There aren’t many shoulder exercises that combine an upright pull, rotation and a press into one continuous movement. According to performance coach Blaine McConnell, that’s exactly what makes the double dumbbell muscle snatch so effective.

In fact, he’s willing to go further than just ‘effective’.

‘This is the greatest shoulder exercise of all time,’ says McConnell. ‘The reason why I like this movement so much is that, for me, I can feel it hammer every part of the shoulder because of the range of motion and the movement itself.’

It’s a big claim – and one McConnell acknowledges is just his opinion. But he makes an interesting case.

Unlike a conventional shoulder press, lateral raise or upright row, the dumbbell muscle snatch takes your shoulders through several different actions within the same rep. You pull the weights upwards, rotate underneath them and press them into an overhead position, before controlling that entire journey back down.

Or, as McConnell puts it: ‘You get a high pull. You get a little bit of external rotation. You get a press, and then you have to be able to have enough strength and control to bring that weight back down.’

And the best part? All you need is two dumbbells.

The clue is in the name.

‘You are doing a muscle snatch, but you’re using dumbbells instead of a barbell,’ explains McConnell.

Unlike a traditional snatch, with the ‘muscle’ variation you’re not rapidly dropping underneath the weights to receive them with your legs. Instead, your upper body does the work, taking the dumbbells from around hip height into an overhead lockout in one continuous movement. Think: pull, rotate, press.

From the starting position, you perform an explosive high pull, driving your elbows upwards. As the dumbbells reach chest height, your elbows travel backwards as you rotate underneath the weights before pressing them overhead. Then you reverse the sequence under control.

That last part is not to be ignored, by the way. Rather than treating the descent as dead time before the next rep, McConnell deliberately emphasises controlling the weights all the way back to the starting position.

1. Train Your Shoulders Through a Huge Range of Motion

Many shoulder exercises deliberately isolate one portion of the movement. Lateral raises take your arms out to the sides. Upright rows pull upwards. Shoulder presses take the weight overhead. The muscle snatch rolls several actions into one rep.

‘I love this movement because of that range of motion,’ says McConnell.

That doesn’t mean every fibre of your delts is somehow being perfectly isolated, but it does mean your shoulders have to produce and control force through several different positions rather than repeating the same short arc.

2. Combine Pulling and Pressing in One Rep

The movement begins as a high pull before transitioning into an overhead press.

McConnell’s cue is simple: ‘You’re thinking about pulling elbows up high, rotating, and then pressing up.’

That gives the exercise a very different feel to a conventional shoulder press. Your traps and delts have to accelerate the dumbbells upwards before your shoulders and triceps finish the job overhead.

3. Build Strength and Control

Getting the dumbbells overhead is only half of the rep.

McConnell wants you controlling the same path on the way back down, forcing your shoulders and upper back to manage the weights as you reverse the rotation and return to the starting position.

This motion is often undertrained, despite the fact it crops up regularly in real life.

‘You have to be able to have enough strength and control to bring that weight back down,’ he says.

4. Light Weights Go a Long Way

You definitely shouldn’t judge this exercise by the numbers on the dumbbells you’ll be using.

‘Thirty-pound dumbbells don’t seem like a lot of weight when doing this movement,’ says McConnell. ‘But I promise you, it is.’

That’s around 13.5kg per hand – not really intimidating by dumbbell pressing standards, but the long path and multiple stages of each rep mean there’s little reason to chase massive numbers.

McConnell’s advice is to ‘start off with a lighter weight that is manageable, and work on the path of the dumbbell before you start to load it up.’

Shoulders: Drive and control the dumbbells through the high pull, rotation and overhead portion of each rep.

Upper traps: Work hard during the initial high pull and help control the dumbbells as they return towards the starting position.

Triceps: Extend your elbows as the movement transitions into its overhead lockout.

Upper back: Helps control the position of your shoulder blades as the dumbbells move from your hips to overhead and back again.

Rotator cuff: Stabilises the shoulder and controls the rotational portion of the movement.

Core: Keeps your torso stable while force travels from the floor through your upper body and into the dumbbells.

• Stand tall holding two light dumbbells in front of your thighs. Create tension in your trunk and keep your knees softly bent. Resist the temptation to grab your normal shoulder-press weights – learning the motion comes first.
• Pull the dumbbells upwards in a high pull, leading with your elbows. ‘You’re thinking about elbow up high to row,’ says McConnell. Keep the dumbbells travelling close to your body rather than allowing them to swing forwards.
• As your elbows reach their highest point, drive them backwards and rotate your wrists underneath the dumbbells before fluidly punching into an overhead press.
• The whole thing should feel like one flowing movement: pull, rotate, press.
• Finish with both arms locked out overhead.
• Don’t simply drop the dumbbells back to your sides: reverse the movement, keeping the weights close as your elbows come down and then back, allowing the dumbbells to return along roughly the same path they travelled upwards.
• McConnell’s key cue throughout is to keep ‘that path of the dumbbell as straight up and down as possible’.

If there’s one technical point McConnell repeatedly comes back to, it’s the path of the weights.

Once you’ve performed the high pull, it’s tempting to let the dumbbells drift forwards while you rotate underneath them. Add enough weight and that can place considerably more torque through the shoulder.

Instead, McConnell recommends making sure your elbows travel backwards as you rotate so that the dumbbells remain close.

The same applies on the descent. Don’t let the weights swing out in front of you before dropping back towards your thighs. Retrace the movement and maintain control.

Get the path right before worrying about adding additional load.

Not quite.

McConnell says this was one of the most common responses he got when he originally posted the exercise. The two movements certainly look similar, but he makes an important distinction about how they’re performed.

The Cuban press – which McConnell notes was popularised by strength coach Charles Poliquin – deliberately breaks the movement into separate sections: high pull, rotate, press, then reverse.

‘It’s a very segmented movement,’ he explains.

The muscle snatch is intended to flow.

Instead of pausing with the elbows high and rotating the dumbbells around a fixed point, your elbows continue travelling backwards as the weights transition overhead, helping to maintain a straighter dumbbell path.

McConnell’s distinction is succinct: ‘Segmented, very strict; flowing, single motion.’

And whether or not you’re willing to join McConnell in declaring it ‘the greatest shoulder exercise of all time’, the muscle snatch offers something most dumbbell shoulder exercises don’t: a high pull, rotation, press and controlled descent all rolled into a single rep. For two dumbbells and one movement, that’s a lot of shoulder work.

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