”Knowing” technique doesn’t give you good technique. Repeating the correct movements will improve technique. Because of the complexity of the snatch and the clean, we need to isolate specific parts of the lifts to learn and improve them.
Doing pulls from stairs is a great way to work on the second half of the pull for both the snatch and the clean.
How do pulls from stairs differ from pulls from blocks or from the hang?
They differ a lot. When pulling from blocks or the hang, the bar will start at a given height with no upward momentum. However a bar traveling from the floor will have upward momentum when it reaches this given height. The stairs provide the upward momentum that the bar should have at this height.
Before going into the ”how to,” something important about the pull:
An efficient lifter should pull the bar vertically from the platform, and keep it close. As the bar passes the knees, the shins should be perpendicular to the ground.
Why?
If the shins are slanted backward, then the legs will be straight and will no longer be in use during the pull.
If the shins are slanted forward more than a few degrees, then the knees will end up in front of where the bar started from the floor. With this position the bar either must travel from the floor away from the lifter to hit that position, or will hit the shin/knee on the way up.
When the bar is at the knee, the back is at a precise angle. From here on out, I’ll call this back angle – ”This back angle” This back angle is different for every lifter and is dependent on the lengths of the torso, femur and arms.
Identifying this back angle is important for doing pulls from the stairs. This is the angle your back needs to be in for a considerable part of the lift. Whether doing a static or dynamic start from the floor, by the time the bar is a few inches off the floor, the back should already be at this back angle.
The back angle is kept uniform until the bar passes the knee, at which point the back starts to open up.
When doing lifts or pulls from a height (blocks, or stairs, or hang), a lot of lifters start from a more comfortable position, where the angle of the back is not this back angle. It may me more comfortable when doing pulls from this height – but it won’t transfer over to the lift from the platform as well, since the position and muscles involved are different.
To identify this back angle for the snatch:
- Stand up straight with bar in hand.
- Lower the bar to the tip of the knee.
- Balance the weight mid foot.
- Back should be tight and slightly arched.
- Shins should be perpendicular to the ground.
Memorize this back angle.
For the clean – the same steps apply – except the balance should be on the front part of the heel instead of the mid foot.
This is the angle your back should be in for a good portion of the pull. Nearly all beginners, most intermediates, and many advanced lifters would benefit from setting their back angle to this for the start of the lift. With this angle, they can push vertically with the legs, and not move the back at all until the bar has passed the knee. They won’t need to pull around the knees, and won’t hit the shins or knees.
Now back to pulls from the stairs:
Prerequisite: build yourself some stairs, or find a block of some kind. The stairs need to be narrow enough to fit between your feet in the starting position, and can be any height (ideally 2-3 inches below the knees). There is no standard height because lifters of different sizes require stairs of different heights to work on the same positions AND – the precise height doesn’t matter much.
For the first few times using the stairs for snatch pulls:
- Start by standing with the stairs between the legs, and bar in hand.
- Lower the bar to the knee and make sure that the shins are perpendicular to the ground and that the weight is balanced in the middle of the foot. The back should be at this back angle.
- Keeping this back angle, lower the bar slowly straight downward using just the legs (don’t adjust the back angle or shift your balance forward or backward).
- The bar will hit the stairs and bounce back up.
- Still balanced on mid foot, drive up with the legs, keeping this back angle, and only after the bar passes the knees can you start to open up your back.
- Complete a pull (there is too much to say about exactly what should happen in the pull- I’ll cover the pull dynamics in a future post) by pulling the elbows as high as possible while being fully extended.
- Lower the bar back down using the same trajectory as you did on the way up, getting to this back angle as the bar passes the knee on the way down. Repeat. repeat. Repeat.
If the bar is lowered with a more vertical back angle, then the knees would be more forward than they should be. If the knees are more forward, then the bar is further away from the lifter than where it would be in an efficient classic lift. The lifter either has to pull the bar in, or they themselves are pulled forward and off balance.
Here you can see – only when Vasiliy lowers the bar slowly and to the right position, the following pull is vertical and precise.
Clean pulls from stairs are nearly identical to the snatch variation, except the balance is slightly closer to the heel.
Pulls from stairs are typically done for more reps than other classic lift and pull variations, typically something like this:
Snatch pulls from stairs: 5 sets of 4 reps at 90%
There are a lot of muscles that have a precise time to work during the second half of the pull. This is a great weapon for isolating the second pull to correct and strengthen the movement.
