to do
is have snatch grip, and you literally just push the bar overhead. This is simple because
the bar is already behind your head. It’s really dumbing down the learning process, but
it’s important you learn how this feels overhead, this is your catch position for the
snatch.
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Recommended Reps: 5-7 reps with a PVC pipe or 5kg bar. (Remember, the number of
sets depends on how much you struggle with this and how much time you dedicate to
training).
Overhead Squat
This is the most challenging exercise. It’s a road block for a lot of people learning the
snatch. It’s so difficult that I think it’s best not to think of this as a prerequisite for the
snatch, otherwise you’ll spend weeks just working on this and nothing else.
If you struggle with this exercise, don’t worry. Just spend a lot of your time working on
it, but also focus on the later drills. Make sure to wear weightlifting shoes.
The main challenge here is mobility. If you really struggle to get into the bottom
position, then refer to the previously mentioned mobility exercises in the back squat
section and on the BTN snatch grip press.
The bottom position
The overhead squat is where you have a snatch grip, and squat all the way down and
stand up. Very simple technically, but the main challenge is the mobility.
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Perform a BTN snatch grip press
The first step is to perform a BTN snatch grip press and hold the bar overhead. Your
stance width should be slightly wider than your back squat stance, you’ll really just
have to experiment to find the most comfortable position. A slightly wider stance is
best because it’ll allow you to go deeper.
Descending into the bottom position. Make sure to look straight ahead
The next step is to slowly descend into the bottom position. Ensure that the bar stays in
the same place overhead (elbows behind ears) and keep your arms locked out.
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Looking from the side view, you can see that my elbows are behind my ears and torso is
inclined forward slightly. It should also look like this when you stand up from the
bottom.
Go into the deepest possible position without allowing your lower back to round
significantly. Pause at the bottom for 3-5 seconds. I recommend you pause every rep
when you first learn this exercise, once you get comfortable with the bottom position
you can shorten the time you pause at the bottom.
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Stand up from the bottom position, following the same path you took on the way down.
Don’t allow your torso to lean forward or arms to move forward. Keep everything in the
same place.
It’s important you practice this exercise slowly. It’ll help to count to 3 seconds as you
descend and count to 3 seconds as you stand up. Also ensure you hold the bar overhead
for 3 seconds at the top, this will reinforce these positions.
As you become more accustomed to this exercise, you can speed it up slightly, but
when you’re learning, a single rep should take around 10–15 seconds to complete (←
link to video), which includes the pause at the bottom.
Recommended Reps: 3-5 reps with a PVC pipe or 5kg bar.
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Snatch Extension
This looks pretty straight forward. You hold the bar with a snatch grip and lower it to
just right above the knees and up pull it back up.
However, there are quite a few things to focus on here. The purpose of this exercise is
to teach you the extension in the snatch and the path the bar takes.
The first step is to hold the bar with your snatch grip and stand tall. Keep the bar close
to your body.
Lower the bar down while keeping it close to (but not touching) your thighs until it
reaches above your knee. Ensure that you pull your head back and that you’re looking
straight ahead.
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Notice from the side view at point 3 that my shoulders are over the bar. People will
make the mistake of having their shoulders behind the bar in this position.
The next step is to bring the bar back up to where you started: at the hips. Follow the
same path you took on the way down and ensure the bar stays close to your body.
A common mistake people make is that they lower their hips far too much and their
shoulders are behind the bar. You’re not trying to lift the bar like you’re taught in
manual handling courses, use your back!
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Tall Muscle Snatch
This drill teaches you the pulling mechanics in the snatch. It isn’t as simple as just
swinging the bar overhead.
1) Like the snatch extension, start with the bar at your hips.
2) Pull on the bar using only your arms. Focus on keeping the bar close and keeping
your elbows high. Try not to reverse curl the bar.
You can see that the bar is close to my body and elbows are high as I pull. My torso is
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also leaning back slightly, this is to allow the bar to pass.
3) Once your wrists pass your elbows, this is where you begin to push the bar overhead.
It’s helpful to think about this exercise as a pull and a push overhead, instead of just
swinging the bar overhead. Of course, you want to keep this continuous, it shouldn’t be
a two part movement.
The push overhead. Ensure you lock out your arms completely and hold the bar overhead.
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Like I said previously, practice this slowly and then gradually speed it up. This applies
to pretty much all the drills.
BTN Snatch Grip Jerk
Before practising the snatch balance, you should first learn the dip and drive and BTN
snatch grip jerk. This will also help you learn the split jerk later on.
The first step of the BTN snatch grip jerk is the dip and drive. This is performed to
utilize the power of your legs for bringing the bar overhead.
1) Put the bar behind your back like you did for the BTN snatch grip press.
2) Bend your knees slightly. Try not to lean forward with the torso, try to keep it
vertical.
3) ‘Spring’ out of the bottom of the dip and drive with your legs.
The dip and drive for this isn’t as important as the dip and drive in the jerk, since you
won’t perform a dip and drive in the actual snatch. This is just a set-up.
Don’t worry too much about the dip and drive yet. I’ll go into it in more detail when you
learn the clean and jerk.
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It’s best to practice the dip and drive alone for a while before attempting the BTN
snatch grip jerk.
1–3) This is the dip and drive. During the drive, extend your legs as hard as possible like
you’re trying to jump into the air. After you complete the drive (‘jump’) you should lift
your feet off the floor and move them into a wider position which is the overhead squat
stance you established earlier.
3-4) Try to think about moving your feet fast into the wider stance instead of donkey
kicking (lifting your feet off the floor excessively). It’s helpful to focus on stomping
your feet on the ground to ensure you land on the whole foot.
5) Lock your arms out overhead and catch the bar with your knees slightly bent. This
should be the same position overhead as in the BTN snatch grip press.
6) Stand up and hold the bar overhead for 2–3 seconds, then go onto the next rep.
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Scarecrow Drill
This drill combines the tall muscle snatch and BTN snatch grip jerk. It will teach you
the turnover and drop under (picture 2 to 3) and how fast it should be.
Begin the drill like you’re going for a tall muscle snatch. Pause at the top of the pull
(basically when the bar reaches your chin, see picture 2). From point 2 to 3 the push
overhead and drop under should be fast and aggressive.
There is a lot of going here, but you’ve practised pushing the bar overhead in the tall
muscle snatch drill, and you’ve practised moving your feet out and dropping under in
the BTN snatch grip jerk. Think about this drill like this: Instead of the bar being behind
your head like in the BTN snatch grip jerk, it’s instead just in front of you, all the steps
are the same.
Snatch Balance
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Before practising this drill, it may be helpful to just try: BTN snatch grip jerk, then once
the bar is overhead, perform an overhead squat. Two exercises which you have already
learned. This is not the same as a snatch balance, but the only difference with the
snatch balance is that once you catch the bar (picture 4) you continue to go down into
the bottom position.
When you catch the bar (picture 4) you should not pause, this is a common mistake.
Although it may be useful to try that when you first learn this to give yourself more
time to think about it. Also, the speed of the descent and standing up should be slow at
first, over time you can speed this up. Eventually, you’ll perform this fast while
remaining tight.
The purpose of this exercise is to teach you how to drop under in the snatch. It teaches
you that you shouldn’t be ‘loose’ and just ‘fall’ into the bottom position. It teaches you
to remain tight despite dropping under fast. The key is to always apply upward force to
the bar to prevent it from crashing on you.
If you watch high level lifters snatch, it may look like they’re just pulling on the bar and
plummeting to the bottom position with no tension. But there’s a constant effort to
stay connected to the bar. At no point are high level lifters letting the bar fall on them,
they are pushing up against the bar in the catch. This is an important concept which
applies to the clean and jerk too.
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Drop Snatch
This is a difficult but fun exercise once you master it. Basically, this is a snatch balance
without the dip and drive. All you do is start with the bar behind your head like you’re
going for a snatch balance, and you just drop into the bottom position (no dip and
drive).
Sounds scary right? It is at first. You should definitely only perform this with a PVC
pipe, but once you learn the snatch, you can try this with a barbell. Even after 15 years
