Power Snatch as assistance

[caseyd123]

Hey coach, hope all is well
I am now at the deep point of the novice progression as I have finally hit my first stall on Deadlift (it was the last one to need a back-off) and am now on back-off periods for all my lifts with the Squat being on its 2nd back-off period. At this time I want to hammer down assistance programming to keep the linear progression going. So for Squat/Bench/Dead day I was planning on doing Dips for bench assistance, Back Extensions for dead assistance and for Squat/Press/PC day I was planning on doing just Power Snatches since it provides assistance for the pulls while adding shoulder work.

Does this sound like a solid plan? Obviously I would need to keep the Power Snatches light to avoid over-training but I really like that lift and have been successful in teaching myself how to do it using your pulling model w/ tweaks. As for the volume of the snatch I was thinking 3x3 or 4x3.

Would you sign off on this kind of assistance programming in your gym? Should I add chins/pullups along with Snatches?

Also, if all of these points are clearly answered in PPST2 then go ahead and not post this topic and I will get the hint and update as I currently only have PPST1.

Thanks coach,
CD

[Mark Rippetoe]

If you're doing my program you're already doing chins and pullups. And snatches really do not add that much load to the shoulders, since you don't hold them in lockout with your delts; your traps hold them up. I was able to do snatches with no pain at 8 weeks post shoulder surgery.