Being a NYC personal trainer and Olympic weightlifter, I often get questions about how I’m able to do an overhead squat or overhead press without pain. Generally speaking most people do not have the mobility or stability to obtain the correct overhead position, they’ll either hyperextend their lower back or do some other compensation pattern. Gaining mobility and stability is really important for those that want to overhead press, loading the bar when you don’t have the requisite mobility and stability is asking for an injury.
How do you know if you have the requisite mobility?
A real simple test is to stand up right and straighten your hands over your head, if you can’t bring it up level with your ears without hyperextending your back, then you may not have the correct mobility.
This is REALLY BAD:
This is GOOD:
But don’t worry, hopefully the below videos focusing on your flexibility, mobility, and self tissue work can help improve your range of motion for overhead movements such as the:
- Overhead press
- Jerk
- Snatch
Let’s jump into it!
Shoulder Flexion
Lateral Neck Flexion
*once you get comfortable you can hold a light weight to force your active hand down to the ground.
Facial External Rotation Stretch
Different View:
Angled Pec Stretch
Shoulder and Posterior Delt Fascial Release/Friction:
Pec Fascial Release/Friction
Scapula and Trap Fascial Release/Friction
Thoracic Rotation
Implementation
Previously we’ve talked about how we set up our warm ups HERE. To sum it up we break it down like so:
- Soft tissue work.
- Fascial stretch.
- Dynamic stretch.
- Activation.
- Specific work.
With that said, once you’ve gained the requisite mobility for overhead movements but are still feeling a little stiff, you can add in some of these movements during your rest periods but at a lower intensity. Doing so should help ensure that you have the right mobility to hit the correct overhead position.
My suggestion would be to take a recovery day and play around with each movement and retesting your overhead position after each exercise. Overtime you’ll then be able to weed out the movements that aren’t nearly as effective for you and make your warm up and workouts that much more efficient.
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Stay strong,