of weightlifting, I occasionally do this as a warm-up.
This is the top exercise I prescribe to people that struggle with going under the bar fast.
When you become more advanced and perform this with some weight, you’re forced to
perform a quick drop under.
I already talked about being tight when you drop under, but an analogy that relates to
this exercise is: imagine you were asked to jump off a table and land in the bottom
position of a squat. When you land, would you just allow your body to collapse into the
bottom position without trying to absorb the impact? No of not, because if you did,
you’d injure yourself.
If you performed a heavy drop snatch (or heavy snatch) the force pushing down on you
in the drop under is high, like when you jump off a table, so you need to stay tight and
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push up.
The goal with the snatch is to pull the bar as high as possible and go under as fast as
possible. You’ll need to go under fast AND apply force upwards against the bar to
prevent it from crashing on you.
Snatch Contact Drill
This drill was not included in the original snatch tutorial video, but I added it in
because over the years I’ve found that it’s a very valuable drill for teaching the
beginners the hip contact.
A lot of beginners struggle to make adequate hip contact, so this drill exaggerates it.
You don’t lift like this for the actual snatch, it’s just a drill, so you can feel how it
works.
With the snatch, the bar should contact right above the pubic bone, as you learned for
finding your grip width.
1) Start position for the snatch extension.
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2) Here’s the important part, lower the bar to knee level and keep the bar far away
from the body. This is totally incorrect for the actual snatch, but like I said, this is just a
drill to exaggerate the contact. If the bar is further away, the contact will be greater.
2-4) From this awkward position, pull the bar into your hips using your lats while
extending your knees and hips aggressively. If you do this correctly, the bar should
pop off the hips and the bar should vibrate slightly. If it doesn’t, then you need to focus
on pulling the bar into your hips harder and extending harder.
After you make contact, pull your arms slightly like the beginning of the muscle snatch.
Hang Power Snatch (above the knee)
The hang power snatch is a great exercise for correcting the third pull in particular.
This is defined as everything from picture 4 to 5, basically the scarecrow drill, except
the term ‘third pull’ describes it as the portion during an actual snatch (or hang power
snatch in this case). The third pull is kind of a bad name, since it also describes the
push overhead. The third pull is technically a pull and push.
With this, you actually apply the principles you learned in the scarecrow, and you can
utilize progressive overload (adding weight to the exercise overtime).
Anyway, this exercise combines drills you’ve learned:
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Picture 1 to 3 = Snatch extension (and snatch contact drill)
Picture 2 to 4 = Pull to scarecrow position
Picture 4 to 6 = Scarecrow drill
So there is nothing new here. Easier said than done, obviously. It’s challenging
mentally to join drills together. When you’re learning, everything up to the scarecrow
position (picture 4) can be slowed down. Just remember that you should not pause
between the steps shown, it should be continuous.
Another thing people struggle with is the contact with the hips. This is why I included
the contact drill, but applying it to an actual exercise can be difficult.
Once you become more accustomed, speed it up. As well as great practice for the third
pull, this exercise is great for developing speed. Probably one of the most valuable
exercises for sprinters and other athletes that need to develop power.
I usually prescribe this exercise for people struggling with the transition from the
snatch extension to pull. A common mistake is people slow down or stop and start
during this transition. You need to learn to continue to accelerate the bar.
Hang Snatch (above the knee)
Notice something here? It’s the same image used here as the hang power snatch
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(except picture 6). That’s because when you do power variations, the only difference
should be the squat down (picture 5 to 6). The pulling mechanics, the amount you
move your feet out, etc are all the same.
The same principles you’ve learned for the snatch balance and drop snatch apply here.
A lot of beginners get worried about squatting down too slow, but slowing the squat
down is actually a good thing during the learning process because you can make
improvements overtime. It’s much better than the alternative, which is very common:
not finishing the pull and dropping under too quickly.
This means the lifter reaches the bottom position, but the bar is not in the right place
overhead because they didn’t focus on the motion of their arms (the pull and push
overhead—third pull). This problem can even persist into the intermediate and
advanced stages of weightlifting.
A lot of coaches will advise: “Stay connected to the bar” or “pull under”. This means
as you go under, you should be actively pulling on the bar and staying ‘connected’ to it,
rather than being ‘disconnected’ and just pulling and plummeting into the bottom
position.
You can get away with this error If you’re snatching a light weight as a beginner.
However, with a heavy weight, even 60kg, if you just drop into the hole then you’ll
have 60kg falling on you with a lot of force. It’ll require a lot more strength to brace
this impact compared to if you stayed ‘connected’ to the bar.
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Starting Position and Snatch Deadlift
Start position for the snatch. Here I’m using plates that have a 45 cm diameter.
For this, it’s important that you use a barbell and load some weight to elevate it to the
standard height (as if a standard weightlifting plate was on the bar - 45cm diameter).
This is essential because you want to actually practice the snatch deadlift as if there
was weight on the barbell.
Large 5kg training plate (45 cm diameter) loaded onto the bar.
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It will depend on your gym what weights are available, some gyms might not have 5 kg
plates with a 45cm diameter.
If you don’t have light training plates available, then just hold the bar in position as if
there were standard sized plates on the bar. Remember, it’s important that the weight
is as light as possible to allow you to perform multiple reps (more reps = more practice)
Holding an empty bar in the correct starting position. Load the bar with 45cm diameter
plates (even if it’s heavy). See where the bar is on your shins, memorize that and that’s
where you should lift the empty bar from.
With all that being said, learning the starting position is not easy. There’s a lot to go
over, don’t underestimate the difficulty of getting this right, it’s not as simple as it
looks.
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Stance Width.
The ideal starting stance. This is similar to my vertical jump stance.
An important thing to remember is, just because a certain position feels comfortable
does not mean it’s correct, and just because something feels uncomfortable does not
mean it’s incorrect.
You learned this with the back squat, having a wide grip, wide stance and relaxed upper
body probably felt natural and comfortable, but the ideal set up may have been an
uncomfortably tight position.
A lot of people learning the snatch like to have a wide stance with their toes pointed out
excessively, this is because it’s easy. However, when you’re lifting with a wide stance,
you don’t generate as much power and the bar height is reduced.
Wide starting stance due to lack of mobility
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The ‘textbook’ stance for the snatch is around the same width as the ideal starting
stance picture above: inside shoulder width. A good way to find this is by testing your
vertical jump. What stance width can you jump the highest? That’s the ideal stance,
since it can generate the most power. Of course, it can vary slightly from this due to
other factors, but that’s a good starting point.
Finding your grip for the snatch
Next, while the bar is loaded with plates, simply grab the bar with your snatch grip and
set your feet around your vertical jump stance.
Starting position front view and side view
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So this is the position where you’ll begin the snatch. The focus here is just learning
this position and feeling it. Later I’ll go over how you should set up into this position
when you actually snatch, so don’t worry how you set yourself into this position.
Now, this position will feel uncomfortable, and you may ask why would you set up into
a position where you won’t be able to lift the heaviest weight you can. It’s true that if
you elevate your hips, you can certainly lift more weight off the floor.
‘Powerlifting style’ snatch grip deadlift.
However, the goal of the snatch deadlift is to put yourself into a good position for the
extension.
Terrible position for the snatch extension—because of high hip position.
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If you begin the snatch with your hips too high, then you’ll put yourself in a terrible
position for the snatch extension. You’ll also have a greater distance to extend
compared to if you started with your hips low and used your legs.
Hip Position
Great position for the snatch extension—because of the lower hip position.
Hips too low
It’s important you don’t lower your hips too much, which is also a common mistake.
You might see high level weightlifters with a hip position this low, however this is only
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their set-up. You should see their hip position when the bar comes off the floor, not
when they’re setting up.
Shoulder Position
Side view of the starting position. Shoulders are over the bar.
