The one arm heavy dead snatch is one of my favorite exercises. Power and fluidity in perfect harmony with one another, it’s a wonderful feeling.
Dumbbells, kettlebells and even barbells can be dead snatched with one arm, and each tool offers it’s own unique benefits. I learned the one arm dead snatch with a dumbbell before kettlebells were found in American gyms which allowed me to move up in five pound increments until I was dead snatching the heaviest dumbbell there, which was 130lbs.
Kettlebells are slightly more challenging than dumbells at first, you will need to develop proper technique punching through the bell so it doesn’t bang your wrist at the top. Heavy kettlebells also have larger diameter handles than many dumbbells which demands more from the grip. Barbells demand more stability, and you must find the balance point on the center to have any chance at all.
Your True Potential
The goal of this article isn’t to snatch a given weight, but about snatching to your true potential. There is a technique that I am going to share with you that will do just that, but first, let’s set the scene. Dead snatching to your potential requires tremendous hip flexibility, because hip extension is the only way you are going to safely keep the bell on your plumb line as it accelerates upward. If you don’t have the prerequisite flexibility, you will not snatch to your potential regardless of what techniques you try.
You will also need decent flexibility in your lats and shoulders to allow for a proper fixation at the top of the lift. Otherwise, you will not be able to keep the bell in an efficient path and will not be able to reach your max. There are many exercises and even some stretches that will help you make awesome gains in this lift, but let us assume you have already done that.
Let us assume that you have done all of your homework and that your technique is excellent and your flexibility is no problem. Now, it is about nervous system activation and using your body like a formula one driver uses his race car, at it’s true potential.
Contrast Training
When I finally went up to the 130 pound dumbbell, I used a technique called contrast training. I learned this from a strength and conditioning coach about fifteen years ago and it does wonders to bring out your potential in various moves, especially the dead snatch.
Contrast training refers to lifting a very heavy weight in the strength phase and then lifting a lighter weight in the power phase using the same movement. In the case of the dead snatch, use the barbell deadlift. Start with low sets of medium weight deadlifts, gradually increasing the weight with low reps, 3-5 until you build up to about 250% or more of what you intend to dead snatch.
This might happen over a period of 5-8 sets. While building up the deadlift, make sure you never go past 50% failure and take long rests between sets. I might add in chi swings and even medium weight low intensity snatches for technique programming.
Once you have reached a deadlift that is challenging, about 6-8 reps maxed out, perform only four reps and without hesitation go straight into the heavy dead snatch. I am sure you understand where the technique gets its name, the heavy dead snatch will work because it feels light in contrast to the heavy deadlift.
Make sure you have the weights ready to go so that you can step directly from one to the other and snatch within moments of dropping the deadlift bar. This is the best technique to develop massive dead snatch strength, and the beauty of it is that once you do it, you won’t need to keep using contrast to duplicate the performance in the future.
You will literally program the weight into your nervous system and be able to demonstrate for all of your friends at a moments notice! Continue to use contrast training from time to time to maintain what you have built and become even stronger still.
