Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch

How to do the Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch

1. 1Stand with your feet hip-width apart and a dumbbell on the floor between your feet.
2. 2Squat down with a flat back and grip the handle with one hand, the other arm free.
3. 3Drive up hard through your legs and hips, pulling the dumbbell straight up close to your body.
4. 4As it passes your chest, punch your arm up and catch the dumbbell overhead with a straight elbow, then stand tall.
5. 5Lower it to your shoulder, then to the floor under control; switch arms halfway through.

Muscles worked

Common mistakes

• Lifting with the arm — the legs and hips launch the dumbbell; the arm only guides it.
• Swinging it out in front — keep the dumbbell close to your body on the way up.
• Catching with a bent elbow — lock the arm overhead with the weight over your shoulder.

Where it fits in a workout

Do it first in a session, while you are fresh.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Logging the Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch in SetGrip

SetGrip logs the Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch as weight and reps. Log each arm as its own set, or add a routine note that reps are per arm.

Variations and alternatives

When to talk to someone

• Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
• Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
• Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

More exercises

• All legs exercises
• All glutes exercises
• All dumbbell exercises
• Dumbbell glutes exercises
• Single Arm Barbell Snatch
• Double Kettlebell Snatch
• Single Arm Kettlebell Snatch

Sources

1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.