The power snatch is a little more user-friendly than the classic Olympic weightlifting snatch, safer, and easier to learn, but it’s no less effective in developing power, explosiveness, strength, and total-body coordination. In just a few steps, I’ll teach you how to do the power snatch, and show you why it’s a great move to master for anyone looking to become a more powerful athlete.

Bonus: once you know how to do it and why, you’ll be able to drop the word “snatch” into more of your conversations, no doubt turning some heads, ruffling some feathers, and setting the stage for many a crude (but entertaining) joke.

What Is The Power Snatch?

The power snatch was born from the original barbell snatch, a movement performed in Olympic weightlifting to test overall strength and power. Any variant of the snatch is a great measure of these qualities because it requires triple extension—the ability to extend the hips, knees, and ankles simultaneously, which creates maximum explosiveness. As any smart coach will tell you, getting these joints to extend together with the correct timing is no easy feat, and a thing of beauty when it’s done right. This is why Olympic lifters (as well as anyone else who practices the snatch and its variants) take a lot of time to drill good technique. Olympic lifts are the most technical weight-training exercises you can do.

Olympic weightlifters use the power snatch as a supplemental exercise to improve their performance on the regular snatch, but many other athletes use the power snatch in place of the snatch to train the explosiveness they need for the field, court, or mat, so the power snatch is the more widely used between the two lifts.

The biggest difference between the snatch and the power snatch is the ranges of motion used. The classic snatch has you lift the bar from the floor to overhead while you drop into a deep squat and then stand up tall. With the power snatch, you don’t have to catch the weight in a deep squat position (you’ll end up in more of a quarter-squat), making the lift less of a test of thoracic and lower-body mobility.

Because you don’t drop into a full squat, your arms have to move a little farther to get the bar overhead in a power snatch. This is one reason Olympic lifters drill the power snatch—to get the bar traveling higher, which ultimately makes it easier to catch in the finish position of a regular snatch. That extra range means you’ll have to use lighter weight than you would doing a full snatch, but that’s a blessing in disguise. Less weight means you’ll be able to move the bar faster, and that generates even more power. It also makes make the lift safer, and easier to get the hang of.

How To Properly Power Snatch

There are six parts to the power snatch when it’s done properly. Remember, all Olympic lifts and their variants are highly technical, so you have to invest the time to learn them correctly if you want to maximize the weight you can lift safely. It’s best to start with an empty barbell, or, if you have bumper plates, very light weights. Bumper plates (the kind that bounce) will allow you to reach the bar while it’s on the floor, and let you drop the weight from overhead rather than control the bar’s path back to the floor.

I’ll walk you through the technique in this video.

Now I’ll break it all down in a lot more detail.

Step 1. Start Position

Place your feet between hip and shoulder-width apart, and turn your feet out a few degrees. Think about how you’d stand to do a vertical jump—that’s the stance you want to use for the power snatch. (You’re going to maximally accelerate the bar upward, which is not unlike trying to jump as high as you can).

Roll the bar into position so that it’s over your feet. When you look down, the bar should be directly over mid-foot.

Bend your hips back, and then bend your knees as needed, to reach down and grasp the bar with hands about twice shoulder width—arms straight. (You’ll have to play around with the grip width to see what feels most natural. The National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends starting out by measuring the distance between both elbows when your arms are held out 90 degrees from your sides and parallel to the floor—that’s the space that should be between your hands when grasping the bar.)

Draw your shoulders down so your traps are stretched, not shrugged. Think about crushing an orange in your armpits so you feel your lats tense.

Take a deep breath into your belly, and draw your ribs down so they’re closer to your pelvis—brace your core as if you were about to get punched in the stomach.

Your chest should point forward—so anyone standing in front of you could see the logo on your T-shirt—but your back shouldn’t be excessively arched. Aim to create a long, straight line from your head to your butt.

Draw your head back as if making a double chin. Your shoulders should be directly over the bar or slightly in front of it. If you have a friend nearby, ask him/her to check on this.

KEY POINT: Get into a position that makes you think of how you’d load up your hips to jump up in the air. Make sure your head, spine, and pelvis make a long, straight line, so your lower back is flat (not rounded forward). Get your body tight. Imagine it as a coiled spring ready to be released.

Step 2. First Pull

This is the portion of the lift that goes from the moment the bar leaves the floor until it’s just below your knees.

Push your feet down so that your hips and knees begin to extend and the bar breaks off the floor. You should feel your weight start on your mid-foot and shift to your heels as you lift.

Keep pulling the bar in tight to you—maintain that tension in your lats (crushed oranges). The bar should travel upward in a straight line along the front of your shins.

