Wednesday, March 26, 2008

The Overhead Squat

If the squat is the king of all exercises (and functional movement), the overhead squat (OHS) is the emperor (I know, I know, but follow me). Required are CrossFit's 10 general skills condusive to fitness: cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, stamina, power, speed, coordination, agility, speed and accuracy. The athlete gets the bar overhead with active shoulders and decends into a squat while keeping the bar in the frontal plane. Midline stability is the name of the game.

Elite level athletes can squat 15 reps with their bodyweight overhead.

Tammy warming up

21-15-9 reps for time:
OHS, 95 lbs
Pullups

Tammy 5:55*
Nate 8:09*
Mike 4:07*
Andrew 4:13

HQ did an experiment with this. Watch the video here (WMV).

----

Article:
"This. Is. Sparta's Workout." - The Bachelor Guy

3 comments:

thovey said...

My elbow pit tendon (EPT) is sore from the pullups. =P

AB said...

hahaha

i'm glad we still agree on the proper anatomy terms.

thovey said...

Ok seriously, I think my EPTs are broken 'cuz they're sore as hell. It doesn't help that I'm stuck with my arms bent all day typing. Booo!!!