Wakeup Workout: Overhead Squat Assessment

This great tool will help you determine some corrective exercises to include in your workout program. The Overhead Squat Assessment is simple: it exposes muscle imbalances and postural deviations in the kinetic chain (the body and its function as a whole). We had to shoot the segment several times because I was having trouble fitting all the information you need, into a one minute piece. Here is are some notes to help you use and effective prescribe some corrective exercises or stretching for yourself. I am going to list below just a couple of the most common deviations I see on a daily basis:

Knees Buckling Inward - This mostly means your adductors (groin/inner leg) are extremely tight and the muscles in your glute medius are lengthened or weak. This pops up in women who sit on those god forsaken adductor machines and just squeeze away all day, but its very common among newly active people as well. To correct this deviation, you are going to want to try some adductor stretches as demonstrated in the video and foam roll the inner leg to lengthen the tight muscle. You are also going to want to strengthen your glute medius by performing some lateral tube walking to help your upper leg track properly.

Torso Falls Forward - When your upper body falls forward as you get deeper into your squat, this typically means you have TIGHT hip flexors. People who sit down a lot develop this deviation, so I can spot a cubicle worker within the first squat. This tightness in the hip flexor reduces activation and firing of the glute and posterior chain, therefore it is very important for you to perform hip flexor stretches daily, foam roll the hip flexors directly and try some isolated glute activation through hip bridges, hip extensions and low back extensions.