Exercise of the Week - The Dumbbell Squat Press

The "snatch" and "clean and jerk" are Olympic lifts. The lifter hauls the barbell off the floor to an overhead position. In the clean and jerk, the barbell is held at the chest before the final lift is made. The snatch requires the lifter to duck under the weight in the squat position, then stand with barbell held overhead to complete the lift successfully.

These are technical lifts and require much training, preferably from a younger age in order to develp the flexibility and joint and muscle development to perform well.

However, lighter weights and a less restrictive performance requirements can allow anyone to have a go at variants to these Olympic lifts. Here's one example. I call it the squat press.

1. Use dumbbells instead of a barbell. They should be heavier than you would use for arm curls.
2. Start with dumbbells held at the sides.
3. The first movement is up onto the toes while shrugging the shoulders and lifting the dumbbells upward. At the top of this movement, your elbows should point to the ground and dumbbells should be upright at the shoulders.
4. As you raise the dumbbells up to the shoulder, you will rapidly duck under them by squatting down. You can go as low as you feel comfortable with -- ass to ground if you like.
5. The next movement is to thrust the dumbbells overhead as you stand and push up straight. Return dumbbells to the starting position.

This is a great compound exercise and works legs, butt, shoulders and arms. The hardest part is getting the hang of the toes-shrug-lift part at the beginng. This is really a "hang clean" movement and you could delete this part if you wanted to and just start with dumbbells at the shoulders. Give it a try and I'm sure it will come together for you. Get a qualified trainer to walk you through it If you need to.

If you have knee problems you can limit the depth of the squat and still get a good workout.