With the rising popularity of CrossFit and weight lifting, you’ve got likely seen the overhead squat somewhere. It has implausible advantages for all the pieces out of your calves to your traps; nonetheless, it could possibly be intimidating should you have not mastered it (and even tried it, for that matter!).
But that doesn’t suggest you must toss it to the side. Whether you might be an experienced lifter or a beginner, this full-body mobility exercise ought to be an element of your program.
If the back squat is the king of constructing lower body muscle, the overhead squat is king for highlighting any movement flaws. Unfortunately, meaning most individuals abandon it too soon, frustrated by their lack of mobility and an extended learning curve.
That is where I are available. I’m here to show you why try to be patient with this exercise, keep practicing it, and be rewarded in your efforts by reaping all its advantages.
Table of Contents:
- What Is The Overhead Squat?
- How To Perform The Overhead Squat
- Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Overhead Squat Muscles Worked
- Overhead Squat Advantages
- Overhead Squat Variations, Alternatives, & Progressions
- Overhead Squats Programming Suggestions
- FAQs
What Is The Overhead Squat?
The overhead squat is a squat variation performed by lifting the burden overhead, keeping it in that position, and squatting with it. It’s most frequently done with a barbell, but there are lots of other progressions and variations to suit whatever your training level.
Regardless that it’s a compound exercise, it doesn’t provide the identical strength advantages because the back squat. While the back squat is superior for load and constructing strength, the overhead squat acts more as a full-body mobility exercise. It does wonders as a functional movement screen in your body and highlights muscle imbalances in your squat form.
That makes tight hips and ankles, poor thoracic extension, and shoulder flexibility common issues when practicing this movement. Regardless that these are the predominant limiting aspects, you’ll be able to still discover a regression that works for you as you improve your mobility.
Do not forget that mobility doesn’t come after one corrective exercise session. As a substitute, mobility is built through constructing a greater range of motion and learning to regulate it. The overhead squat does precisely that in your squat pattern.
When you understand what it is advisable to work on, practicing it as if it were a golf swing is the option to go. Use it as a warmup, to construct functional strength, or to construct your conditioning and endurance with higher reps. Either way, it has a spot in your workout split.
Correct Overhead Squat Form
The overhead squat will be intimidating, and it is important to know that this movement has a learning curve. Make sure that you begin at whatever level it is advisable to and do not jump under a loaded bar should you’ve never done it before.
Like several other exercise, should you can follow some specific details and guidelines, you will find success.
Tips on how to do the Overhead Squat:
- Arrange under the bar as should you’re going to do a high bar back squat. Start with feet shoulder width to hip width apart. The bar ought to be resting in your upper traps, and your elbows ought to be pulled under the bar, pointing down, not behind you. Use a wider grip than your back squat stance as if performing a snatch.
- Barely extend your wrist in order that it is just not locked out. Take a deep breath to brace your core and dip your hips barely to press the burden overhead while locking your elbows out. Consider sliding your back down a wall and powerfully driving the bar upwards.
- Together with your feet just outside hip width in an everyday squat stance, begin your descent and keep the bar above your head and in step with your midfoot. Barely hinge on the hips to have interaction your posterior chain as you squat down as deep as you’ll be able to maintain the bar in the identical position overhead.
- When you reach your end range of motion, pause for a second. Your knees ought to be in step with your feet and barely over your toes, and your head should look uncomplicated with an upright upper body.
- Drive up from the underside of the squat, ensuring your hips and chest rise concurrently. Stand back to the starting position and repeat.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Take care to avoid these mistakes, especially when just getting began with the overhead squat.
1) Leaning Too Far Forward:
To overhead squat accurately, maintain an upright position and safely keep the bar overhead, ensuring you don’t lean forward. Should you don’t hinge at the beginning to have interaction the posterior chain, you will likely fall forward.
Other times, this error is brought on by poor shoulder or hip mobility, tight ankles, or a weak core.
2) Knees Caving In:
Knee valgus, or when your knees collapse at the underside of the squat, is commonly an indication of weak or inactive glutes. Ensure your posterior chain is engaged to assist extend the hips and abduct the legs on the way in which up.
A number of sets of body weight squats with a band around your knees or ankles might help engage the glutes and stop this issue.
3) Losing Core Stiffness:
Should you feel your back hyperextend at the underside, it may very well be several things. Your core may very well be too weak to handle the load, or your hips may very well be rising before your chest does.
