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I'm interested in adding overhead squats to my program, but I'm trying to figure out how to do it. I think it makes the most sense to use that on my light squat day, but I could see that I might not be lifting enough weight to serve the purpose of that light day. Maybe do a SS-style OHS workout, followed by 1-2 x 5 x 80-85% BS. Thoughts?
Why are you interested in adding them? For any other reason than that they are an interesting feat? Because other than the cool factor, they aren't that great of an exercise. They are useful for newbies learning to oly lift to get used to and stronger/ more comfortable in the snatch bottom position, but that's most of their utility. There are better ways to get an ab workout, and they always worked my upper body hard enough that they interfered with the various pressing movements I was doing before or after. Doing them as you describe may be an okay way to do them if that's what you have your heart set on, and a big overhead squat is kind of cool in and of itself, but consider your goals and whether or not the overhead squat will actually help you get better at what you want to get better at. If you want to get better at overhead squatting just because, okay, but overhead squatting doesn't get you better at much besides overhead squatting.
I've been doing both front squats and overhead squats on light day for a while. I experimented with the order of exercises and decided that I liked it best doing the overhead squats last.
My reason for adding overhead squats to my program was so I could progress from the power snatch to the full snatch at some point, but I have noticed a huge improvement in my stability in the overhead press since I started doing them.
Interesting stuff, guys, thanks.
You can probably get away with doing them after everything else on a light day (because any other day you might be too gassed). The OHS is limited by what you can get and support overhead and even absurd volume would probably tax your arms more than your legs at this point.
As mentioned, the OHS will require you to get and support a heavy weight for your arms overhead. If you were pressing on the TM, volume on Monday and the OHS and light bench on Wed might interfere with PRs on Friday. Then again, it might not. I'll be interested to hear how things go if you try them.
If using overhead squats in this context (as a squat alternative on light day). I was wondering how you plan on getting the weight up there?
Snatching would be adding extra pulling on a day you might not want pulling. Plus the weight you can snatch is probably less than what you want to stimulate your legs a little.
I imagine you would have to "behind neck power jerk" it up, am I right?
I would like to start snatching but have stability problems in my shoulders, snatching is highly likely to cause shoulder tears for me. So I would like to just do the overhead squats to work on stability. But the act of jerking relatively high weights (much more than I can press) without bumpers is kind of scary.
Lowering back onto the traps under control seems very tricky if the muscles arent actually strong enough to press that kind of weight up, especially behind the neck.
This suggests that training the behind-neck press is a necessity for someone like me who does not have access to bumpers.
Any opinions?
Behind neck power jerk is indeed the best way to get the weight up there. As for getting it back down, a negative snatch grip behind the neck press (!) is indeed tricky and uncomfortable at higher weights if you have shoulder issues (including flexibility issues) and aren't used to it.
An alternative is to bring it down in front of you, to your chest, then reset your hands closer together and rack the bar. I find this to be a bit more comfortable.
Heavy OHS without bumpers can be a pain in the ass.
