How To Overhead Squat: Complete Guide for Beginners

The Overhead Squat is one of the most important lifts for improving your snatch. 

If you want to snatch big numbers, being able to overhead squat big numbers is one of the best ways to make that happen. 

It’s also one of the FIRST exercises in the beginner snatch progression from my FREE WL101: Beginner Guide + 6-Week Program, which you can download here. 

But are you doing the overhead squat correctly, and do you even have the mobility to perform this exercise?

How To Perform The Overhead Squat

To perform the overhead squat, you’ll need to find your snatch grip width. Most barbells have 1-2 rings as an indicator of where to place your hands. The majority of people will do just fine with their pointer placed on the outside ring, or on the one ring if your barbell only has one. (I explain how to know if that grip is right for you in the common errors section.

With your hands placed in your snatch grip, hold the barbell overhead, with your elbows locked out, the bar behind your head, directly over the base of your spine. Squeeze your shoulder blades back, push up into the bar without letting your shoulders rotate forward excessively, and then descend into a squat. If you have never done a barbell squat before, I suggest checking out this video for a full tutorial.

Once you have reached the lowest possible depth without losing midfoot balance, core tension, or the barbell drifting forward or backward, or elbows bend, stand back up. 

Common Errors In The Overhead Squat

Grip Width

Some of the most common errors start with your grip. If you tested your initial grip width and the barbell would drift back every time, seemingly uncontrollably, then I suggest narrowing your grip by a finger width and testing a few more reps. Continue slightly narrowing your grip until your overhead position feels stable and you can make sure the bar stays over the base of your spine without much trouble. 

If you tested this grip out and the bar drifted forward the deeper you got into the bottom of the overhead squat, then I suggest trying a wider grip. Try a finger width wider for a few reps, and continue moving your grip slightly wider until you can keep the bar over the base of your spine somewhat easily.

Important note: Your snatch grip as a beginner will likely change over time as you get stronger and more mobile. Just because this is the grip you start with, doesn’t mean it’s your forever grip. 

Stance

Another common error you may be facing is an incorrect stance. For most people, the stance you use for your back squat and front squat is the exact stance you should use for the overhead squat. However, if you lack mobility in the t-spine, you’ll probably feel like you cannot achieve depth unless you have a wider stance. 

This is ok to do in the short term, to a certain degree. If your stance is significantly wider for this lift compared to your back squat, then you are probably better off working with the range of motion you have with your narrower stance, while working to improve your mobility. Check out my free Mobility101: Guide for Weightlifters here if you need mobility tips that actually work!

Speed

Another common issue beginners struggle with is rushing the lift. Speed in this lift is not necessary in any way. Stability, however, is the key. If you feel unstable, you’ll naturally want to move faster to get the set over with. But, if you slow things down, especially in the range of motion where you feel the weakest and most unstable, you will build long-term strength that will carry over to your snatch immensely. 

How To Implement The Overhead Squat

The overhead squat is one of the most versatile exercises in a weightlifter’s toolbox. It can be used as a warm-up, a movement primer, a main strength exercise, or as a moderate drill before your strength work as I use it in my Skills & Strength days on the OlyStrong 5-Day Team. 

Using this exercise as a warm can simply mean doing a few reps with an empty bar before you practice your snatch. In fact, for many of my athletes who struggle with the overhead squat portion of the snatch, I’ll often have them perform 2-4 extra sets of them with a long pause at the bottom before starting the snatch portion of the workout.

Using it as a movement primer is not much different than an empty barbell warm-up, however, instead of keeping the bar empty, you can build up in weight to a moderate top set of 1-5 reps. This will have your overhead position feeling very prepared going into the snatch portion of your workout. 

As a main strength exercise, it can be particularly valuable for lifters who struggle with overhead stability. I recommend performing the overhead squat in the 1-5 rep range, aiming to increase the weight you use over time. Ideally, you should be able to overhead squat about 10% more than you snatch. As a beginner, this will be easy as you are likely limited by your technique rather than strength. However, this ratio becomes more important as you advance. It can help build the strength necessary to snatch what you want, but also the confidence to know that if you do somehow get under the bar, you know you can stand it up. 

And finally, it can be used as a light drill or variation to increase the frequency of your olympic lifting-related exercises on your strength-focused days. This is exactly how I use the overhead squat during the Skills & Strength days on my 5-Day OlyStrong Online Weightlifting Team. I’ll usually have lifters build up to a moderate top set of 3-5 reps, most of the time with a pause at the bottom, before moving on to the back squat portion of the workout. This not only adds some frequency and practice with the weak link in your snatch, but it also is a great warm-up for your back squats, and you could easily transition from your top set of overhead squats into your first set of back squats. 

Hopefully, this clarified some things for you and maybe even gave you a lightbulb moment with your technique. If you ever need a free form check on your videos, you’re always welcome to join my free discord here and drop your video in the #form-checks channel. 

By the way, I’ve got a free beginner weightlifting guide and a 6-week program! If you’re new to the olympic lifts, then check it out here!

And if you’re looking for a weightlifting program designed to help you set PRs, improve your technique, and get strong af, then check out a FREE WEEK TRIAL of my 3 & 5-Day OlyStrong Team at the link below!

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