Underused Movements - The Viper Press/Muscle Snatch
Takeaway Points:
The viper press/muscle snatch are similar exercises that strengthen and build muslce in key parts of the body like the shoulders, back, and traps.
Although not suitable for beginners or casual exercisers, the viper press/muscle snatch can be very beneficial for strength athletes like powerlifters, olympic weightlifters, and CrossFitters.
(This is an updated version of an article originally published on 1/9/15. It has been expanded on slightly, and has been brought up to modern formatting standards.)
Picture courtesy of T-Nation's article on the Muscle Snatch.
One of my favorite accessory moves (that I don’t think gets enough usage or credit) is called the viper press or, alternately, the muscle snatch, depending on what equipment you use. The viper press is done with the strongman log and the muscle snatch is done with the barbell, but otherwise the movement is pretty similar.
In the viper press, the log is brought to the waist and cradled before being brought overhead in a fast “whipping” motion, using as much momentum as possible. This whipping motion is likely what helped the lift to get its name; from the rearing of a viper.
In the muscle snatch, the barbell is deadlifted from the ground and then immediately “muscled” up into the snatch position, only there is no squatting motion to get underneath the barbell. The muscle snatch resembles the power snatch, although the power snatch tends to have just a little bit of a dip into a squat and the use of momentum, whereas the muscle snatch should have little/none.
The movements are certainly different, most notably in hand position as a result of the equipment used, but they tend to work out similar things. Both involve a lot of different muscles - the posterior chain for the deadlift, the upper back for the initial pull, and the shoulders for the lockout. The viper press/muscle snatch are both hybrid strength/power movements, since they do involve a bit of momentum but not nearly the amount seen in traditional olympic lifting. This means that they’re going to help build a lot of muscle while at the same time helping to build a lot of strength, without the high specificity of the olympic lifts.
These exercises also work out a movement pattern which is often under-trained for many common gymgoers - the upper traps, the rotation of the shoulder, and accordingly stability of the scapula and shoulder joint area. Many times, people try to train their traps with shrugs (which tend to have a very limited range of motion) or upright rows (which can cause issues for some lifters). Likewise, many people feel the need to train the scapular region and the upper back with a lot of band pullaparts, face pulls, and so on.
I’d argue that often a light, high rep clean and press or snatch would be a better way to train the traps and upper back area for a lot of people, and work the muscles through a greater range of motion, but given that these movements are technically demanding, it can be hard to really teach a lifter these movements or incorporate them in a program. The viper press and muscle snatch are a bit less skill-heavy, and don’t require as much coordination, making them a great fit for training the area. Admittedly, the viper press is less likely to be applicable because most lifters don’t have access to, or practice with, a strongman log press, but the muscle snatch requires no specialized equipment, only requiring that you have a barbell.
While these movements likely won’t work well with beginner or general population exercisers, they’ve got good carryover to all your major strength sports - the viper press for strongman, and the muscle snatch for powerlifting and olympic lifting. CrossFit athletes will also likely see good results!
Since the viper press and muscle snatch work out so many valuable muscles at once, they’ve become a staple of my accessory work, that I return to from time to time. I find that if you go too heavy on the viper press or the muscle snatch, form breaks down and it becomes hard to get good benefit out of it - being a bit more conservative with the weight and working in the 5-10+ rep range, with very slow progressions, works incredibly well.
Try them out, and you’re definitely gonna find your traps and shoulders burning more than you expect, aside from getting a solid back workout. Just watch out, however, as you’ll have to keep the weight relatively limited - start off with just a 45lb barbell (or even less, if you have access to lighter set-weight barbells) and work your way up from there.
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached thousands of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
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