Overhead squats makes me so f**king angry

[stillsearchinggod]

@mksamas You are not alone. It’s a mobility thing. I know guys that can easily squat 225+ but struggle to OHS even 95.

 

[unworthyacolyte]

@mksamas Those and snatches makes me do nightmares.

I'm working on my mobility, but it's tough...

 

[tammy1ed2]

@mksamas At the end of the day there are going to be skills you need to work on outside the gym, and if you don’t, you won’t see results. Mobility in movements with Olympic lifts will require extra time outside the gym.

 

[jojoluvsjesus]

@mksamas Hey man! I’m the head coach at a CrossFit affiliate. Your frustration is completely normal. 6 months is no time at all. Give yourself a few more years of working with it and it will come together. You just need to stay light for now and spend time practicing the position.

 

[mnyg25]

@mksamas I had lots of improvements with OHS by switching over to kettlebells and DBs for an extended period of time.

 

[jimofrose]

@mksamas Strong shoulders are crucial. Mobility is important for getting into a position but once you are mobile enough to get and keep a good overhead position you are limited by shoulder strength and stability

 

[williamandcarol]

@mksamas You gotta ask yourself… is an overhead squat even worth the effort?

 

[marc1969]

@williamandcarol This is where I finally got. I improved my mobility and strength over months and got decent at them, but then just decided I don't like them and I'm not going to do them anymore. I'll front squat or OH press all day long, but decided I wasn't really adding any value with OH squats.

 

[nwc]

@mksamas A humbling movement for everyone. Start incorporating mobility/yoga to your weekly routine. It will greatly help you in the long run.

 

[theinformer]

@mksamas It’s mostly coordination, there are very immobile people who can overhead squat. A good coach should get you there, starts with a very good back squat

 

[mcq]

@mksamas I have to stretch daily to ensure I have good range of motion. I have a desk job where I’m hunched over so it makes it worse. When I started about 6 months ago I could not put my arms straight above my head, they were very tight. I’ve had to work really hard to get mobility back, multiple times a week. I use resistance bands to stretch both arms. I hang the resistance band on the rack overhead bar, and do different stretch exercises.

I also try to make sure my upper back is stretched out, and I enjoy foam rolling my upper thoracic area, which helps me with overhead squat.

 

[ayodun22]

@mksamas Key exercise for me was sots presses. The better i got at sots presses the easier it was to do a OHS. I did 4x per week 5x5 with a pipe then with an empty bar.

 

[erwinx]

@ayodun22 I did the same thing, sots are so humbling and people think “oh that’s easy”. I tend to smile as they grab an empty bar and try the first press and as they look at me with such a confused face as they can’t get the bar off their back. I focused on movements and mobility over weight first and it’s helped me tremendously

 

[jacob22]

@mksamas Mobility and more mobility! You sound like you need to add in accessory work to allow you to be in a better position to OHS.

 

[mad_ugleigh]

@mksamas Zack telander has a lot of good videos on olympic lifting etc. This is a good one on teaching someone new to the positions the OHS

 

[bfall]

@mksamas The good news is that OHS is not indicative of fitness in any way. You can be extremely fit and not be able to OHS anything. Even if you don't spend the time improving it, you can still make a ton of progress and not miss out on anything

 

[reflectj]

@mksamas Been to 3-4 crossfit boxes in the last 10 years and I’m usually the only one in the whole gym that has a decent OHS. Before crossfit and after college sports I took about 6 years and got really into yoga and only did yoga. Mobility is night and day from the average gym goer but yeah, it takes almost complete dedication and years to really develop a strong overhead position especially after most of us neglect it for 10-20 years. So it will come, but you literally have to work on it everyday

 

[jacobawyatt]

@mksamas I was the exact same way.

But trust in the process. Most importantly, you need to do the exercise in order to improve the exercise. Nothing will make you better at overhead squatting than actual overhead squatting. Doing it with the female barbell and focusing on positioning and maybe holding in the bottom position for a couple of second will help a lot.
Stand on plates or use lifters in order to get real deep and just trust in the process. Progressing OHS is a really slow process.

I spent my first year of CrossFit not being able to OHS more than 40 kg for a single, nearly gave up. Today, three years in I am finally comfortable in the bottom position and can OHS 95 kg for a single, which isn’t a lot compared to the freaks here. But considering where I was I’m really happy with it.

So yeah, don’t get discouraged. Keep chugging away. Thought you might want to add some extra work if you really want to improve the OHS. If you workout 3 times a week a imagine you OHS every 2-3 weeks, and that won’t give you any improvements I’m afraid.

 

[otis4276]

@mksamas Been there myself.

My shoulder mobility is decent (not great and could definitely be better) but oddly enough it was my ankle mobility largely holding me back.

Practiced sitting back on my heels (with the top of the foot flat on the ground) and other ankle mobility and noticed a lot of improvement.

 

[dawn16]

@mksamas As someone with shoulder mobility issues, you're not alone. When I last did them I used PVC or the female bar with no weight.