This part of the lift does not need to be done explosively. That comes later. Focus on creating enough tension so that your whole body is tight and moving as one unit. It’s OK if the bar comes off the floor slowly.

KEY POINT: Keep the bar pulled in tight and start standing up. Control everything.

Step 3. Transition Phase

The transition phase is when the bar passes the knees. The goal here is to position the body so you can create maximum acceleration with the bar. When the first pull is done correctly and the bar is close to you, your knees will make room for the bar to pass when you extend your legs.

Once the bar passes the knees, extend your hips explosively. Snap them! The bar will usually come up to the top of the hips, but it can also be beneficial to think about “bringing the bar to your hip pockets.”

If your timing is right, your knees will actually re-bend so they pass in front of the bar. This will happen automatically when the form is right. You should feel your weight shift back to mid-foot, but your heels stay on the floor.

KEY POINT: As soon as you feel the bar rise above the knees, drive your hips forward explosively.

Step 4. Second Pull

Here’s where that powerful triple extension comes in.

Keep extending your hips as you also extend your knees and ankles to accelerate the bar upward (just think about jumping). Shrug your shoulders powerfully, but keep your arms relaxed.

Because you’re maximally accelerating the bar, you will have full hip extension at this point, and your shoulders will move behind the bar.

Your feet may also rise off the floor.

When your shoulders are fully shrugged, bend your elbows, as if doing an upright row. Begin pulling your body under the bar.

KEY POINT: Think about it like a vertical jump. I also like to cue it as “throw the bar straight up to the ceiling.”

Step 5: Catch

Now the goal is to safely catch the bar overhead.

As the bar travels up in front of your torso, it will feel weightless. Drive your elbows out wide so the bar stays close to your body.

Bring your body underneath the bar quickly by bending your knees and “catching” the bar in a quarter- or half-squat with arms locked out.

Your feet will land a little wider than they started. Ideally, the width you’d take to perform overhead squats (if you’ve practiced them before).

KEY POINT: When the bar feels weightless, focus on getting your body underneath it. Flip your elbows around to catch the bar at its highest point.

Step 6: Recovery

Once you have control of the bar, stand up straight and tall with it overhead, and your arms locked out.

Lower the bar to your chest, and then to the floor, or let it drop in front of you with control (if you’re using bumper plates).

Reset yourself before you perform another rep. Don’t rush your set.

It’s important to understand that the goal of the power snatch is to increase power input, so there’s no point in loading it up heavy and grinding out a slow rep. (Leave the heavy snatching to experienced weightlifters.) The rate of acceleration, not the load used, should be the main marker you strive to improve.

Loading the bar with 65%–85% of your one-rep max (1RM) is ideal for most athletes. (Since you’re new to snatching, just estimate it, or start with 10–25 pounds each side.) This should be a weight you can get for three to six fast, clean reps. Repeat this for 3–5 sets.

Only increase the weight if acceleration and proper technique can be maintained for the whole set, and expect to spend several workouts with the same weight until that’s the case.

A common complaint with the power snatch is that the wide grip spacing aggravates the shoulders. If you find that to be the case, you can move your grip inward slightly, which may be more comfortable. Doing so will increase the distance the bar has to travel in order to get overhead, and that will force you to sacrifice load, but it will also help you lift even faster and develop more explosiveness. (See my video on this below.)

Many lifters find the power snatch easier to perform when they wear weightlifting shoes. These shoes have an elevated heel that can help compensate for poor ankle mobility, which is an issue for many people. See my video below for more explanation.

How To Do The Hanging Power Snatch Technique

Some people don’t have the hip and ankle mobility to start a snatch from the floor. If you feel you have trouble reaching the bar, you can’t keep your lower back flat, or your heels tend to rise off the floor at the start/bottom position of the lift, you may want to try the hanging power snatch instead, which is the same basic movement but starting somewhere between your shins and hips, thereby eliminating the bottom portion of the exercise and focusing on the range where you generate the most power.

Depending on your mobility, you can do hanging power snatches from your shin, just below the knees, just above the knees, your mid-thighs, or hip crease.

Hanging power snatches are also good for troubleshooting weak points in your snatch technique. If you want to focus on the second pull, for instance, you can start with the bar at hip level. The hanging power snatch helps you develop power in shorter ranges of motion, which is necessary in many sports—say, a jump shot in basketball.

The hanging power snatch also adds an eccentric component to the exercise. The eccentric is the negative, or lowering, phase of any lift, where the target muscles get stretched under tension. The classic snatch and power snatch don’t really have an eccentric, since you typically drop the weight to the floor to set up for the next rep, or lower it as quickly as possible. With the hanging power snatch, however, you start by standing tall and then taking the bar somewhere between your hips and shins to load up for the rep. That keeps your posterior chain muscles (the backside of your body) much more engaged than if you just began the rep from the floor. You basically end up doing a Romanian deadlift right before a power snatch.

