Hey T Freaks
I have a question on my OH squat form. I have just started to include these in my program and i have a bit of problem with technique, i find it hard to keep my heels on the ground when i squat and i feel heaps of pressure on the inside of my knees any sugestions??
Keep your knees pushed out over your feet (could be adductor flexibility issues, maybe not) and increase shoulder, hamstring, glute, and calf flexibility.
Shoulder because if you can’t keep the bar back far enough, the weight is in front of your center of gravity.
Hamstring, glute, and calf so you don’t collapse forward and can keep your torso more upright.
-Dan
Try using changing the width between your legs and see if that helps. My OH squat stance is a little wider than my normal squat stance. Also try using a wider snatch grip on the bar if you have bad shoulder flexibility. The best way i know how to improve is to do it often, i started doing them 3 times a week in the beginning.
deadlift before you squat
[quote]okuma wrote:
deadlift before you squat[/quote]
Okay, um, why??
I’d agree with Psnatch. Playing with your foot spacing and grip width seems to have the biggest effect on making the movement just feel right. Also, sometimes doing some bodyweight overhead squats (yes, with your hands up in the air) for 2 or 3 reps before a set helps me get into the right groove.
Get your form down with an empty bar first, do a few reps everyday with light/no weight. There is really a lot of coordination and shoulder as well as hip/hamstring felxibility involved.
Spend a couple of minutes stretching your calves on a step before starting, as well as shoulder stretching with broomstick.
Also I need to point my toes out more when doing OHS than during regular or front squats. You also need a wide grip
I took me almost a year to be able to do reps with my bodyweight on OHS, time well spent, I coach soccer and I feel the OHS have helped with my speed and, really helps me in changing direction on the field.
I now skip the calf and shoulder stretching but the warmup for every workout is ten reps of each of the following; OHS ten rock bottom reps pausing at the bottom, Behind Neck Press, in bottom position of OHS, Snatches going all the way to bottom position. The warmup takes just a few minutes and after I am ready to work
If you have no problem keeping your heels down on a regular squat, then I would guess the main problem would be shoulder flexibility. It was for me at first. Fixed it by doing them more often. Also, I believe you have some knee discomfort because you’re coming off your heels and your knees are too far in front of you. Fixing the shoulder flexibility issue just might solve both problems.
[quote]vcraig111 wrote:
I took me almost a year to be able to do reps with my bodyweight on OHS…[/quote]
Just to clarify, when I mentioned doing the bodyweight Overheads in my previous post, I meant just bodyweight, no external resistance, no bar, no nothing. Just holding your arms up in the air “holding” an imaginary bar, and performing the movement.
[quote]Minotaur wrote:
vcraig111 wrote:
I took me almost a year to be able to do reps with my bodyweight on OHS…
Just to clarify, when I mentioned doing the bodyweight Overheads in my previous post, I meant just bodyweight, no external resistance, no bar, no nothing. Just holding your arms up in the air “holding” an imaginary bar, and performing the movement.[/quote]
Get a broomstick and do about a bazzilion reps over the course of about 6 months. Do at least 100 a day.
Try to make everyone perfect. Pretend it’s 100kg. on the bar. Stretch the bar, breath big, and stay tight, especially in the hole.
TNT
[quote]TNT-CDN wrote:
Minotaur wrote:
vcraig111 wrote:
I took me almost a year to be able to do reps with my bodyweight on OHS…
Just to clarify, when I mentioned doing the bodyweight Overheads in my previous post, I meant just bodyweight, no external resistance, no bar, no nothing. Just holding your arms up in the air “holding” an imaginary bar, and performing the movement.
Get a broomstick and do about a bazzilion reps over the course of about 6 months. Do at least 100 a day.
Try to make everyone perfect. Pretend it’s 100kg. on the bar. Stretch the bar, breath big, and stay tight, especially in the hole.
TNT
[/quote]
Don’t discontinue reps with weight, either, though. You can make some mistakes with the overhead squat if you don’t go heavy, like leaning the torso forward too much, letting the bar drift too far in front or behind he heels, not pushing your shoulders towards your ears, etcetera…
If you lift with weight, even a light weight, many of these failures in form will become evident when you lose your balance or when the weight falls. Learn how to miss (i.e., drop the bar in front or behind you) with light weights before you go heavy.
[quote]Minotaur wrote:
vcraig111 wrote:
I took me almost a year to be able to do reps with my bodyweight on OHS…
Just to clarify, when I mentioned doing the bodyweight Overheads in my previous post, I meant just bodyweight, no external resistance, no bar, no nothing. Just holding your arms up in the air “holding” an imaginary bar, and performing the movement.[/quote]
I should have been a little more clear in my response, but I was sleepy at the keyboard. I assumed that was what you meant, and should have said with my bodyweight on the bar.
It actually took me some time to be able to do OHS with just an oly bar (I never actually tried with just bw) but I worked them light almost every workout and heavy once or twice a week for over a year now. I am shoting for bwx15 reps as a benchmark
Hey thanx yall i will put them all into practice for a few months and hopefully i will be able to do it, I think the big problem for me is getting my torso to staybehind my knees i tend to lean forward a lot