Your shoulders must be over the bar when looking from side view. Luckily, if you just
focus on this, you’ll most likely set your hips to the correct height.
Now going back to the stance width… If you set up with a vertical jump stance with your
shoulders over the bar and hips low (lower than a conventional/powerlifting style
deadlift) then you might struggle to keep your back straight.
Rounded back, due to lack of mobility.
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This is why people will just resort to a wider stance. This works for keeping your back
straight, but this is like jumping with a wider stance, you won’t jump as high (produce
as much force).
There are a few things to note, a slightly rounded back is not an issue. With the picture
of the ideal set up, you’ll see my back is slightly rounded. This is still OK as long as it’s
not excessive, and it won’t hinder your ability to perform a good snatch extension (or
second pull).
Having a slightly rounded back with your vertical jump stance is more ideal than
having a straight back with a wider stance.
Not everyone can hyperextend their back like women in the 45kg class, they’re going to
have fewer issues with mobility. When I was peaking for the Olympic lifts, I actually
performed better when I lost weight because I could get into better positions that
would allow me to produce more power.
So if you can’t get into the ideal position, do everything you can to make it work, then if
it really doesn’t work adjust your stance.
To improve your mobility for the snatch deadlift, the same exercises you did hip
mobility in the back squat applies. It may take time to improve it, but just realize
having a wider stance with your toes pointed out excessively is only a band-aid
solution.
In the starting position you should 1) feel tension in your upper back (focus on pulling
your chest out to flexing your upper back to prevent rounding). 2) feel tension in your
hips (since your torso is going to be in proximity to thighs). 3) feel tension in your
quads (as if you’re going to push the ground with your legs).
With your arms, you should keep them straight, but they should not be tense. It’s best
to keep more towards being relaxed.
Before learning the pull off the floor, it’s best to literally just practice holding the
start position. You can do multiple sets and reps, and holding the position for 4-6
seconds.
I went over a lot, so I’ll summarize. In the start position:
1) Your shoulders should be over the bar.
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2) Your head should be pulled back while looking straight ahead.
3) Your arms should be straight
4) You should pull out your chest to create upper back tension
5) You should feel tension in your quads
Snatch Deadlift
I already explained the important notes about the start position, but how should you
actually get into this position, and how should you pull the bar off the floor?
With the Olympic lifts (or any lift) you should have a routine before beginning the lift.
This is similar to what 100 m runners do before setting themselves up for the blocks. If
you pay attention, it’s consistent every time.
For me: I slowly walk to the bar, stand over it for a second, take a small breath, find my
grip with my hips high, tense my arms a bit, lift my hips up and down briefly a few
times, lower them and then begin the pull.
190kg/418lbs Snatch
Of course, you do not have to do this or even pay attention to all these details. Some
lifters will jump in the air and stretch their arms before they lift, it doesn’t really
matter. The important thing is to keep whatever you do consistent.
What is essential though is that you begin the snatch (or clean) with a static start. This
means you set up for the snatch deadlift start position (which you’ve already learned)
And you pause in this position for 1–2 seconds before pulling the bar off the floor.
This simplifies the set-up, and it’s highly recommended for beginners. The dynamic
set up is where there’s movement of the body before pulling the bar off the floor, it can
be slightly better, but it’s a more advanced set up, it’s best to try it after 1 year of
learning weightlifting. That being said, there are plenty of Olympic medallists who use
a static start, so it’s not just reserved for beginners.
Link to video showing the static and dynamic start
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The snatch deadlift
1) Set up into the start position.
2 - 3) This shows the pull up to the knees. This is defined as the first pull in the snatch.
Begin the pull with the static start. Ensure your shoulders are over the bar during this
phase.
Looking from side view, the bar should move in a straight line or slightly back. Your
shoulders and hips should come up at the same speed, try not to let your hips shoot up.
Push the ground using your legs.
For beginners and even up to Olympic level lifters, it’s best to intentionally slow
down this phase (the first pull). Believe it or not, the snatch and clean and jerk has
phases where it’s best to slow down, it’s not all explosive from ground to overhead,
this is one of those phases.
The reason it’s best to slow it down is because speed during this phase doesn’t matter
that much, the speed later on matters. The focus should be on proper positioning,
slowing it down will ensure you get it right. This is especially ideal for beginners.
4) During the lift, it’s best to move your body out of the way of the bar instead of the
other way around. Here you’ll see I move my knees out of the way of the moving bar,
rather than looping the bar around my knees.
There’s a bunch of discussion about the double knee bend, if you haven’t heard of it,
don’t worry. It’s best not to think of it. The only thing you should worry about here is
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that the bar does not loop around your knees. Move your knees out of the way to allow
the bar to pass.
4-5) And this is just the snatch extension, which you’ve already learned. During this
phase, the shoulders begin to move back, and the bar goes back into the hips. You do
not need to perform this fast.
For the first pull (bar up to knees) the bar moves in a straight line (or slightly forward
or back, depends on your morphology), then once the bar passes your knees it begins to
move back into your body.
Recommended Reps: 4-6 reps on the lightest barbell you can find with standard sized
plates (or just a barbell)
Snatch Pull
This is one of the most common accessory exercises that weightlifters use.
Interestingly, I don’t think it’s a useful exercise for beginners, but it’s useful as a
learning tool for the snatch.
1-2) This is the first pull, which you already learned. Remember to perform this phase
slow while focusing on positioning.
3-4) With the snatch deadlift, there was no effort to extend fast after the bar passes the
knees. With the snatch pull, you should extend aggressively while focusing on pulling
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the bar into your hips using your lats. At position 3 the focus should be on extending
your knees and hips aggressively to ‘pop’ the bar out.
Muscle Snatch
This combines a couple of drills you’ve already learned. It combines the snatch pull and
tall muscle snatch. Unlike the tall muscle snatch, you can progressively overload with
this exercise, not that you should as a beginner. Like the snatch pull, it’s useful as a
learning tool.
Everything up to picture 4 is pretty much the snatch pull, although more effort should
be put on pulling the bar higher and closer to your body. Remember, once you extend
your knees for the extension, they should not rebend, that would be a power snatch,
not a muscle snatch.
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Power Snatch
The most common accessory exercise for the snatch. However, As a beginner, I
wouldn’t recommend you spend too much time on this exercise, it’s best to just learn
how to do it and move onto the snatch. Practising the snatch is much more beneficial
because many beginners struggle with the overhead squat.
You should have had a lot of practice with the hang power snatch and snatch, so this
shouldn’t be too difficult. Of course, the main challenge here is the transition from the
first pull (from the ground to where the bar is above the knees) to the second and third
pull.
The transition should be continuous, and you should only accelerate, never slow down.
Remember, pull slow for the first pull and gradually speed up.
plates (or just a barbell).
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Snatch
As I mentioned previously, the hang power snatch and hang snatch are the same
exercise in terms of pulling mechanics, the only difference being the overhead squat.
This is the same case with the power snatch and snatch. As you can see, it looks like a
power snatch up to picture 5.
It’s important to take your time when performing the snatch as a beginner:
Use a static start, slow down the first pull, pause at the bottom, stand up slowly and
hold the bar overhead for 2–3 seconds before doing the next rep. I see beginners all the
time wanting to rush through each rep. You’re learning a new movement, it takes time
to familiarize yourself with all the positions.
The recommended reps for the snatch is 3-5 reps on the lightest barbell you can find
with standard sized plates (or just a barbell). Once you get to this stage, you should still
do drills you’re bad at.
If you struggle with the overhead squat, then do multiple sets with that drill. If you
struggle with the extension, then do multiple sets of hang power snatches. Also
consider do complexes, such as sets of snatch followed by 5 overhead squats.
Once your snatch begins to get better, then the time you spend on other drills can
decrease, with more focus just put on the snatch. However, it’s still wise to warm up
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with multiple drills before you begin doing sets of snatches.
Common mistakes
Swinging arms around (bar go too far forward):
What happens: After the extension, the bar swings out rather than keeping it close to
the body.
Correction: Focus on keeping the bar close

