I’ve been struggling to keep my torso upright in the squat/snatch/clean. During the descent of each of these movements my chest goes forward which causes the bar to be way out in front of my toes at the bottom position. The worst of all the movements is the back squat, but is clearly present in the snatch video I’ve attached. I think this is also what is causing my lumbar to round at the bottom of these movements (hard to see in the video, but trust me it’s there), but I also struggle keeping a neutral lumbar during the setup. In the video I have the bar on plates as this is the only way I can get close to decent setup. The weight in the video is very light, yet I still can’t recover after my chest drifts forward.
To combat this I have been strengthening my upper and lower back, glutes, and abs. Also, I have been relentlessly working on thoracic, chest and hip mobility. I haven’t made any progress in 4-5 months (it’s actually been getting worse) so I thought maybe someone could chime in and give their opinion. Thanks.
I can’t see the video on my phone, but the most common reason for this is the bottom and descent is the hips drifting backwards instead of down and in.
hip mobility man, practice getting your torso more upright by opening up your hips. also a little bit of shoulder mobility, you need to be able to get them farther behind your head
This is incredibly common in weightlifters, when I first started out I had the same problem.
Some things I noticed:
A.) You are banging the bar OUT with your hips. This is forcing you to move forward to recieve the snatch (see how far you jump forward? You shouldn’t be moving forward AT ALL). Think about extending your hips when the bar is at your belly button, this will help prevent you from smashing the bar outwards.
B.) As others have already said, your mobility isn’t great. Work on hamstring, hip, ankle, and shoulder mobility. Hamstring flexibility mixed with PVC pipe rotations were the real thing that made me able to hit a nice bottom position. Do this multiple times a week: http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/elements/clients/images/DSC-454620071014__061408_084340.jpg
Good luck and lift on. It took me around a year of lifting before I started realizing these things.
elbows out and keep shoulders over bar more throughout pull, especially in second pull. you’re sitting back and causing the bar to swing out away from you hence catching forward. drive hips into bar when it reaches upper part of the thigh.
Along with what others said you can also do some snatch balances before snatching.Make sure you have that overhead position working before jumping in to snatches. really focus on keeping those heels in the ground. Sometimes I need to do sotts presses and snatch balances before I start snatching.
[quote]chapple2 wrote:
I’ve been struggling to keep my torso upright in the squat/snatch/clean. During the descent of each of these movements my chest goes forward which causes the bar to be way out in front of my toes at the bottom position. The worst of all the movements is the back squat, but is clearly present in the snatch video I’ve attached. I think this is also what is causing my lumbar to round at the bottom of these movements (hard to see in the video, but trust me it’s there), but I also struggle keeping a neutral lumbar during the setup. In the video I have the bar on plates as this is the only way I can get close to decent setup. The weight in the video is very light, yet I still can’t recover after my chest drifts forward.
To combat this I have been strengthening my upper and lower back, glutes, and abs. Also, I have been relentlessly working on thoracic, chest and hip mobility. I haven’t made any progress in 4-5 months (it’s actually been getting worse) so I thought maybe someone could chime in and give their opinion. Thanks.[/quote]
