Alright, good to know.
FAIR WARNING: this is inevitably going to be a fucking essay, because I like to hear myself talk (see myself type? I don’t know).
Okay, so firstly, when you’re working on the power snatch and clean, but no jerk, you’re really only doing 1.5 lifts. Reason being, the snatch has (despite there being technically 3 pulls), 2 main sections: floor to “float” (when the bar hits roughly solar plexus or chest height and floats for a moment), and “float” to overhead. Those two sections require vastly different accessories, in my opinion, and if you want to improve your snatch for the sake of getting stronger in the movement, you’ll want to employ pulling from the floor, and overhead work pertaining to the snatch.
The power clean has no such issue, really, because it’s the first half of a full lift: the clean & jerk. There’s still some “float” in the clean, but getting the bar on your clavicle can really be a matter of being ridiculously strong in pulling from the floor.
With that in mind, first you should think if you really care about pursuing both lifts, or if just the power clean is good enough for you. It’ll still build power, and it’ll also give you some back stimulation.
All that said, assuming you still want to pursue both, here’s how I’d go about it, training each lift only once per week, both on the same day:
Both lifts will benefit from lower-reps; generally, I’d say nothing above 5, because there’s a higher level of skill involved, especially in the snatch, and fatigue will demolish your form very quickly and ingrain poor habits. You’ll alternate week-to-week between intensity and volume for both lifts, on opposing schedules. So if you’re working intensity for the snatch that week, cleans will be volume. Vice versa the next week. You will also always start with the snatch, no matter the week, because it’s a more demanding movement and requires more of your nervous system.
For intensity, I like to build up in sets of 2 for the snatch, and sets of 3 for the clean. Spend at least 2 sets at each weight, to make sure you’ve really got that weight nailed. Keep going until you see a marked decrease in the speed of the movement, or things are getting sloppy and unstable. These are not grindy lifts like The Big 3.
For volume, sets of 3 for the snatch, and sets of 5 for the clean. The weight should be chosen at approx. 75-90% of your top set from the intensity week. Again, these are skill movements, so lower percentages on volume weeks are ideal, because we want to ingrain good habits. High number of sets on volume weeks. Like, minimum 5 sets. You can build a little bit here too, but stay within a 5-10% range (for example, 2 sets @ 75%, 2 @ 80%, 2 @ 85%).
I would make at least one movement during the rest of the session related to the intensity lift for that week. So if you did snatches, maybe you do snatch-grip bent-over rows/SLDL, or snatch-grip hyperextensions with a Kelso shrug at the top, or just Kelso shrugs with a snatch-grip. If it’s a clean week, maybe you do clean high pulls from the hang position, or bent-over rows in a position that resembles the start of your clean set-up. Those are just a few examples.
The other thing I’d consider is making one of your movements on a pressing day some type of snatch press; snatch presses are snatch-grip pressing movements always done behind the neck. This could be strict presses, push presses, snatch balances only dropping to the power position (basically a snatch “jerk”). You could also do overhead squats on leg days as warm-ups for regular squats.
I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Lemme know what questions you have. Hope that helps!