to your body. The best cue is to imagine
there’s a vertical line in front of the bar that
you should not pass. This will help you keep
the bar close. Of course, if you have long
arms this will be impossible and the bar will
have to pass the vertical line. But it’s still
helpful to use this cue to force yourself to
pull close.
Slowing down during the pull:
What happens: During the snatch, you stop and start or slow down between the
phases. For example, you may perform the snatch with good pulling mechanics and
positioning, but you hesitate and slow down for the snatch extension.
Correction: It’s important to remember that all these phases should blend together.
The beginning of the snatch should be slow. Then it should gradually speed up. You
should never slow down.
Trying to lift as fast as possible:
What happens: A beginner tries to snatch as fast as possible. Ripping the bar off the
floor, exploding for the extension and plummeting to the bottom position.
Correction: You have to realize as a beginner, you do not need to move as fast as high
level Olympic lifters. You won’t be able to control the bar because you’re unfamiliar
with lifts. Don’t worry about being slow under the bar, the speed can be improved over
time.
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How to Clean and Jerk
Just like the snatch portion, I recommend you watch the clean and jerk tutorial I made
with Omar before reading this section. This is so you have a clear image in your head on
what the drills look like before reading about them in further detail.
OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING 101: How To Clean & Jerk (Full Tutorial) Ft. Clarence K…
Front rack position
Having a good rack position is the first prerequisite for learning the clean and jerk. If
you can’t rack the bar, then you won’t be able to rest the bar on a solid base, meaning
power will be lost.
In the clean, you perform a front squat. This is a weightlifting style front squat,
meaning the arms are not crossed:
Correct front rack position
The bar should rest on your shoulders with your elbows high. A misconception is
people believe the bar is supported by the hands:
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Incorrect front rack position
To demonstrate why the bar should not be supported by the hands, there’s an exercise
called the zombie front squat:
Oh look! No hands!
So in the front rack, the bar should be supported by the platform you create with your
shoulders.
There are two different styles of front rack you’ll see weightlifters use. The full grip and
the loose grip.
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The full grip
The loose grip
Both grips have their advantages and disadvantages. With the full grip your hands will
be attached to the bar at all times meaning you can pull on it longer, however the
turnover (the speed at which your elbows lift up to go into the rack position) will be
slower compared to the loose grip.
I’d say 90% of lifters use the loose grip, so it’s more likely the grip you’ll be using. The
thing that determines what grip you’ll use is mobility. Most people will really struggle
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to front rack with a full grip, especially during max cleans.
Obviously, this isn’t a dichotomy. Some lifters will have a tight grip around the bar but
let go of the hook grip, some will catch the bar with three fingers, or four fingers.
What I’d recommend to the majority of beginners is to have a loose grip where four
fingers are around the bar:
The recommended front rack style for beginners
Things to focus on for the front rack:
• The shoulders should protract and elevate to create a shelf for the bar to rest
• Elbows should be high
• Tilt your head back slightly and look straight ahead
So, the mobility demands of the front rack are high, typically older men with muscular
upper bodies will struggle. If you lack the mobility, then I recommend these exercises:
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Mobility exercises for the front rack
Mobility exercise 1: The half front rack
This exercise is great for people who can’t get anywhere close to the front rack
position.
The bar should be on a squat rack and loaded with at least 50kg, so you don’t
accidentally lift it up. The goal is to get your wrist as close as possible to your shoulder
while keeping your elbow high, hold this for 15–25 seconds and do as many sets as
needed (this depends on how much time you have in the gym as mentioned previously).
Mobility exercise 2: the front rack!
Of course, the best way to improve your mobility for the front rack… is the front rack
itself! Now you might struggle to do a front rack with a full grip, but try to get as close
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as you can. You can rest the bar with 2 or 3 fingers if you struggle. Over time, try to get a
full grip.
It’s best to use some weight for this exercise, perhaps 25-60kg. This is to force yourself
into the front rack position.
Once you’re able to move onto this exercise, there’s no need to do the half front rack
mobility exercise, or at least only do it as a brief warm up.
With this, you just want to hold the front rack position for 15-25 seconds. Do this for as
many sets as needed.
Mobility exercise 3: front rack with straps
This is by far the best mobility exercise for the front rack. It’s basically a more extreme
version of the front rack, where the straps force you to have a tight grip. Only do this
exercise if you’re able to rack the bar normally.
When using straps, I recommend you use them as tight as possible to ensure you have a
full grip around the bar. Again, I would recommend you hold this position for 15-25
seconds. Do this for as many sets as needed.
Controversial idea: like I mentioned, men with muscular upper bodies coming from
bodybuilding or powerlifting will struggle with the front rack. If you’re dedicating your
time to Olympic lifting and not focusing on bodybuilding or powerlifting. Then I would
recommend you cease upper body exercises such as bench pressing, bicep curls, etc
completely at least for a couple of months when you’re learning Olympic lifting.
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Decreasing musculature around the arms can make a dramatic difference for the front
rack.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you won’t be doing upper body exercises, but instead
these upper body exercises will be more specific to the Olympic lifts. Bicep curling is a
hindrance to learning the clean.
Front Squat
The front squat. One of the most gruelling exercises in the gym. This squat variation is
absolutely essential for learning to clean.
The goal of the snatch is to get close to as deep as possible with your squat stance. With
the clean, it’s a little different. You want to choose a stance that is strong, a stance
you can squat the most weight in. So for front squatting, it's best that your stance is
similar to your back squat stance. The clean is more of a strength exercise vs the
snatch.
Wide stance - deeper, but weaker!
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Ideal stance. This is similar to my back squat stance - my strongest stance (yours may differ)
The front rack
The first step of the front squat is of course the front rack. I went over this already, the
majority of people will have a loose grip/open hand grip. You should retain this grip for
the duration of the front squat. Focus on keeping your elbows up as you go down
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The descent
During the descent (eccentric) you should break at the knees and hips (hip and knee
flexion should occur at the same time). So, looking from side view, your torso should be
inclined forward slightly (hip flexion) and knees should be bending (knee flexion).
Torso inclined forward. Knees bending
During the descent (and throughout the entire squat), focus on keeping your elbows
up, head back slightly, looking straight ahead and keeping tension in your back.
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Incorrect. Too upright
Continue to the bottom of the squat
As you go down in the front squat, ensure you don’t lean over excessively and round
your upper back.
As you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of pausing your lifts, especially if you’re a
beginner. So I would recommend you pause for 3 seconds before standing up. This will
do two things:
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The bottom position