Emphasizing the eccentric component of any lift aids muscle growth, as it causes more muscle damage that the body needs to repair. This is one reason trainers will tell you to lift a weight explosively, but take two or three seconds to control it on the way down. So, it can be argued that the hanging power snatch is a good choice for adding muscle size.

What Muscles Does The Snatch Work?

The power snatch is really a full-body exercise, making it a very efficient lift for developing muscle and strength from head to toe. The posterior chain takes on the brunt of the work—that is, the muscles that work together on the backside of the body that contribute to the powerful triple extension. But once the bar is traveling up in front of the torso, the upper back and shoulders do their part to get the bar overhead, so the upper body gets worked hard as well.

Here’s a broad list of the muscles that contribute to a good power snatch, from the ground up.

• Calves
• Hamstrings
• Quads
• Glutes
• Spinal erectors
• Core
• Deltoids
• Traps

Power Snatch Benefits

There are several good reasons to invest the time to learn the power snatch. For one thing, if you have aspirations of competing in Olympic weightlifting, the power snatch offers a good starting point for learning the snatch that you’ll have to perform in competition. It’s an easier movement to master, safer to perform, and once you’ve got it down, it isn’t much harder to learn how to transition into a deep squat (thereby completing the full snatch).

For athletes, or anyone looking to enhance their athleticism, the power snatch can be used to develop triple extension power—a skill used in virtually every sport. The power snatch will absolutely help you take off into a run faster, jump higher, and hit harder.

The power snatch offers a good middle ground between exercises like the deadlift and the sprint. In a deadlift, the focus is building absolute strength, so you lift heavy but the bar moves relatively slow. That means it’s good for developing the muscles that help you perform fast movements, but it doesn’t train you to move fast in and of itself. A sprint, on the other hand, trains you to move fast, but it doesn’t offer the resistance the deadlift does to build muscle and strength. The power snatch fits perfectly in between them, providing enough load to stimulate strength gains while focusing on explosive speed to develop the ability to apply force rapidly. A strong guy/gal who can generate a lot of force in an instant is a formidable athlete.

If you are (or were) an athlete, you’re probably familiar with the power clean, another Olympic lifting variant that’s commonly used to build power. I like the power snatch better than the power clean for this purpose for a couple of reasons. For one, the power snatch actually develops more power output than the power clean, or even the regular snatch, for that matter, because the weight used is lighter and the bar moves faster.

The power snatch is also harder to cheat. With power cleans, you’ll often see lifters pulling hard with their backs and arms to get the weight up, failing to utilize the triple extension movement the way they’re supposed to. The power clean then becomes more of a sloppy reverse curl. When you use a power snatch, however, that’s not a concern. There’s no heaving the weight up with the wrong muscles. You have to emphasize hip and leg drive, or you simply won’t be able to do it.

Power Snatch Vs. Snatch

The main thing that differentiates the power snatch from the snatch is the position the bar is caught in. Remember, in the power snatch, you catch the weight in roughly a quarter-squat position—a knee angle of 90 degrees or more, thighs above parallel to the floor. In the classic weightlifting (full) snatch, you descend into a deep squat—knees bent 60 degrees or less, thighs below parallel.

The power snatch also finds you pulling the weight higher, since you aren’t going into a deep squat position to help control the bar. The greater pulling range means you have to produce more power, and that will require using less weight than in the snatch.

Because the snatch requires a lot of mobility in the ankles, hips, and thoracic spine—and for most trainees, achieving a deep overhead squat is very challenging—it’s not as widely used as the power snatch. The power snatch is the better choice for most people who want to develop power and explosiveness, but aren’t weightlifters preparing for competition.

Power Snatch Exercise Alternatives

Before you add any exercise to your workouts, you should always ask yourself, “What’s the goal of this exercise, and what is the risk vs. reward?” The power snatch can certainly be used to build power, helping an athlete get faster, jump higher, and become more athletic, but it can also be difficult to learn and risky for those who have prior injuries or restrictions in their mobility.

If you have your heart set on power snatching, that’s cool. Just make sure you seek out a qualified coach to watch you perform it and tweak your form as needed. Remember to work on technique and speed before adding weight. Don’t be too eager to load up the bar solely for the sake of chasing big numbers. Understand that mastering any Olympic lift will take time and effort, and it may leave less time and energy for other exercises in your program.

