What's The Purpose Of The Block Snatch? | Olympic Weightlifting Exercises
You may have seen weightlifters on Instagram and TikTok doing snatches from the blocks and thought to yourself:
“I wonder what the purpose of that is", why not just lift it from the floor?”
Well, here’s everything you need to know of the purpose of the block snatch!
The block snatch is a snatch variation in which the bar starts from an elevated position instead of from the floor. This exercise can be done from varying heights depending on the lifter and coaches goals. If you do not have access to pulling blocks, then you can stack bumper plates to achieve the desired height.
This variation can be used for a variety of reasons including to overload for those stronger at that position, or to improve acceleration of the bar for those who are slow past a specific point in the pull. It can also serve as a way to add volume to training for those who experience significant low back fatigue when lifting from the floor regularly.
Reps should generally stay in the 1-3 rep range, and can be performed either light as a technical exercise, or heavy as an overload exercise, depending on the athlete.
Give these a try, but be careful when lowering the bar back to the blocks, as the bar can often bounce uncontrollably if you are not familiar with this variation.