how to overhead squat?

[the People's Champ]

any tips on what I should and shouldn'tt do? I am going to give this a shot sometime this week. I aobviously won't lift more than I can't press, but is it basically the same as a squat with the addition of trying to balance to the weight above your head?

 

[spatts]

I do them starting in a hang snatch. This way I CAN do alot more than I can press. Then, I get the bar centered directly over my hips, elbows out, and like I'm pulling the bar apart in the middle. Then I go ATF. Tight arch, bar stays over hips.

 

[coolcolj]

See my avatar


Ha if you think you can Overhead squat what you press for reps, forget it. You'll be lucky to use more than an Olympic bar for quite some time

You need flexible ankles and shoulders. I you can't swing your arms behind your heads, your no gonna be able to do it. Start doing shoulder dislocates and stretching the hell outta your pecs. Bench presses make overheadsquatting much harder, because of the tightness they cause in the pecs and shoulders.

Pulling the bar apart helps. Use a wide grip, the less flexible you are the wider you go. Thrumbs on the outta rings is about what I use. Use a wide stance as well so you can stay more upright, which again helps if your shoudlers lack flexibility

 

[tsarleon]

what exactly is the benefits for acquiring a strong overhead press? To start out doing it, which day should I incorporate it into the workout, on regular leg day... or throw it into another days workout? Any other comments appreciated.

-Leon

 

[tsarleon]

sorry i meant overhead sqaut, not press...

 

[coolcolj]

mainly strength and stability in the shoulder girdle, rotatry cuffs, your abs and lower back and mid back. Improves your squatting form and flexiblity in the hips. etc .

You can't use a lot of weight in it, the shoulders are the weak link.
Its more an assiatnce exercise for olympic lifters for the snatch

 

[thriller]

i just started doing snatchs and overhead squsat. it will kill the shoulders because they are being stretched so much.

 

[the People's Champ]

thank you for the replies. will I have any difficulty if I have never performed a snatch? that lift looks pretty complicated to do.

 

[coolcolj]

No you can do them without having done any snatches.
I think its very useful to condition the muscles before doing snatches actually.

practise with a broom handle first. The key is learning to relax and sink down while swinging the arms behind your head to maintain balance. otheriwse you'll be tensing the hell outta your muscles and wondering why you can't go all the way to the bottom - which is what I did when I first started doing them

Yeah as I said before get a towel or a broom handle and do some shoulder dislocates before hand to loosen up the pecs and shoulders. Basicly you grab your towel or staff and hold it at a suitable width and swing it around behind your back. Going narrower over time.

Its a great warmup exercise - I do it before I workout with just the olympic bar to warmup up my core msucles, cuffs and loosen up my hips

 

[ballast]

Overhead squats are a tremendous exercise.I think their two major functions are increasing back strength(especially the low back) and increasing hip flexibility.
Dan John, one of the major proponents of overhead squats, has his shot and discus athletes focus on these and their goal is to do bodyweight for fifteen reps.That's some serious strength.
Two good variations of this exercise are 1)bottom-position overhead squats and 2)dumbell overhead squats.On the bottom-position variety, I set up inside the power rack and place a loaded bar on the safety pins at the lowest position I can hit and do singles off the pins.These are extremely difficult.The dumbell variety is also difficult, but really works your balance and stabilizer muscles.