The truth is, for the vast majority of people, I feel there are better exercise options than the power snatch to develop power, explosiveness, and athleticism. There are many movements that teach triple extension that can be taught and learned much faster, with much less risk to the lifter. Whether you choose to power snatch or not, you should be aware of the following moves, which offer many of the same benefits, and arguably many more.

For all of the following, perform 3–5 sets of 3–5 reps to start, resting as needed between sets. (Choose one per workout; don’t do more than power exercise in a session.) If you feel yourself slowing down or losing height on any rep, end the set there.

Box Jump

The box jump is a simple plyometric exercise that teaches you to explode from the hips and, just as importantly, absorb the force of a landing.

Step 1. Place a box that you estimate will be moderately challenging to jump up onto on the floor in front of you. Stand a foot or so behind it.

Step 2. Bend your hips and knees and swing your arms backward to generate momentum. Throw your arms forward as you jump up onto the box and land in its center with soft knees. Try to land as silently as possible. Step down off the box; don’t jump off.

Trap-Bar Deadlift Jump

The trap-bar provides a great alternative to the old-fashioned straight bar for a variety of lower-body exercises. It allows you to keep the load you’re lifting closer to your own center of mass, which reduces shear forces on the spine. It also lets you get into a more natural, athletic position when you deadlift, which should have more carryover to athletic activity. Doing jumps with the trap-bar loads the hips safely and builds explosiveness, and the form is easy to learn.

Step 1. Stand with feet between hip and shoulder-width and bend your hips back. Keep your head, spine, and pelvis in a long, straight line as you reach down to grasp the bar’s parallel handles. Crush oranges in your armpits to generate lat tension, and brace your core.

Step 2. Jump straight up in the air, as high as you can. Land softly, and pause a moment before your next rep to make sure you’re positioned correctly.

Medicine-Ball Scoop Toss

Many coaches like using medicine balls for power development because they’re very user-friendly and allow you to move as fast as possible. The weight can’t get too heavy, so you’re really able to explode with it, and, unlike with a barbell, you don’t have to worry about decelerating the load at the end of the range of motion—you can just release it and let the ball fly. The scoop toss simulates the triple extension used in all snatch variants very closely.

Step 1. Place a moderately-weighted medicine ball on the floor and straddle it with feet outside shoulder-width. (It should be a ball with a soft shell; one that won’t bounce.) Bend your hips and knees to reach down and grasp the ball while keeping a long spine.

Step 2. Scoop up the ball and explode upward, jumping up as you throw the ball as high as you can. Watch its path, and move as needed to avoid the ball landing on you. When the ball lands and comes to a stop, perform your next rep.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Snatch

Not all snatches have to be done with a barbell. You can use one dumbbell to perform a snatching motion, making for a safer lift that also challenges your balance and stability to a greater degree. As with all unilateral exercises, it can help you identify which side of your body is stronger.

Step 1. Place a dumbbell on the floor, and straddle the weight with feet a bit outside shoulder-width. Observe all the same form points for the snatch described above to bend down and grasp the weight.

Step 2. Use triple extension to raise the weight off the floor and straight up in front of your torso until it’s overhead. Your feet should land just as your arm locks out the elbow. You can reach your free arm out to the side to help you balance. Lower the weight to your chest under control, and then return it to the floor.

The post How To Do The Power Snatch Like A CrossFit Pro appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– Dumbbells provide several advantages, including freedom of motion, the ability to correct strength imbalances, safety, and stability.

– Some of the best dumbbell exercises include the paused squat jump, Bulgarian split squat, step-over lunge, Romanian deadlift, single-leg kickstand wall RDL, lateral lunge with reach, front-foot elevated split squat, and goblet squat.

– Dumbbells can be used to add muscle size, strength, power, and mobility to the legs.

A Pro’s Guide To Dumbbell Leg Exercises and Workouts

There aren’t too many things from 700 B.C. that are still in style, but dumbbells are an exception. The use of dumbbells, specifically for leg training, dates back to at least ancient Greece. Records show that athletes swung stone implements while they practiced jumping drills, using the extra weight to add momentum to their leaps. Later, the term “dumbbell” was coined in the 1700s in England, and then migrated to the U.S. where, it appears, the Founding Fathers started clanging and banging. In letters to his son, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “I live temperately, drink no wine, and use daily the exercise of the dumbbell.” (He claimed to have performed a workout consisting of 40 swings.)

Hundreds of years later, dumbbells are still accessible, versatile, relatively easy to use, and highly effective for helping you build muscle, strength, and athleticism. If they were good enough for Spartan warriors and the guy on the $100 bill, they’re good enough for you and me.

