Lets talk about lats.

So I am finally gonna talk a bit about the Olympic movements  (the snatch and C&J).  This after all was the point of me making a blog.  Today I would like to talk about the lats and their role in the bar path during both lifts.

Lets start with a good bar path. From the floor the bar will travel either straight up, or ever so slightly towards the shins. It will NOT go out and around the knees.  You must get the knees out of the way of the bar.  Once you are clear of the knees, you must bring the bar even further in towards your body.  This is often called sweeping the bar back.  I am often aiming towards my pockets (thanks Coach Burgener).  Once done correctly you are in position for the 2nd pull which is the explosive part of both lifts.  This is when you violently extend the hips driving off your heels trying to send the bar skyward.  I know this is vague sounding so lets look at video and then pictures.



Notice in the above video his bar path starts directly vertical, then as he clears the shins he is pulling the bar back into hips hips.  It is only a couple of inches but those inches translate into a made or a missed lift when you are talking about 352 lbs (in Ilya's case).

If Ilya Ilian is too fast for you here is a clean broken down frame by frame.  

Notice in the 1st frame the shins are over the bar in front of the lifter's toes.  As he pulls from the ground the knees are pushed back as the hips and shoulders rise at the same time.  Once clear of the knees, the lifter goes to vertical in an explosive manner.  Then the catch (which we can talk about at a later date).

So back to the original point.  Your lats.  

I hope your lats look like this guy's.

From the very beginning you should have the lats flexed.  If you have the lats flexed or "engaged" then as your weight shifts back onto your heels in the 1st pull, the bar will naturally want to sweep back over the middle of the foot.  The lats are made for pulling towards your body.  After doing one million CrossFit pull-ups, your lats should be very sore (or just like 10 regular pullups). So if they are engaged, they are pulling back toward your center of mass.

 Your goal is to have the path of the bar over the middle of the foot the entire time. When you snatch or clean heavy and have to "chase" the bar out front, I can almost guarantee you The problem is you are not sweeping the bar back toward your body during the 1st pull.  Remember, engage the lats, and aim for those pockets with the bar. 

And excellent exercise I myself just learned about is called the "Snatch lift off", and the "clean lift off".

The clean lift off is the same concept.  All you are doing is attempting to lift the weight off the ground to above the knee.  The goal however is to hit perfect positions at each point.  Weight of the heels, lats flexed.  If these two conditions aren't met, the bar will be hanging out there in space pulling you onto your toes making your lower back sore.  And nobody wants that.

Until next time, carpe ferrum my friends.

JT