1) It improves your mobility and 2) strengthens the bottom position. As you become
more familiar with front squat, you can try “bouncing” out of the bottom. Do a mix of
both when you’re learning.
The most common mistake with front squats is a rounding upper back. I wouldn’t say
this is a big mistake, since it can be near impossible to fix for everyone. Some people
are just built better for front squatting.
Wow, this doesn’t look pretty. I’ve sucked at front squatting for 15 years.
There are two causes of this. Strength imbalance and technique.
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If you have a strong posterior chain and weak quads, then your max front squats/
cleans may end up looking like the picture above.
The reason I’m leaning over excessively with my upper back rounded isn’t exactly
because my upper body can’t support the weight, it’s because I’m not relying on quads.
The best way to correct this issue is by making your quads stronger. But like I said,
rounding of the upper back/leaning forward might be impossible to correct (at max
weights). But it’s still desirable to limit it as much as possible (especially with lighter
weights).
This issue can be caused by technique issues too, even if you don’t have underlying
strength issues. A reason this can happen is from the bar crashing hard on you at the
bottom of the clean, or descending with no tension in the front squat. When you
descend in the front squat you should remain tight, you don’t “drop” into the bottom.
The ascent (the concentric)
Wait, this looks exactly like the descent picture? That’s right! It should! When you
come out of the bottom, you should follow the same path as the descent. The torso
angle should be the same as the descent (unlike in that rounded upper back picture).
Things to focus on for the front squat:
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• Keep elbows up
• Head should tilt back slightly
• Look straight ahead
• Stay tight and keep tension in your back.
• When coming out of the bottom, follow the same path as the descent
Tall Muscle Clean
This drill will teach you the pulling mechanics of the clean in a slow and easy to
understand way.
First step, the starting position.
So what was your front rack grip width? Whatever that was, is the grip width for all
exercises related to the clean, including this one. So memorize where that is on the
bar.
This is the standard way to clean, you don’t want to be experimenting with moving
your grip in during the rack or anything like that. Keep it simple at first, experiment
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later.
Start in the position in the photo above. The top of a deadlift. Ensure you are hook
gripping the bar also.
The foot stance should be similar to your vertical jump stance for similar reasons that I
mentioned in the snatch section.
The beginning of the pull
Begin by pulling on the bar with your arms. Ensure you keep your elbows high. Do you
see how the principles here are the same as the tall muscle snatch?
The pull from side view
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As you can see from the side view, my elbows are high, and the bar is remaining close
to my body. This isn’t a reverse barbell curl.
Beginning the turnover
Continue to pull and keep the bar close to your body. Once your wrists reach your
elbows, this is where you will begin the turnover (flipping your elbows up).
The turnover
Perform this motion slowly to give yourself time to think about what you’re doing. Lift
your elbows up and bring the bar into the rack position. As you bring the bar into the
rack position, release the hook grip to an open hand rack position.
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Once you’re more comfortable doing this at a slow speed, gradually speed up.
Things to focus on for tall muscle clean:
• Keep your elbows high
• Pull close to your body
• Lift your elbows up for turnover
• Release the hook grip
Recommended reps: 4-6 reps with a 15-20kg barbell.
Clean Extension
This should be easy for you because this is almost the exact same thing as the snatch
extension. The only difference is the grip width.
At the top position, the bar will vary where it is on the thigh depending on your arm
length. This is around where the contact point should be, which for me is the upper
thigh, as you can see in picture 1.
Simply perform this exercise the same way you performed the snatch extension.
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Things to focus on for the clean extension:
• Keep head back
• Eyes forward
• Chest out
• Feel tension in your upper back. Maintain this as you lower the bar and come up.
•Shoulders over bar
Rack Drill
This is similar to the scarecrow drill as performed in the snatch.
(1) Start in the tall position and begin the pull.
(2) Pull close to the body and keep your elbows high. When your wrists are just below
your elbows, pause for 2 seconds and
(3) then drop into the catch position. Move your feet out into the catch position (front
squat stance) as fast as possible.
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Notice how the catch position looks the same as the beginning of a front squat? That’s
what it should look like. The torso should be inclined forward slightly, with the knees
bent slightly. This is typically where you would catch power cleans. Go about as deep as
you can see in the picture 3 above.
Clean Contact Drill
This is similar to the snatch contact drill and serves the same purpose. Remember, this
is a drill to exaggerate the contact, so you can feel how it works. You should not do this
in the actual clean.
1) Start position for the clean extension. Wherever the bar is here, is where the contact
should occur with the clean. It’s okay if it’s slightly lower than this point.
2) Like the snatch contact drill, lower the bar to knee level and put the bar far away
from your body.
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2-3) Using your lats pull the bar into the contact point. For me this is upper thigh, for
some people with long arms it may be mid-thigh.
Focus on extending your knees and hips hard and fast. Once the bar contacts your body,
the bar should vibrate/rattle.
4) After the contact, pull the bar slightly using your arms like the beginning of the
muscle clean.
Hang Power Clean
Hang power clean (above the knee)
This joins together all you learned.
1) Start in the tall position.
2) Lower the bar to above the knee. Focus on keeping your shoulders over the bar.
3) Extend and focus on pulling the bar into your thighs using your lats and at the same
time focus on extending your hips and knees aggressively. This is like the clean contact
drill, however the difference here is that you keep the bar close to your thighs.
4) Pull the bar with your arms as you drop under.
5) Receive the bar in the rack position and stand up.
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Focusing on stomping your feet when you go into the receiving stance will ensure you
move your feet.
Once again, slow down the movement if you are struggling and then gradually speed it
up.
Hang Clean
Hang (full) clean (above the knee)
The only difference between this exercise and the hang power clean is you squat down.
So instead of catching the bar with your knees slightly bent, you ride the bar all the way
into the hole and stand up.
Now, this will be difficult to do at first. Many people will complain that they aren’t
going under fast enough. Like I mentioned with the snatch, this is not an issue. Just
because you see high level lifters drop under extremely fast doesn’t mean you should
be doing the same when you’re learning.
I recommend that people catch the bar high (like in the hang power clean) and then
ride the bar down slowly. Over time, once you get used to this, you can speed it up.
This will teach you to remain tight as you go down. When “dropping” into the bottom
position, your body isn’t loose, and you don’t just “fall down”. Treat the drop under
like it’s a front squat. You descend, you bounce (stretch reflex) and you stand up as
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strong as possible.
Clean Deadlift
As I mentioned for the snatch deadlift, it’s important you use standard sized plates to
elevate the bar to the correct height. If you can’t do this with light enough weight, then
just hold the barbell where it would be if standard weights were on the bar.
The principles here are quite similar to the snatch deadlift:
>Use a static start.