I like dumbbells for all kinds of training—especially lower-body work—and if they’re all you’ve got due to your gym being closed or out of your budget, you’d better learn how to make the most of them. Here, I’ll share my favorite dumbbell leg exercises, and give you a workout that ties them all together to build muscular, strong legs that are also capable of explosive speed and agility.

What Are the Benefits of Working Out My Legs with Dumbbells?

Dumbbells offer many advantages over barbells, machines, and other implements for training the legs. Here are some key benefits.

Greater Freedom of Motion

When you use a barbell, the weight is fixed in one position. That can be a problem if you have injuries, or lack flexibility. Dumbbells allow you to adjust where the weight is in relation to your body, and that can let you customize your exercises to perform them more safely.

Take Romanian deadlifts, for example. Using a barbell, the weight moves down the front of your body to your shins as you bend your hips back. The load is displaced in front of you, and that puts a lot of stress on your lower back. With dumbbells, you have the freedom to hold the load further back, closer to your sides and your center of gravity. This keeps more of the stress on the hamstrings where you want it, and less on the low back.

Correction of Strength Imbalances

When you use barbells and machines, it’s difficult to recognize strength imbalances between sides. The strong limb will compensate for the weaker one, and you won’t notice which leg is lagging behind the other. Over time, failing to correct this imbalance can lead to injury.

Dumbbells lend themselves well to unilateral training—working one limb at a time. Lunges, split squats, and single-leg RDL’s are all more practical and user-friendly to do with dumbbells versus other equipment, and they make you aware of your restrictions, both in terms of range of motion and strength. Training one leg at a time, you’ll see which side needs more work, and you can begin to even things out. Unilateral training also allows you to work with greater ranges of motion (you can typically go further down on a single-leg RDL or squat than you can on the two-legged versions), and it’s more in line with how we move in real life—balancing, landing, and pushing off from one leg at a time rather than both together. Get strong unilaterally, and you’ll almost certainly be stronger when you use both legs at once.

Increased Stability

It’s hard to balance on one leg, so unilateral dumbbell training builds more stability than training bilaterally. This alone can go a long way toward helping you break through muscle and strength plateaus.

When your joints lack stability, your brain recognizes it, and won’t allow you to produce the maximum amount of force that you’re capable of. Essentially, it puts the breaks on to prevent you from hurting yourself. In that sense, dumbbell training plays a big role in unlocking your potential to grow from all the training you do.

Greater Safety

With any exercise tool you use, you have to be aware of your body and focus on proper form when you train. But dumbbells are inherently safer than barbells. A) They offer greater freedom of motion (explained above). B) They don’t allow you to train as heavy, and C) they’re easy to let go of if you get in trouble. Hang around a gym long enough and you’re bound to see somebody get stuck at the bottom of a barbell back squat and need to be helped up. But if you can’t complete a rep with dumbbells, you can bail out by simply dropping the weights to the floor. For anyone training at home alone, dumbbells are a must.

Joint-Friendy Training

Whether it’s back squats, deadlifts, or their many variations, barbell leg exercises tend to put a lot of compression and shear forces on your spine. If your form isn’t pristine, the risk of injury goes up dramatically, and many people have mobility and stability limitations that prevent them from doing these lifts safely.

Dumbbell leg exercises don’t load the spine directly. Furthermore, because they’re conducive to safer training, you’ll feel more confident pushing yourself further without fear of your form breaking down. This can mean more intense workouts and faster gains.

What Leg Exercises Can I Do With Dumbbells?

Now I’ll introduce you to eight of my favorite dumbbell leg exercises (Onnit only asked me for five, but I couldn’t help myself!). Together, they cover the gamut of training goals. Some are for straight-up leg mass, and others help to build explosiveness and athleticism. Many of them will really stretch your hamstrings, hips, and adductors, too, expanding your mobility so you can achieve greater ranges of motion in all your lower-body movements and activate more muscle.

*All videos courtesy of Luka Hocevar and Vigor Ground Fitness

#1. Dumbbell Paused Squat Jump

This one is great for developing explosive power and the ability to decelerate your body after a jump or sprint. I use it often with the basketball players I train.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet about hip-width apart. Keep your arms locked out and think about squeezing oranges in your armpits to keep the lats under tension.

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Squat down until your knees are bent about 90 degrees (think: “half squat,” not a full squat). The dumbbells should be just outside your legs but not touching them.

Step 4. Pause a second at the bottom, and then explode upward. Apply as much force to the ground as possible, and imagine trying to touch your head to the ceiling.

Step 5. Land like a ninja—with soft knees, and as quietly as you can. Push your hips back as you touch down to help you decelerate. Think about it like this: if you were landing in a puddle, how would you do it so as not to make a huge splash?

Make sure you pause between reps to reset yourself as needed.

