Why are snatch grip lifts harder to hold?

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 09:27 AM

don't really know if this is the case with everybody else out there, but it certainly is for me. i hurt my back a while ago (lost concentration and rounded my back while doing bent BB rows), so last week i was just trying to get back into the swing of things using light weight and seeing how my back responded. so i'm doing my upper body work and it comes down to my last move which is a shrug of some sort. so i set up a bar with 225 to do some light shrugging. i was hitting 12's easily and not wanting to go higher weight or higher reps i wanted to make it as hard for myself as i could, which led me to using a snatch grip for the shrugs. lo and behold i couldn't even hold on to the bar for 12 reps. so can anyone gimme a biomechanical breakdown of why its so much harder to hold the bar using a snatch grip? i've racked my brain with the little psychic energy i have left after studying for all of my finals and still couldn't figure it out so i digress and throw it out there for you smart people.

**Dale Mabry** · 12-12-2005, 09:57 AM

When you are using a conventional width grip, the force is distributed more to your forefinger and middle finger, which are locked around the thumb and are much stronger. With the snatch grip, the weight is distributed more to your pinky and ring fingers, which are weaker.

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 10:06 AM

i knew it was something simple like that but me, being the retard that i am, thought that it was something much more complex. thanks for showing me the light bud.

**Rocco32** · 12-12-2005, 10:28 AM

I thought the weight was distrubuted more to your index and middle finger. And you've got the extra horizontal pull on your wrist which pulls your pinky and ring finger off more.

**Dale Mabry** · 12-12-2005, 10:34 AM

The horizontal pull is the force I am talking about. Force isn't just the weight you are pulling.

**Rocco32** · 12-12-2005, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

The horizontal pull is the force I am talking about. Force isn't just the weight you are pulling.

So I guess your just always right?

**Dale Mabry** · 12-12-2005, 10:38 AM

No, you are just always wrong.

**P-funk** · 12-12-2005, 10:57 AM

Yan, it isn't that it is harder. It is just that you are a pussy.

**Rocco32** · 12-12-2005, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by P-funk

Yan, it isn't that it is harder. It is just that you are a pussy.

Damn, we were both wrong. But I think he's right Yan. I usually load up at least 200 more lbs with snatch grip or it just feels to light

**The Monkey Man** · 12-12-2005, 11:17 AM

I thought it was that the weight is pulling away with your hand
at an angle and not in a nearly direct line to the shoulder perpendicular to the bar -

**Rocco32** · 12-12-2005, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

I thought it was that the weight is pulling away with your hand
at an angle and not in a nearly direct line to the shoulder perpendicular to the bar -

Hence the horizontal force or pull.

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by P-funk

Yan, it isn't that it is harder. It is just that you are a pussy.

oh yea i forgot about that one

Originally Posted by Rocco32

Damn, we were both wrong. But I think he's right Yan. I usually load up at least 200 more lbs with snatch grip or it just feels to light

LOL, yea i would do that but i do my snatch grip lifts after my Hummer deadlifts so i'm a little spent and go lighter than usual.

**Seanp156** · 12-12-2005, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by Yanick

oh yea i forgot about that one

LOL, yea i would do that but i do my snatch grip lifts after my Hummer deadlifts so i'm a little spent and go lighter than usual.

You're either a giant, or have a REALLY big platform for deadlifts

**The Monkey Man** · 12-12-2005, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by Seanp156

You're either a giant, or have a REALLY big platform for deadlifts

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 06:43 PM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

damnit! my secrets out

**MattV** · 12-12-2005, 09:36 PM

Hope this is simple enough,
Conventional Grip < Hook
Down side of Hook is that it hurts for awhile, you will get used to it.
Hook provides a much mroe secure grip.

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 11:40 PM

Originally Posted by MattV

Hope this is simple enough,
Conventional Grip < Hook
Down side of Hook is that it hurts for awhile, you will get used to it.
Hook provides a much mroe secure grip.

no need to simplify stuff with me bro, lol. but i wasn't talking about using a hook grip vs a regular grip, i was talking taking a snatch grip or a regular shoulder width or whatever you call it grip. i knew it was more difficult, but i like to learn about such things and thats exactly what these guys did for me.

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