>Keep your shoulders over the bar.
>Push the ground with your legs.
>Head back, eyes forward.
>Keep the bar close to your body.
There may be a difference in the starting stance, with the clean deadlift stance being
narrower. As I mentioned with the snatch deadlift, people will resort to widening their
stance and pointing their feet out excessively to straighten their back. With the clean
deadlift, you can’t get away with this as much unless you widen your grip also, which
interferes with the racking of the bar.
So generally, the snatch starting stance is slightly wider than the clean starting stance.
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Experiment with different stances, but I wouldn’t stray too far away from the
‘textbook’ starting stance (around your vertical jump stance) as seen in the picture
above.
Recommended reps: 4-6 reps with 15-40kg.
Power Clean
Join everything you learned together: the clean deadlift and hang power clean. The
important thing here is to never stop or slow down in the middle of the lift, you should
only speed up.
So the first pull (step 1 to step 2) is slow, then speed up and catch the bar in the rack
position. This shouldn’t be too hard, assuming you spent time learning the previous
drills and the snatch.
Recommended reps: 3-5 reps with a 15-30kg.
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Full Clean
Again, nothing is new here, and it already goes over drills you’ve learned previously.
You’ve learned how to drop under with the hang clean. This is the exact same, except it
begins from the floor rather than from the hang position. Don’t worry about the speed
you go under the bar, you should gradually speed up over time.
Assuming you learned the snatch, learning the clean will be far easier. Out of the three
lifts, it’s the easiest to learn.
Recommended reps: 5 reps with a 20-30kg.
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Strict Press (like a weightlifter!)
Some of you have probably already learned the strict press, but it’s important that you
learn how to strict press correctly for learning the jerk. This means the strict press
should begin in the rack position (picture 1), and in the final position the arms should
be fully extended and behind your head (picture 3). If performed in this manner, then
it’s a great prerequisite for the jerk.
A difference between the front squat and strict press (or jerk) is that the stance is more
narrow compared to the front squat. Your strict press (and jerk) stance should be
similar to your vertical jump stance, as this will create the most power for the dip and
drive when you learn the push press and jerk.
Strict press and jerk stance (left) and front squat stance (right)
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For the rack position, your elbows should be down slightly compared to the rack
position in the front squat, this is to allow you to apply more force to the bar during
the press (or jerk).
Also, the grip around the bar should be tighter for the strict press and jerk. It shouldn’t
be a full tight grip, but certainly tighter than the front rack. You don’t want a loose grip
for the strict press (or jerk).
Front rack for the front squat: This grip is too loose for a strict press (or jerk)
Front rack for the strict press (and jerk) :Notice how my elbows are lower and the grip is
tighter
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From the rack position, begin the press. Remember the rule: move your body out of the
way of the bar instead of the other way around (moving the bar around your body), so
in this case you will need to move your head back to allow the bar to pass.
Moving my head back during the press to allow the bar to pass.
Once the bar passes your head, you should then focus on bringing your head through
and pushing your arms back.
Head back then head forward
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You should focus on getting your elbows behind your ears and your arms should be in
line with your torso. If you don’t do this, then the bar will be in an unstable position
overhead.
Bar is too far forward and head is not pushed through, this is unstable.
Split Position
Before trying the split jerk, it’s best to learn how the split position feels just by walking
into it.
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The split position
With this ‘drill’ just put your hands on your hips and walk into the split position and
hold it.
The foot you put forward should be your dominant leg. If you practised jumping off one
leg (such as doing long jump, high jump or playing basketball) then it’s the leg you
jump off that you should put forward. If you never practised this, then simply check
which leg feels more natural to jump off of or feel what leg feels best to put forward in
the split jerk.
The shin with the front leg should be vertical to the floor. You should be on the balls of
your feet with the back foot with your back knee slightly bent. Many people make the
mistake of bending the back knee far too much, so it’s best to think about just
unlocking the back knee instead of bending it.
The weight on each leg should almost be evenly distributed, with about 60% of the
weight on the front foot and 40% of the weight on the back foot. Your torso should be
vertical when you practice this. There’s no need to focus on what your arms do yet.
You don’t really do multiple reps of this drill, just simply try it a few times and pause in
the split position (for around 10 seconds) to get a sense of how it feels. Later you’ll
learn how to jump into this split stance. If you practised this enough, you’ll know if you
jumped into the correct stance or not by how it feels.
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Recovery from Split Position
Once you land in the split in the split jerk, you’ll need to complete the lift by recovering
and getting your feet in line. This isn’t exactly simple when you have heavyweight
overhead and many lifters fail the jerk at this stage.
The proper way to recover is by first bringing your front foot back and then the back
foot forward.
This is the ideal way to recover from the split jerk, but often times you might see lifters
recover in awkward ways. This is because their balance was off when landing in the
split position, making it more difficult.
Simply walk into the split position like you learned with the last drill, there’s no need
to jump into the split position.
When you bring your feet together, you don’t need to lift your feet off the floor too
much, but they shouldn’t slide on the floor either. When learning the recovery, it’s best
to perform it slow to give yourself more time to think about the movement.
Recommended reps: 6-8 reps
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Press in Split
This is a great test of your stability in the split position. Even I occasionally perform
this exercise before clean and jerk sessions because I find it beneficial as a warm-up.
This is combining everything you learned.
1) Perform a strict press.
2) Walk into the split position with the bar overhead.
3) Lower the bar into the rack position while holding the split position.
4) Perform a strict press in the split position, perform 5 reps of the press.
5) On the last rep, when the bar is overhead, recover from the split position.
Recommended reps: 5 reps as mentioned with a 15-20 kg barbell
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Jerk Balance
This is the first drill that will teach you how to properly jump into the split position. A
common mistake people make with jumping into the split position is that they land on
the front foot first. This is incorrect, you should first land on the back foot first and
then drive the front foot forward.
Here is an example of what I mean:
Lydia Valentin (-75kg, Spain) - 147kg Clean & Jerk
See how her back foot lands on the ground first and how she drives the front foot
forward. The jerk balance teaches you how this works.
With this exercise there’s no real need to use a barbell, since it’s not the focus, and it’ll
prevent you from doing more reps. You can give it a try after you get it right with no
bar.
1) The first step is to pretend you’re racking a bar and walk into a split position, but this
time bring your front foot back about a foot length where it should be.
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2) Then imagine going for a split jerk by aggressively moving your front foot forward
and at the same time push your arms overhead. Reset into the first position and repeat.
Recommended reps: 6-8 reps
The Dip and Drive
You sort of learned this when practising the snatch balance and BTN snatch grip jerk.
Now I’ll go into more detail since it wasn’t too important for learning the snatch.
The legs do much of the work for the jerk, so it’s important you perform a strong drive
with the legs to push the bar high.
This is quite an unnatural movement, and it feels awkward to perform at first. The
main reason it feels awkward is that your torso needs to remain upright as you perform
the dip and drive. This is to ensure the bar moves straight up and not forward.
This differs from the front squat and power clean catch position, where the torso is
inclined forward. Also, the elbows are lower compared to the front squat, like I
mentioned for the strict press.
Beginning of front squat and power clean catch position. Torso is inclined forward, elbows
are higher and stance is wider compared to the jerk dip and drive.
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Jerk dip and drive. Torso is upright, elbows are low and stance is narrow.
1) Hold the bar in the rack position (like you learned for the strict press).
2) The Dip
Bend your knees slightly while keeping your torso upright. When you perform the dip,
