The women's fitness blog

I'm beginning a series of posts which will cover individual exercises, explaining and demonstrating why you should do then, how to do them, and what they can do for you. Number one is the Overhead Squat.

This exercise is one of my personal favourites. It's amazing for building strength and toning all over your body. It also promotes symettry, balance and coordination. It also sheds tons of fat. On top of that, it's useful for warming up at the start of your exercise session.

Let's jump in at the deep end. How is the overhead squat performed? Watch this informative video to learn the correct technique:

Some tips for performing squats

Start out with only a little weight on the bar, or no weight at all. The Overhead Squat takes a bit of getting used to, so you should practice the technique before increasing the weight to a level that will start toning your muscles. At certain times you will be doing squats for a warm up (as mentioned above). Again, in these instances, heavy weights aren't needed.

Squat Technique

• Use a wide grip on the bar to aid your balance


• Lock out your elbows after you snatch the bar


• Gently move your shoulder blades together


• Smoothly pull your hips back and begin squatting


• Keep your weight on your heels


• Get as low as you can (without falling over)


• When you come back up, push through your heels


• Don't use your back or shoulders

If you haven’t tried this exercise before, don't be discouraged if you can't get the hang of it first time. Perhaps you have not attempted to get down that far before and feel that you are unbalanced. Keep doing sets of squats, and it will feel easier in no time.

Benefits of Overhead Squats

• Strengthens and tnes over amost areas of your body


• Gives you increased flexibility and range of motion


• Great for weight loss


• Works the trunk (a.k.a. "core") muscles, giving you more strength, balance, flexibility, and better posture

What to do next

So you've mastered the overhead squat technique? Great! Next, you can add more weight and range of motion. When you started, you may not have had the full range of motion, and therefore may not have been able to squat very deep. Chances are, you can now move your hips through a greater range of motion. The weight can be increased too. Trying to always be lifting a weight that you can repeat 10 times, over three sets. This will increase as you get better at the technique. Don't worry about building hulk-muscles, as a woman, you don't have enough testosterone.

Once you have mastered overhead barbell squats, you can give the Single Arm Overhead Squat a whirl (use a dumbbell). the technique is similar, but you are adding a lot of core work because your body needs to correct the fact greater imbalance.

Now go and do some overhead squats! Happy exercising!

Labels: Exercises, squats