There are other good exercises you can do with the stairs. This is not one of them:
great article good explanations and stuff. However i miss 1 thing; how, if at all a long shin compared to lifters height can could or will affects their first pull, and what one could do to compensate for this ?
the length of the shin shouldn’t change anything (unless its extreme). Just like anyone else, if you set the bar at the knee, balance on the mid foot, and get your shins perpendicular to the ground – if you keep this back angle, you can lower the bar straight down (just using legs). When the bar touches the ground – this will be the position you should start the pull from. If you pull straight up from there, with that same back angle, then when it reaches the knees, they will be out of the way of the bar, since the shins will be back to vertical. does this explain it?
Hi yasha, I think he is referring to starting position from the floor and how shin length will affect it?
A long shin shouldn’t affect it. A long shin would make the knees higher during the start – but by the time the bar gets to the knees, the shins will be perpendicular tot he floor. and whatever angle the back is at, when the bar is at the knees, is the angle the back should be at the start (if you want to keep the back angle static thoughtout the first pull). Usually, athletes are taught to start with ‘that back angle’ and keep it throughout the pull until the legs are nearly straight.
Yasha, this makes a lot of sense. Thanks very much. My trouble is that while this makes sense to me, I have a bit of difficulty adapting to it for a couple reasons:
1) It seems a lot of lifters start more upright than they are at the knee (DK does this).
2) I am quite long limbed, and my (THAT BACK ANGLE) is quite bent over. To be specific, the back angle with the floor is quite small. Yet I get instruction to pull my butt down and bring my chest up more at the start.
Some lifters do start with their hips lower, and then the hips raise to ‘that back angle’. Most lifters are taught to start with this back angle and keep it until the legs are nearly straight – however once they are good enough, they change to doing whats more comfortable for them. Its the base technique they learn, then can get creative for what works best for them. Discipline – then creativity.
Great comments and great instruction. My question is, how is this different than pulling from blocks?
When you’re putting the bar back down onto the stairs, you aren’t resting it in place, you are (with great control) bouncing it up from the stairs. This gives the bar a bend, and upward momentum – the same bend and upward momentum it would have at this height in a full snatch or clean from the floor. When lifting from blocks, the weight is dead. It has no upward momentum and the bar isn’t bent (making it a bit lose). Pulls from blocks are a good exercise also – they are just different. The same applies to the different variations of squats – squats, and pause squats are both great for lifting – building strength in slightly different attributes.
Yasha,
Firstly, I love your blog and it should be a main resource of knowledge for all American lifters, so thank you! I have a question I hadn’t really known who to ask for a while and was reminded of it by that clip of Ilya in the first video. Ilya is the only lifter I’ve ever seen where it seems he is still moving his hips down into the starting position but the bar is already moving up off the ground. Does anyone else notice this? It is one of the strangest things I’ve seen, and was wondering if you had any thoughts on it. Thanks again for the great posts.
Thank you Josh!
I haven’t noticed this. Do you see it in the clean or the snatch?
Mostly the snatch and it is subtle, but if you look at both lifts from a side angle in slow motion it almost looks like he is in the process of getting to his start position and as soon as his hips are at their lowest point, the bar is already breaking from the ground. It’s really odd lol my best guess is he’s so strong that the way he violently raises his chest to start all his lifts is what’s doing it.
Hi Yasha. I enjoy all your posts. My biggest question is what happens to the knees between the crucial position (vertical shins, back at THAT ANGLE, bar at knee) and the bar at the hips (in the snatch) or mid/upper thigh (in the clean). Should the knee angle be the same until final extension, or should it increase/decrease?
Thanks!
Peter, in the clean the knees should go under the bar as early as possible, after the bar passes the knees. Most lifters try to make contact with the bar on the clean as low as possible (by shifting their knees forward). The lower you hit, the more you can get out of the legs and traps. Its a bit different in the snatch – but i’ll try to cover that in detail in the next few weeks.
Thanks very much Yasha. Best of luck in 2016.
Awsome site! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your feeds also
too big risk for bar if you drop it…. i use rack just under discs …no under middle of bar …(i can easy do load upper 450lbs ar this excercise . i like use my 29mm IPF bar for pulling withouth cleaning)
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