you should move down in a controlled fashion. If you do it too fast, then the bar will
separate from your shoulders, and it will crash on you at the bottom of the dip.
Too slow, and you won’t get a strong enough ‘spring’ out of the bottom (stretch reflex).
When learning, it’s best to make the mistake of going too slow, as you can correct
this later. The speed of the dip isn’t too important for now.
You should bend your knees about as much as shown in the picture, of course the depth
of the dip will vary across lifters. It’s best to learn ‘textbook technique’, before trying
to make it shallower or deeper.
3) The Drive
It’s important to note that the change in the direction: the point where you reach the
bottom of the dip and begin the drive, should be as quick as possible. You shouldn’t
pause at the bottom of the dip, you should ‘spring’ out of it (utilize the stretch reflex).
There is some variance about how fast you should perform the dip, but for the drive,
you should perform this as fast and aggressively as possible, like you’re going for a
max vertical jump.
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Of course, when you’re first learning this with light weights, you don’t need to drive
aggressively, just practice the movement. Remember, the torso should remain upright
throughout this whole drill.
Recommended reps: 6-8 reps with a 15-20 kg barbell
Push Press
The push press is a strict press with a dip and drive. With this exercise, your knees
shouldn’t bend in the catch position, that would be a push jerk/power jerk. Once you
extend your knees, they stay extended.
Bending knees in the catch position - not a push press, this is a power jerk
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1) Start with the bar in the rack position.
2) Perform the dip.
3) Perform the drive, this time you should use full force, so extend your legs
aggressively to drive the bar as high as possible.
4) Keep your knees fully extended and drive the bar overhead
Recommended reps for this exercise: 4-6 reps with a 15-20 kg barbell
Power Jerk
This is the exercise you were trying to avoid doing when performing a push press. For
the push press, I said you should not bend the knees in the catch position.
With the power jerk, after you perform the dip and drive, go under the bar by bending
your knees slightly. Catch the bar and stand up. With this, it’s optional to move your
feet into a wider position (‘jump’). But, you can just keep your feet where they are for
the dip and drive if you find that simpler.
There’s no need to spend too much time on this exercise, more time should be spent
learning the split jerk. I highly recommend people to learn the split jerk properly, and
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not become a power jerker or squat jerker.
Recommended reps: 4–6 reps with a 15-20 kg barbell.
Split Jerk
1) Hold the bar in the rack position. Remember to have your hands around the bar more
and elbows slightly lower compared to the clean rack position.
2) Initiate the dip. Remember as a beginner, you want to perform the dip slow and
controlled.
3) Drive your legs as hard as possible, like you learned in the push press. A good cue
here is to allow the bar to reach around eye level before you begin to move your feet
into the split position. It doesn’t work like this exactly, but this will prevent you from
moving your feet early, which is a common mistake that causes press outs.
4) Land in the split position. I’d recommend when you first learn the split jerk that you
pause here for 2–3 seconds before recovering, this will strengthen this position.
Having practised the drills in the beginning, at this stage you should be able to feel if
you’re in the right position or not.
5) Recover by bringing the front foot back, then back foot forward. Your feet should be
together. I recommend pausing in the final position for 2-3 seconds before dropping
the bar.
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The most valuable advice here when learning is to pause in the split position and final
position, this will really strengthen the positions and will prevent you from rushing
through the jerk.
Recommended reps: 4-6 reps with a 15-20kg barbell
Clean and Jerk
The advice here isn’t as simple as “just combine the two lifts”. There are a couple of
things to mention.
Like I mentioned before, the clean rack position is slightly different from the jerk rack
position. After the clean is performed, you will have to readjust before you jerk. This
can be best seen by watching videos of people clean and jerk, and pay attention to what
they do after they complete the clean.
Lydia Valentin (-75kg, Spain) - 147kg Clean & Jerk
Transition from the clean rack position to the jerk rack position.
This is me pushing the bar off my shoulders after standing up from the clean. There are
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two ways you can perform this. Most lifters will stand up from the front squat and then
push the bar off their shoulders straight away. Some lifters will stand up normally and
then do a small dip and drive to readjust 1–2 seconds later. I recommend the first way
since there are fewer steps involved.
1) Stand up from the front squat, extend your legs hard and push the bar off your
shoulders like you’re doing a drive. Readjust your grip when the bar comes off your
shoulders.
2) Since the bar is now coming down on you, brace by bending your knees as the bar
comes down. A lot of beginners will make the mistake of leaning back instead of
bending their knees.
3) Adjust your stance by moving your feet into the jerk stance. You are now ready to
perform the dip and drive for the jerk.
The time you wait between the clean and the jerk shouldn't be too long, since it can be
fatiguing to wait, and you’re more prone to overthink the jerk technique. It’s best to
keep the time consistent for all the clean and jerks you do. After you readjust your
grip it may be helpful to wait 2 or 3 seconds then initiate the dip and drive for the jerk.
I would recommend you do multiple sets of 2 or 3 reps with clean and jerks once you’re
able to get to this stage. First try clean and jerks with just the barbell, then add some
weight to the bar.
Remember to spend time on drills you’re struggling with, and don’t rush to this stage.
Recommended reps: 2-3 reps with 15-30kg
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Program
As I mentioned at the beginning, you don’t just start following a program, in fact you
probably won’t follow a program for a month or longer.
Refer to the beginning, where I made a table on ‘Beginner Stage 1’. Remember, it can
take 4-7 weeks to reach Stage 2 (where you can follow a program). The goal should
always be to train 5-6 times per week for 1.5-2 hours per session. Of course, many of
you will probably not have time to train this much, just train as much as you can.
Once you’re capable of snatching and clean and jerking with very light weight with
acceptable technique (for men: 30-50kg, for women: 20-35kg) then you can follow the
program below.
If you can only train 5 times a week, then remove day 4. If you can only train 4 times a
week, then remove day 4 and day 2.
On the program I put day 1, day 2, etc instead of Monday, Tuesday, etc. You can choose
the days you train, just try to spread them out as much as possible.
During this stage, you should still do drills you practised, especially the ones you
struggle with. For example, on Day 1 Week 1 the first exercise is Snatch + Hang
Snatch*2, but if you struggle with the bottom position then you should spend your
time warming up with snatch balances or overhead squats. The warm-up should be
slow, it’s fine if it takes longer than the sets and reps for each exercise.
For all the exercises, it’s up to you to choose the weight, remember it’s totally fine if
you don’t increase the weight each week, don’t focus on progressive overload this
early on. Week to week, the main goal is improving your technique, increasing the
weight is secondary. If your technique breaks down with a chosen weight, then go
lighter.
I made a video explaining the program here:
Link to video explaining the program
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Beginner Program Stage 2
Week → W1-W4 and W6-W9
Day 1
Snatch + Hang Snatch*2 (above knee) Choose weight 7-10*1 (Always Sets*Reps)
Power Clean and Jerk + Clean and Jerk Choose weight 7-10*1
Back Squat Choose weight 5*3
Day 2
Power Snatch*2 + Snatch Choose weight 7-10*1
Clean and Jerk Choose weight 7-10*2
Day 3
Snatch + Overhead Squat*3 Choose weight 8-10*1
Power Clean and Push Press*3 Choose weight 7-10*1
Front Squat Choose weight 5*3
Day 4 (optional)
Snatch + Hang Snatch*2 (below knee) Choose weight 7-10*1
Clean + Hang Clean*2 and Jerk (above knee) Choose weight 7*1
Day 5
Snatch + Hang Snatch*2 (above knee) Choose weight 7-10*1
Day 6
Clean and Jerk*4 Choose weight 7-10*1
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Beginner Program Stage 2
Week → W5 and W10
Day 1
Power Clean and Jerk + Clean and Jerk Choose weight 7-10*1
Day 2
Power Snatch*2 + Snatch Choose weight 7-10*1
Day 3
Snatch Go for a 1RM (stop once technique breaks down)
Push Press (off the racks) Go for a 1RM
Front Squat Go for a 1RM
Day 4 (optional)
Snatch + Hang Snatch*2 (below knee) Choose weight 7-10*1
Clean + Hang Clean*2 and Jerk (above knee) Choose weight 7-10*1
Day 5
Clean and Jerk Go for a 1RM (stop once technique breaks down)
Day 6
Clean and Jerk*4 Choose weight 7-10*1
Back Squat Go for a 1RM
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Should exercises be changed?
Short Answer: Exercises should not be changed.
A common mistake beginner lifters make is that they constantly change the exercises
they are doing.
It may be optimal to change exercises to correct a technical error or to work on a weak

