Overhead Squats – Learning Something New

I recently achieved my goal of lifting 1,000,000 pounds in 2015 and I found that afterward, I wasn’t sure what my next goal should be. After watching videos and reading a lot of articles, I found myself wondering if I could do an overhead squat, so I’ve decided to make perfecting my form and execution of overhead squats one of my next goals.

Here’s a great overview of what an overhead squat is, how to ensure proper form, and also some easy mobility exercises to improver your overhead squat performance, from the Barbell Shrugged gang’s TechniqueWOD YouTube channel.

The gym I go to is pretty small and overhead squats require a good amount of clearance, so I’ve only been able to try them two or three times. So far I’m comfortably up to 115 pounds on these, which isn’t bad, I don’t think, considering I’ve only just begun to do this particular exercise. What I’ve found is that I need to work on the lift from my chest area to getting the barbell to come to rest over my head with my hands in a solid position of strength.

As it stands now, when I have the barbell over my head, I have to spend a few seconds shifting the position of my hands to be wide enough, while also being very careful to keep the barbell positioned directly over the back of my neck, as the video indicates. I also need to work on my wrist mobility because my left wrist wants to give out long before the rest of my body feels like I’m done with my sets.

Featured Photo Credit: Foundation CF via CodyApp