#2. Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat

One of my favorite lower-body exercises, the split squat builds strength, muscle, and stability that transfers over to athletic movements. It also supports gains on big barbell lifts like the deadlift and squat.

Step 1. Stand lunge-length in front of a single-leg squat stand (shown here) or bench. Hold dumbbells at your sides and rest the top of your back foot on the bench. Your back leg should be bent about 90 degrees (use this leg as little as possible throughout the exercise; you should feel almost no tension in it). Keep your arms locked out and think about squeezing oranges in your armpits to keep the lats under tension.

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Hinge your hips back so your torso is angled forward, and lower your body until your rear knee is just above the floor. As you descend, your spine and shin should run parallel to each other.

Step 4. Think about pushing the floor away from you and feeling your whole foot contact it as you come back up to the starting position. Be careful not to fully lock out your front knee—it should be slightly bent at the top of each rep. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

#3. Dumbbell Step-Over Lunge

Looking for a “functional” exercise? How about one that works deceleration, acceleration, coordination and just about every muscle in the lower body? The step-over lunge is one of the most challenging lunge variations you can do, but once you’ve got it down, you’ll see huge results.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand with feet about hip-width apart. Keep your arms locked out and think about squeezing oranges in your armpits to keep the lats under tension.

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Step backward with a slight hinge/lean in your hips so that you load your glutes. Control your descent, and softly touch the floor with your back knee.

Step 4. Drive through the floor with your front foot and step forward out of the lunge. Try not to put your foot down to rebalance yourself—just step straight into a forward lunge. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

Note: It’s OK if your knee travels in front of your toes at the end-range of a lunge. It’s not only safe, it’s actually healthy for the ankles, knees, and hips to develop stability in that range of motion.

#4. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

The RDL is the best way to teach a true hip-hinge movement, which is used in all sports and multiple daily activities. Starting the lift from the top rather than the bottom makes it safer, and the dumbbells help you keep the weight closer to your center of gravity than the barbell alternative.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides and stand with feet about hip-width apart. Keep your arms locked out and think about squeezing oranges in your armpits to keep the lats under tension. Draw your shoulders back and down (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Push your hips back like you’re trying to shut a car door behind you with your butt. Bend your knees slightly, and think about pulling yourself down with your hip flexors (the muscles on the front of your hips that raise your legs up) as you lower your torso. As you go down, allow the dumbbells to move slightly forward and around to the front of your thighs.

Go down until the dumbbells reach mid-shin level, or you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings, and pause at the bottom. Your eyes should be looking about three feet in front of your toes. If you find yourself looking down at your feet or at the wall in front of you, your neck is out of alignment.

Be sure to keep your long-spine position. Don’t round your back.

Step 4. Extend your hips to come back up, and squeeze your glutes at the top of the rep.

#5. Dumbbell Single-Leg Kickstand Wall RDL

This is an incredible exercise for teaching great hinge form while putting the hip in abduction and internal rotation—skills that keep the hips healthy and athletic while also activating lots of glute muscle.

Step 1. Stand in front of a wall, facing away, and hold a dumbbell in your left hand. Bend the left knee, and push that foot back into the wall. Get a soft bend of the knee on the other leg. Draw your shoulder blades back and down, pack your chin, and get a long spine from your head to your pelvis.

Step 2. Bend your hips back while twisting your torso toward the right leg so that the dumbbell lines up in front of it. Think about getting your belly button to point at the outside of the knee. Go down until the dumbbell is at mid-shin level, or you feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings. Keep the left knee pulled in as you perform the RDL—don’t let it drift outward.

Be sure to maintain your long-spine position. Don’t round your back.

Step 3. Push the floor away as you come back up, and extend your hips fully. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

#6. Dumbbell Lateral Lunge with Reach

Most muscle-building exercises are done in the sagittal plane, where the movement occurs forward and back. Lateral lunges break you out of that groove, utilizing the frontal plane, which is so prominent in sports play. Fighters, football players, soccer players, and so on have to be able to move side to side without pulling a muscle or tripping over their feet. This move prepares them for it.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in your right hand and stand with feet about hip-width apart. Keep your arms locked out and think about squeezing an orange in your armpit to keep the lats under tension.

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Lunge to your left side, making sure your left foot stays on the same plane as the right one. (Tip: do the exercise on turf, or some other area that has a line painted on it so you get some feedback. Placing a long exercise band on the floor can also work.) Make sure you step far enough so that you feel a stretch on the locked-out leg.

Step 4. Sit back into your hip (it’s a hinge/deadlift movement more than a squat), and make sure your knee aligns with your big toe on the left leg. If this is a problem, imagine pushing a $100 bill into the floor with the inside of your foot. As you lower into the lunge, twist your torso so you can nearly touch the dumbbell to your foot.