point in the lift, however, I would not recommend anyone with little experience do
this, in this case, I would recommend a coach.
To keep things simple and for a mental break, progression will be better if you just
‘stick to the program’.
This is an extremely important rule.
What should I do after I completed Beginner Program Stage 2?
Assuming you followed stage 1 correctly, that should have taken you around 4-7 weeks
and stage 2 would have taken you 10 weeks, so that’s 14-17 weeks you should have
followed this “program”.
This should be sufficient time to follow another program, or the beginner program on
my website, which is 10 weeks long, and it’s repeatable.
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Beginners Guide To Weightlifting

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Beginners Guide to Weightlifting

Learning Olympic Weightlifting

How to Back Squat (like a Weightlifter)

How to Clean and Jerk

The First Step

Here are links to YouTube channels I recommend:

Frank Rothwell - competition videos

Why you don’t follow a program as a beginner

I’ll break down the beginner stages of weightlifting:

Learning as slow as possible is learning as fast as possible

Learning as Slow as Possible is Learning as Fast as Possible

What if you’re coming from powerlifting?

I talked about this topic on my YouTube channel:

Why Powerlifters SUCK at Weightlifting

Should I work on strength exercises while learning?

How often should I train

The SRA curve for the snatch and deadlift.

How long should you train?

A problem I see is beginner weightlifters focusing entirely on mobility. They think if

In the tutorial section, I will go over the mobility exercises I recommend.

Best approach to learning the Olympic lifts

Weightlifting Exercise Terms

Weightlifting Terms Explained (click here to watch)

Learn “textbook technique”

Here are good examples of lifters who have “textbook technique”:

Gabriel Sincraian | Snatch 180kg | Clean&Jerk 215kg 🏋️‍♂️

What weight should I use for practising drills?

How do I progress through these drills?

How long should I spend learning these drills?

Learn the clean and jerk drills until you’re able

Stage 2 Can follow a Follow a program n/a

This is a loose definition. But I define “acceptable/decent technique” as:

3: Very little or no misses with very light weight (consistency).

She starts training at 1pm and has to finish at 2pm:

Being able to squat is essential for learning the Olympic lifts.

Rack Ankle Stretch

Leaned over Hip Stretch

Recommended hold time: 20–30 seconds

Rack Squat (Hips)

Recommended hold time: 30 seconds—2 minutes

Rack Squat (Hips and Ankles)

Recommended hold time: 30 seconds each side

Pause Back Squat

Recommended hold time: Sets of 3–5 reps with 15–30 pauses.

A picture of clarence0 low bar squatting?!

Grip Width and Tension

The ‘standard’ squat stance.

The Walk Out

Taking the bar off the racks

Walking back from the racks

Setting feet to correct stance

The Eccentric (descent)

The bottom position

The Concentric (ascent)

My lower back is rounding at the bottom (butt wink), is that bad?

The Hook Grip

Hook grip and the Casio watch

Finding your Grip Width

Smaller lifter with small arms—narrow grip (credit Rob Mackiem)

Larger lifter with long arms—wide grip

How many sets and reps should I do for each drill?

Snatch deadlift for 4 reps followed by a snatch

If you’re struggling with the overhead squat, you can do: