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You Are Not Stable Overhead, From Two Directions

The fault

Poor overhead stability caused by the shoulders, the midline, or both.

Why it happens

There are two common causes and they need different attention: shoulder mobility and engagement, and midline strength. Lifters usually work on one and wonder why the problem persists.

The fix

A drill that addresses both at once, so you are not guessing which one is holding you back.

About this fix
Originally published as "Overhead Strength and Stability", part of The Lifting Fix, the free weekly technique series Danny Lehr started filming over a decade ago. He gave every episode away then, and they are still free here. Danny Lehr competed in Olympic weightlifting from 2010 to 2019 and won the 2019 Masters World Cup. More about Danny Lehr.
Transcript

All right, The Lifting Fix here. I've got Buddy, Hitch, Top Rat, CrossFit, Excel. This last weekend, for those of you that do CrossFit or involved in CrossFit Open, there were some overhead walking lunges. So your overhead position is a huge kind of determining factor with that.

So if you have a bad overhead position, we're going to go over one more way to kind of fix that help factor. So if you find your overhead, you're just a little soft here, but you can't-- lock out real well, do mobility or a lot of times it could be like a midline issue and a lot of times those actually work together if you're give a weak midline or poor midline stability that's going to kind of show itself in your overhead as well. So what we can do is we can actually just use a kettlebell to help shore up some of these deficiencies. So go ahead and grab the kettlebell.

And it's pretty simple, nothing too complicated. And it's going to do wonders for your midline as well as that overhead position. So he's just going to do one strict press. And then while he's here, he's going to make sure this trap is engaged, he's pushing up on the bar, shoulder blade back.

All right? Then while it's there, one overhead squat. And you're back up. Good.

And then lower back down and again. Maybe three or five or three to five or so. So, overhead, lock it in, hand in a squat. Good, then after you've done three or five, switch to the other side.

Just go ahead and switch to the other side. All right, there, that's the RKC certified hand switch. All right, and then again, strict press. Make sure it's locked in, shoulder blades back, traps engaged, one overhead squat.

There we go. So just alternating one strict press. over head squat. Really cool for you to get walked out, tight for your knee and tight.

great news each. Thanks bud.

More overhead fixes

See all

Your Overhead Squat Is Weak and Unstable

No solid overhead position under a loaded squat.

Overhead1:22

The Bar Finishes Out Front, Not Actually Overhead

Leaving the bar in front of the body and calling it locked out.

Overhead2:17

Your Scaps Are Loose Overhead

No upper back engagement supporting the bar overhead.

Overhead1:51

Want the rest of this category?

Every overhead fix I've filmed, one a day for five days, in the order I'd work through them with you. Not the order they got uploaded. The order that actually fixes it.

Plus the snatch pull checklist. One page, nine points, floor to hip.

Free, and these videos are free on this site whether you do this or not. This is just me putting them in the right order and sending them to you, so you don't have to guess where to start.

Or just download the checklist, no email needed.