Step 5. Push off the lunging leg and come back to the starting position in one fluid motion. Complete your reps on that side, and then switch sides and repeat.

#7. Dumbbell Front-Foot Elevated Split Squat

I love this move for teaching a vertical squat pattern, where your hips and torso move straight down as opposed to more of a hip-hinge motion. This reduces shear forces on the spine. Most of my clients say their hips and low back feel great after doing these, even though their legs are on fire.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell in your left hand and stand with your left foot on a weight plate or other platform that elevates it about two inches above the floor. Extend your right leg behind you. Keep your left arm locked out and think about squeezing an orange in your armpit to keep the lat under tension.

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Rotate the hip of the rear leg forward so it’s square with the other hip, and begin sitting back into the hip that’s over the plate. Your rear thigh and knee must stay aligned with your right foot, so don’t let the knee turn inward when you rotate the hip.

Step 4. Actively drive your front foot into the plate, making sure your heel stays down, as you slowly lower your body until your rear knee is just above the floor. Stay as vertical as possible—think of your body like a canister. Your front knee will travel forward and you should aim to touch your hamstrings to your calf.

Step 5. Push off the front foot to raise your body back up. Think “elevator, not escalator,” so you push the plate away while staying vertical and not rising back on an angle. Rise until your rear leg is straight—your front leg should be well short of lockout.

#8. Dumbbell Goblet Squat

If you have trouble dialing in your squat form, the goblet squat is a great way to re-train yourself. It teaches you to stay upright and sink into your hips, and often leads to near-perfect squat mechanics right away. The goblet squat not only works your lower body, but requires a lot of strength and stability from your core and upper body as well. It’s great for reinforcing good posture when done correctly.

Step 1. Hold a dumbbell under your chin vertically, with both hands on the end of one bell. Stand with feet between hip and shoulder-width apart and turn your toes out about 30 degrees. Think about squeezing oranges in your armpits to keep the lats under tension. Draw your shoulders back and down (think: “proud chest”).

Step 2. Retract your neck so your head isn’t sticking out in front of your body (think: “packed chin”). Your head, spine, and pelvis should form a long, straight line. Brace your core.

Step 3. Drive your knees forward and pull yourself down into the squat using the hip flexors (the muscles on the front of the hips that raise your legs up). Stay as vertical as you can with your upper body, and go as deep as you can while keeping alignment from your head to your pelvis—your lower back should be neutral at the bottom (not rounded over or hyperextended). Your elbows should be able to touch the medial side of your knees in the bottom position.

Step 4. Push the floor away as you rise back up to stand tall.

Note: On all of the above exercises, it can help to think about keeping your ribs down. This means to avoid any hyperextension of your lower back that would cause your ribs to flare. If you focus on pulling the ribs down toward the pelvis, you’ll brace your core properly and create a neutral spine position. This promotes safety, and will ensure your legs work to the maximum.

What Muscles Will I Be Targeting?

The above exercises combined target every muscle group in the lower body (and a great many muscles in the upper body too, which provide stability), as well as the core. I’ll break down the major muscle groups targeted in each lift.

Dumbbell paused squat jump: glutes, quads, calves

Dumbbell Bulgarian split squat: glutes, quads, hamstrings, adductors

Dumbbell step-over lunge: quads, glutes, adductors

Dumbbell Romanian deadlift (RDL): hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, core

Dumbbell single-leg kickstand wall RDL: glutes, hamstrings, adductors, core

Dumbbell lateral lunge with reach: glutes, adductors

Dumbbell front-foot elevated split squat: quads, adductors, glutes, hamstrings

Dumbbell goblet squat: quads, glutes, upper back, core

How To Stretch Before A Dumbbell Leg Workout

An effective warmup should begin with some soft tissue work using a foam roller, lacrosse ball, or other tool that applies some pressure to the muscles to help them loosen up. Roll out your hips, hamstrings, quads, and any other areas of the lower body that may feel particularly tight. After that, try these three combination mobility drills that will open up your hips and knees while raising your core temperature. The goal with these is to further improve your ability to achieve the positions that the exercises in the workout require, so don’t skip them!

If one drill makes you feel tighter than another, spend more time on that one and focus on owning the positions. When you get to an uncomfortable point in the range of motion, take some deep breaths (long exhale, long inhale)—this will help loosen you up as well as help you to stabilize in the position.

Set a timer for 6–12 minutes, depending on how much time you can devote to your warmup, and go through the exercises as outlined until the time is up. It may end up being two rounds of each move, or five; just keep moving. If you’re extra tight/stiff, I recommend putting the timer on for 10 or more minutes.