Either way, maintain that upright posture, and do not let your back hyperextend. Should you find core stiffness is the problem, keep your overhead squat load low, and begin incorporating plank variations to extend your core strength.
4) Starting At The Mistaken Progression:
Most individuals get right under a bar with some weight on it and wonder why they can not complete the lift.
Even should you’re a seasoned lifter but recent to overhead squatting, try a number of the progressions we list in this text before you add load to a bar. As you’re employed to get the proper form, it’s even idea to only use your body weight.
Remember, it’s more of a mobility exercise than a strength exercise.
Overhead Squat Muscles Worked
The short answer? Every thing! This exercise is barely different from most in your strength training program. Movements like a single-arm dumbbell row or a lying hamstring curl have an obvious purpose for what they’re constructing.
The row would construct the lats, and the lying curl hits the hamstrings. These are examples of open-chain, single-joint, kinetic exercises that effectively isolate a muscle group.
Alternatively, the overhead squat is a closed kinetic chain exercise, which implies it really works multiple joints through the movement. These muscles include the neck, shoulders, lumbo-pelvic-hip complex, knees, and feet/ankles. As such, you wish intense coordination out of your entire body to work together as a cohesive unit throughout the lift.
This movement is not necessarily an enormous muscle-building option, but it can provide help to discover energy leaks and the areas it is advisable to bring in control. That makes it terrific for teaching the body to work together, constructing serious core strength, and targeting some imbalances it’s possible you’ll not have noticed.
Overhead Squat Advantages
Let’s take a take a look at a few of the very best advantages of overhead squats.
1) Discover Weak Links And Improve Mobility:
The primary advantage of this movement is that it can immediately shine a highlight on the realm lacking mobility or strength.
Often, tight hips or ankles hinder someone’s ability to sit down deep into their heels. Poor thoracic extension will make it tough to keep up an upright position. Regardless of what it’s, the overhead squat will point it out.
The cool thing is that the more you practice the overhead squat, the more mobile your entire body gets. After weeks of working at it, I guarantee you will notice a difference in your ankle and hip mobility.
2) Higher Quads:
As keeping the bar overhead necessitates an upright torso, this exercise will provide you with implausible quad development.
Remember, you will not give you the chance to load it as heavy as a back squat to construct muscle, nevertheless it still does an awesome job of targeting the quads to strengthen knee flexion and extension.
3) Increase Focus And Coordination:
This lift would require extra attention to detail since almost every muscle is involved in maintaining position.
Every thing out of your feet to your shoulders will must be engaged to forestall form breakdown. There isn’t any option to cheat this exercise and do it with sloppy technique.
4) Improve Posture:
Practicing this movement goes to have a direct impact in your full-body mobility. Your shoulders must be strong and mobile enough to stabilize the burden overhead.
Improving your thoracic extension and hip and ankle mobility will immediately improve your posture. In a society where excessive sitting is the norm, any movement that trains proper posture and builds core strength is a superb addition to your program.
5) Strengthen Other Lifts:
Improving at overhead squats will directly carry over to your overhead press, barbell snatch, high bar squat, and clean and jerk.
The stronger and more stable your core and shoulders get, the more weight you’ll be able to handle. Remember, your core is the muse of your home, so strengthening your base with the overhead squat will assist you to get under more weight.
Overhead Squat Equipment Variations
No matter whether you will have a barbell, dumbbells, a resistance band, or perhaps a broomstick, there may be a large number of apparatus options you need to use to perform the overhead squat. Here’s a glance.
- Broomstick, towel, PVC pipe: These are all great starting points in your overhead squat as they assist you to hold something overhead without adding significant load to the movement. Consider these because the mandatory training wheels that teach you ride a motorcycle.
- Resistance band: It is a implausible option for adding light resistance to your overhead squats. Stepping on a band and holding it overhead will pull your body down, forcing you to keep up the upright position.
- Weight plate: The following step within the progression is holding a weight plate with each hands overhead. With the hands closer, it will challenge your shoulder mobility, however the plate is simpler to carry.
- Dumbbells: Whether using one or a set of dumbbells for an overhead dumbbell squat, this progression means that you can add more resistance and challenges your overhead mobility even further. You’ll be able to even turn it right into a single dumbbell overhead squat.
- Kettlebells: A kettlebell overhead squat can have the identical effect as a dumbbell, but the burden distribution around your hand will feel different.
