Overhead Squat

🎯 Quadriceps🏋️ BarbellExpertCompoundAbdominals (2°)Calves (2°)Glutes (2°)Hamstrings (2°)Lower back (2°)Shoulders (2°)Triceps (2°)

How to do the overhead squat

  1. Start out by having a barbell in front of you on the floor. Your feet should be wider than shoulder width apart from each other.
  2. Bend the knees and use a pronated grip (palms facing you) to grab the barbell. Your hands should be at a wider than shoulder width apart from each other before lifting. Once you are positioned, lift the barbell up until you can rest it on your chest.
  3. Move the barbell over and slightly behind your head and make sure your arms are fully extended. Keep your head up at all times and also maintain a straight back. Retract your shoulder blades. This is your starting position.
  4. Slowly lower the weight by bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground while inhaling. Tip: Keep your back straight while performing this exercise to avoid any injuries and your arms should remain extended and over your head at all times.
  5. Now use your feet and legs to help bring the weight back up to the starting position while exhaling.
  6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abdominals brace the trunk so force can pass between the hips and the shoulders; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.

The hamstrings, lower back, shoulders and triceps take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsAbdominalsCalvesGlutesHamstrings

How this movement works

The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.

It is filed under olympic weightlifting. The bar must move fast enough for you to get underneath it, which makes this a skill rather than a grind: low repetitions, well short of where fatigue starts editing technique.

What you need

A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.

Every exercise using:Barbell

These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:

Difficulty

Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.

Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 18 are listed at expert level.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.