1. Single-Leg Downward Dog to Spiderman Lunge with Quad Stretch

Reps: 3–5 (each side)

Step 1. Get into pushup position with your hands directly under your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to toe.

Step 2. Raise your right leg off the floor as you push your body backward and raise your hips into the air. Keep your left leg as straight as possible and your heel flat on the floor. Drive your arms into the floor so that your palms stay flat.

Step 3. Step your right leg forward and plant it next to your right arm. Take a moment to extend your spine and hips so that you realign yourself—your body should form a straight line from your head to the heel of your left foot.

Step 4. Lower the left knee to the floor and bend that leg as you reach back with your left hand to grasp the ankle. Gently pull your heel closer to your butt so you feel a stretch in your quads. Shift your weight forward to intensify the stretch.

Step 5. Let your foot go, and return to pushup position. Repeat on the opposite side.

2. Squat to Stand with Walkout to Downward Dog + Single-Arm Reach

Reps: 3–5

Step 1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and toes turned out about 30 degrees.

Step 2. Bend over and grasp your toes. Squat down as low as you can, extending your spine as you do so that you end up in the bottom of a squat with your elbows inside your knees and a long spine. You can wiggle your hips around a bit to help you get comfortable in the bottom position.

Step 3. Walk your hands forward until you’re in a pushup position, and push your hips back and into the air.

Step 4. Twist your torso to the right and grasp the outside of your right knee with your left hand. Twist the other direction and grasp the opposite knee.

Step 5. Reverse the entire movement: Return to pushup position, walk yourself back to the bottom of the squat, and then stand up with your hips while grasping your toes.

3. Thai Sit with Shinbox Switch

Reps: 5 (each side)

Step 1. Sit on the floor with both knees bent. Your left leg should be in front of you and your right leg pointing behind. Keep a tall spine, and try to get both your sit bones flat on the floor.

Step 2. Extend your hips to come up on your knees. Extend your arms straight in front of you, and slowly lower your butt back to the floor.

Step 3. Rotate your right leg outward and your left leg inward so that you turn your body and achieve the same sitting position in the opposite direction. Rise up to your knees, and lower back down. Use your hands for balance as needed, but don’t use them for momentum to help you rise up.

How To Choose The Right Dumbbell Weight

On any dumbbell exercise, you’ll need to work up to the right weight gradually by doing what coaches call “ramp up” sets. Choose a very light weight to start, maybe 50% of the heaviest load you think you can handle for your work sets, and perform around 5 reps. Increase the weight by small increments (10–20 pounds) until you reach a load that you’re sure you can use—with good form—for the number of reps that the workout calls for. Take as many ramp up sets as you need, and don’t take any of the ramp up sets to failure—they’re just an extension of your warmup.

Be conservative with the weight you select for your first main work set—you can always increase the weight on your next set if the first one feels too light.

Note that the dumbbell paused squat jump is a power exercise and needs to be done as explosively as possible. Going too heavy will slow you down and thus defeat the purpose. Use your bodyweight alone for your first ramp up set. You won’t need much weight for the work sets.

Complete Dumbbell Leg Workout

This workout includes all the aforementioned exercises to give you a routine that builds athleticism, strength, and muscle size. You can run the program for four to six weeks, adding a work set to a few of the exercises as you see fit in the second or third week (add sets to the remaining exercises in the weeks that follow). You should also aim to increase the number of reps you perform and the loads you use over time. But don’t attempt to make any exercise harder until you’re sure you’ve got the form down properly.

Rest as needed between sets and between exercises. The squat jump will require more rest so you can restore maximum speed and power—maybe 2 minutes—while you may only need a minute or so break between sets of the lateral lunge.

Notice that you have a choice of moves you can do for exercises 2 and 3. You can opt for the Bulgarian split squat and Romanian deadlift if you want more of a muscle-building stimulus, or you can choose the step-over lunge and kickstand wall RDL if you want to prepare your body for better performance in soccer, football, basketball etc.

1. Dumbbell Paused Squat Jump

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 6–8

2. Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat, OR Dumbbell Step-Over Lunge

Sets: 3–4  Reps: 8 (each side)

3. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift, OR Dumbbell Single-Leg Kickstand Wall RDL

Sets: 3  Reps: 12 (each side)

4. Dumbbell Lateral Lunge w/ Reach

Sets: 2  Reps: 10 (each side)

5. Dumbbell Front-Foot Elevated Split Squat

Sets: 2  Reps: 10 (each side)

Optional Finisher: Dumbbell Goblet Squat

Sets: 1–2  Reps: 20–25

Follow Luka on Instagram, @lukahocevar.

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