Muscle snatch vs power snatch
The muscle snatch runs at 55–65% of your squat snatch and the power snatch at 80–85%. Both train getting under it. Here they are moving next to each other, with everything snatchlike prescribes each one for.
Muscle snatch
Pull it all the way up and turn it over. No re-bend, no dip.
No re-bend, no dip, just pull it all the way up and turn it over. Light, and it will still humble you.
Watch for: The knees staying straight after the finish, and the elbows going high and outside before the bar turns over.
Power snatch
The same lift, caught above parallel — nowhere to hide a lazy finish.
Same lift, caught above parallel. Punishes a lazy finish, because there is nowhere to hide a bad one.
Watch for: The hips fully open before the feet move, and a catch above parallel that is locked the moment it lands.
Each figure is the same six points the video read judges. The disc is the hands: the detector sees hands, not a barbell, so the bar is wherever the wrists are.
How heavy
The power snatch is the heavier of the two: its whole band, 80–85%, sits above the muscle snatch's 55–65%. Both are percentages of your squat snatch, and both are conventional coaching bands rather than anything measured here: where to start on a drill you have never done, before the bar tells you the rest.
In kilos for your snatch: the muscle snatch · the power snatch
What each one trains
| Both | Only the muscle snatch | Only the power snatch |
|---|---|---|
| getting under it | where the bar goes | finishing the pull |
The faults each one fixes
Pulling with the arms · the muscle snatch
Long arms until the hips finish — the elbows are the last thing to move, not the first.
The bar swings out · the muscle snatch
Brush the hip on the way past — the bar stays against you until it leaves.
Slow under the bar · the muscle snatch
Elbows around and punch — the fastest part of the lift is after the bar stops going up.
Cutting the finish · the power snatch
Finish tall, then move — you cannot pull under a bar you have not sent up.
Where the planner uses each
- The muscle snatch: accessory at 48% of your snatch in a snatch session for a slow turnover; primer at 36% of your snatch in a snatch session for when your squat is strong and the lift leaks.
- The power snatch is not in any of the sessions the planner writes. It is in the library for you or a coach to choose.
Which one do you need?
That depends on what is capping your snatch, and that is a question your numbers answer. Put in three you already know — your snatch, and any of your power snatch, overhead squat and back squat — and snatchlike names the limiter and writes the session for it. A lift you have not tested is left out rather than guessed. Or film one snatch from the side: the pose model runs in this browser tab and the video never leaves your device.
Put in three numbers → Film one snatch →
More side by side
- Power snatch vs squat snatch
- Hang snatch, above the knee vs snatch from blocks (knee height)
- Snatch balance vs overhead squat
- Snatch pull vs snatch high pull
- Hang snatch, above the knee vs hang snatch, below the knee
- Hang power snatch, above the knee vs hang snatch, above the knee
- Snatch deadlift vs snatch pull
- Drop snatch vs snatch balance
- Tall snatch vs muscle snatch
- Snatch balance vs heaving snatch balance
- Snatch-grip Romanian deadlift vs snatch deadlift