I can still snatch 145+ even though I'm squatting 200 lbs under my best.
I'm finally getting back into squatting after three months off all lower body training (to let serious inflammation and effusion die down). I've spent a month working bodyweight-only squats every four or five days, then adding the bar and then 95 and 135 (as Andrew recommended). Now today I've finally gone above 135. Squatted 175 for five. I was exhausted afterward. Trembling. Took 20 minutes to recover.
Yet about half an hour before the squatting, I tried my power snatch out of sheer curiosity. I got 135 up, but lost my balance before I could lock it. It had been five months since I tried it, after all. Then I got 135 clean and 145 almost as clean (a little slower at the very top).
My best ever power snatch was just ten pounds or so more. I think I got 158. I know I did at least 155. I was making regular progress in new personal bests when my knee problems forced me to stop all squatting, pulling, running and jumping for a while.
So I'm amazed that I can still power snatch within 10% of my all time best after months of not doing any leg work of any kind. Meanwhile I can barely squat more than I can snatch! I don't think I could squat 225 right now.
The power snatch of an efficient lifter ought to be around a little more than 50% of his high bar/Olympic squat [power snatch = 80% of full snatch, full snatch = 80-85% of full clean, full clean = 85-90% of front squat, front squat = 85-90% of back squat].
That I can snatch about the same while my absolute leg strength is so far down tells me that I wasn't converting that former leg strength into the snatch (or other quick lifts) at all. And it's not like I can blame lack of technique since tihs is only the power snatch we're talking about. Yeah, the power version takes technique, too, but not as much. Non-specialists on the classic lifts can usually use more weight in the power version. This was a test of power, not of technique. And my power was about the same with a ~200-lb squat as it was with a mid-300's squat.
If anyone has any explanations, I'm all ears.
Thanks for reading.