- Barbell: The ultimate step within the overhead progression is the barbell overhead squat. This enables probably the most load to be added to the movement.
Overhead Squat Alternatives
Should you’re not able to dive right into a full overhead squat, or you simply wish to mix things up, try these alternatives.
1) Overhead Lunge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/J3DxelcaaMU
This single-leg lunge exercise remains to be implausible for constructing core strength with an overhead position. It’ll develop total body coordination and stability while fixing imbalances.
The added challenge of walking forward throughout the reps helps improve proprioception. Plus, holding the load overhead can even work the upper back.
Tips on how to do the Overhead Lunge:
- Grab a weight plate or set of dumbbells and press overhead, locking your arms out.
- Brace your core and keep the burden directly above your head when you the first step leg forward, and as you plant that foot, begin to bend your knees and sink right into a lunge. At the underside, each legs should take a look at a 90-degree angle.
- Exhale and drive your front foot through the ground while keeping your arms straight overhead and convey yourself back to the upright standing position before entering into the following lunge.
2) Zercher Squat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/nwx6Ip7hd3I
The Zercher squat is a cross between a weighted carry and a squat. Regardless that it isn’t an overhead position, this squat position challenges your core strength because the bar rests on the crook of your elbows in front of your body.
Moreover, the necessity for an upright posture gives you similar quad advantages because the overhead squat.
Tips on how to do the Zercher Squat:
- Load your barbell, place it within the crease of your elbows, and interlock your hands or make a decent fist with each hand.
- Lift the bar off the rack and assume your normal squat stance with feet just outside hip-width apart.
- Keep an upright posture and squat as deep as possible to keep up this position together with your upper body. Keep your mid and low back neutral, and push up together with your arms as you squat. Your elbows should travel inside your knees. In the event that they hit the knees, widen your stance more.
- Drive your feet through the ground to arise and repeat.
Overhead Squat Progressions
Don’t attempt any of those advanced progressions until you’ve got mastered the fundamental overhead squat form. But should you’re ready for a challenge, these moves are for you!
- Pause Squat: Once you will have added weight to the barbell overhead squat, you’ll be able to challenge yourself with pause squats to construct strength at the underside. Squat down and pause for 3-5 seconds before standing up. That is going to be even more difficult in your core to keep up that upright position.
- Tempo Squat: Another choice you’ll be able to add with pauses is slowing down your tempo on the way in which up or down. That is one other option to challenge your motor control and strengthen your position throughout the overhead squat.
- Close Grip Overhead Squat: This will probably be probably the most difficult variation because when you bring your hands in closer, you will want even stronger and more mobile shoulders to keep up that position. Do that with dumbbells first before progressing to close-grip barbell overhead squats.
Overhead Squat Programming Suggestions
Able to add these bad boys, or a variation or progression of them, to your program? Listed below are my suggestions on achieve this. As a warmup mobility exercise, try 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps using an empty bar or PVC pipe
For improving muscular strength, try 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps adding weight to a barbell or using dumbbells. For muscle hypertrophy, try 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps. For muscle endurance and conditioning, try 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
FAQs
Listed below are a number of the more commonly asked questions on the overhead squat.
What’s an overhead squat good for?
The overhead squat is implausible at increasing full-body mobility and strengthening the core to stabilize the spine in an upright position.
How should a beginner overhead squat?
Try starting with a wall squat after which a PVC pipe until you’ll be able to add weight to the overhead squat movement.
Why are overhead squats so hard?
Your mobility limits them, and because it is a closed-chain exercise, it involves multiple joints and muscle groups working together. If something is tight, the whole chain won’t give you the chance to work together because it must.
How wide should your hands be for an overhead squat?
Barely wider than your standard back squat. Your pinkies ought to be near the ring at the top of the bar.
What are you able to do as a substitute of overhead squats?
You’ll be able to train in the identical position with overhead lunges and construct core strength with an upright torso with Zercher or Anderson squats.
The Overhead Squat: Key Takeaways
The overhead squat will be incorporated into every kind of workout routines, whether you are just casually hitting the gym to feel good or are a competitive Olympic weightlifter.
While difficult, with consistent practice and give attention to mobility, mastering the overhead squat will be extremely rewarding. It is important to recollect, nonetheless, that the loaded overhead squat is an exercise earned and developed over time. Before adding resistance, it’s crucial to make sure you will have a solid grasp of the correct technique.
But once you will have mastered it, the chances for creating engaging and dynamic workouts are infinite.
