The perfect Overhead Squat

 THE OVERHEAD SQUAT

The Overhead Squat (OHS) is one of those exercises that really ‘delivers the goods’ for any type of athlete.

  If you want flexibility, a strong lower back or even overall body strength, then the OHS is the exercise for you.  The fact is – if you only ever trained using OHS, you could probably achieve the bulk of your athletic goals.  You will not only improve on the pitch, but you will even have a marked improvement on things like bench press, deadlifts and ordinary squats.

 Benefits of the OHS

·         Works the ‘core’ whilst stabilizing the lumbar spine and shoulder regions

·         Helps with hip flexibility

 ·         Produces strength through a large range of motion

 ·         Provides a full body stimulus, meaning your body will work harder doing this exercise compared to most others

 Use a light bar to begin with, even a brush-shaft is a good place to begin.  This is a challenging exercise and needs a little bit of neural learning before moving onto heavy weights.

 ·         Get the bar overhead in a wide snatch grip

·         Lock out elbows

·         Elevate your shoulders (try to bring them up to your ears)

·         Try to bring shoulder blades together

·         Lock in your core

·         Drift the hips back and begin squatting down

·         Keep weight over your heels at all times and the shoulders engaged

·         Get as low as possible (before you fall down – only through lack of flexibility), ideally below parallel

·         Come back up remembering to push through your heels

Exercise of the Month:

Try to work the overhead squat into your workout as often as possible.

Use it as a warm-up using a brush-shaft, or an empty bar, and when you become confident in the movement include it with your exercise regime.

Suggested workouts are OHS 3-3-3 (that’s 3 reps for 3 sets), or 5-5-5-5-5.  You can also use it for strength and find what your 1 rep max is.