The reason to implement the overhead squats in the first place was :
1. Knee Health – weighted squatting on a daily basis makes my knees feel great.
2. Laziness – overhead squats with mostly an empty bar could be done wherever throughout the day as there is no noise, little set up, and logistically the sidewalk could suffice if the seasonal mud pit that I’d used during the winter was threatening to swallow me as if it was quicksand.
3. Lower Back – the overhead squat builds a strange strength in the lower back. I’d noticed it before, and the lower back can always be stronger. “My spinal erectors aren’t as hypertrophied as that bodybuilder chick’s yet damnit!”
4. I doubt my squat will ever go below 405, and I figured the high rep stimulus of the light overhead squats would not only guarantee this ability, but give me over 405 on the squat. My buddy convincing me to day pass with him was something of a nice coincidence, I hadn’t intended to test the premise but got to anyway. I left weight & reps on the table sinking 405 for two singles.
(I figure progressing high rep overhead squats will give me new squat PRs with very little training investment.)
5. The urge to build power caused by an inkling for either vertical ability to dunk or to get back into the shot put. I figured high rep overhead squats would build athletic legs for this sort of thing in the vein of “what the hell” carryover.
The light high rep overhead squats worked beautifully.
My squat is over 405.
“What the hell!” I one arm snatched 135. Sure I hold the bar overhead often, but “what the hell”.
I can sprint decently and it had been a long time since I’d done one.
Logistically it was nothing but a peanut. A narrow sliver of driveway sufficed on mucky days.
One day I went BOOM! and surprised myself touching rim for the first time in a long while.
The general feeling and aesthetic of athleticism to my legs is a nice effect.
As I said above, progressing high rep overhead squats will give me new squat PRs with very little training.
They work very well for me as a base phase.
I add weight (even reps per set) or total volume and my squat will move up.
The addition of some “assistance” (lunges, step ups, hip thrusts, car push, sprints) will add more athleticism and strength.
A month of gym membership occasionally (like every 4-8 months) or getting a rack set up in my own space wouldn’t need much time to get the body used to the bar on the shoulders for peaking.
Those who write off overhead squats and mock the crossfitters who do them are wrong.
The “lightness” of the movement doesn’t make them beneath other variations.
The leverage is killer for building overall back strength, core strength, and support strength in the shoulders.
(I’ve been getting hilarious ab & oblique cramps this month of overhead squats.)
The effect you get is a multiple of the weight on the bar, yet easier on the body.
Those sets of 25 overhead squats with the empty bar are roughly equivalent to doing the same reps with 135-185 on the bar back squatting.
A daily 20 rep squat at 135-185 would be quite solid a thing for general fitness. (And my ego no longer looks down upon general fitness, it’s a healthier thing overall.)
The high rep overhead squats are a way to give both frequency and a minimal effective dose with TONS of carryover.
Persistence & Tenacity