Workout #3: Snatches
This is one of my all time favorite exercises. It is great for both building muscle and promoting weight loss. It will not take more than a few minutes to get a very intense burn going. And not only it is incredibly good for building muscle, it is so cardiovascularly intensive that you will get the heart rate going as well. It will do as much for building a good physique (eg lose weight, build muscle) as the wind sprints will.
To make it a little easier to see how they work I have added a video that you can watch. The first few minutes are kind of annoying personally, but he does explain some important things. Just do not click out of the video till you’ve seen the exercises it is a good demonstration.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xzQTjj-rP_E" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
The Snatch: To bring a weight in one smooth motion from the floor to a position over the head in one smooth motion.
That is the goal. Now, you will probably want to start out with a lighter dumbell and then work your way up. Trust me, even a light weight is going to get you the first few times you do this.
Here are the tips
1) Stand with the weight on the heels, with the weight in front of you it will balance out. You will almost feel like you are going to tip backwards
2) Have your legs about shoulder length apart. The dumb bell (or kettle ball) is going to drop back down between your legs so be sure to have enough room for it.
3) Grip the dumbbell with your palm facing you, inhale, keep your back arched (do not lean forward to lift with your back), keep the other arm off to the side or behind your back if you wish
4) Now, jump! You want the force of your upward movement in your legs to propel the bell over your head in one smooth movement. If you are using your back, or arms, then your doing it wrong. You will not actually leave the ground in the jump, but it is that movement that you are shooting for.
5) On the way back down provide some resistance and make sure you do not hit your knees.
Do 6-10 sets of 10-15 reps per arm if this is going to be your main exercise. I usually will add a 3 sets to the end of a longer cardio workout. Especially if I did not feel very pushed. This will put you over the top and help push you to new gains.
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Comments
It is mostly, but it is a really good workout. I have to be careful because if I do not watch it my back will tighten up and I will not be able to move for 2 days. Which is basically what happened. But I'm all better now and back working out hard again. But I'm going to rest my back a little longer before doing the snatches again, and I will not do them after an hour on the elliptical machine. That is was a little too much.
I can't imagine how sore I will feel in the morning after trying these. Something I need to do for my new years resolution is to lose weight so trying this will really help.
Is there any harmful effects if I start this workout, continue it for some period and discontinue the same afterwards? If yes, what is the remedy to those effects?
Great tips, thanks for posting this. I will definitely have to try this exercise out. Really interested in the cardiovascular aspect of the workout as this is really important for everyone!
OMG! I know the old cliche “no pain, no gain” is quite true, but just how much will you gain with this much pain?!? I'm afraid my cheerleader days are over, but this is just too much for me to regain any of my old physique. Too much “muscle-man”, I guess. Good luck for those that are willing to go through with it. 
The begining of the blog is good except they should not say the video is annoying. The first thing I did not want to do after reading that is not watch the video. After that this blog just gets a little too billy mays. Either be instructional or be personal not both, you do not need to sell me on this, if i am looking this up in the first place i dont need to “trust you”. The steps are a little long winded. I think if you made them a little easier if would be good. Exercise is suppose to be fun; not like putting together a ceiling fan with all those instructions. Otherwise very informative. But the blog does not make me wanna get up and do the exercises.
That just looks painful.