The Coach Boz OHS Warm-Up

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1. Do a few sets of dislocates (or “pass-throughs”). If you don’t know what those are, here’s a video on YouTube. (This guy is doing them WAY too fast, though. Slow it down.) Take your hands really wide, shrug your shoulders hard and pass the bar up and over, until it touches your lower back. Keeping your arms straight, bring the bar back around to the front. Move your hands in a little bit closer after every 5-10 reps, until you reach the point where you can no longer keep your arms straight. (By the way, that point – as close as you can get your hands without a break in your elbows – is your overhead squat and snatch grip.) Make the circles with your arms BIG, and make them count – don’t just whip through them. Try to hold at any sticking points, to get extra stretch.

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2. Take your dowel/PVC and do a set of 10 OHS, as usual, as a warm-up (to the warm-up).

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3. With the same normal OHS grip and normal foot position, squat down into the “hole” and hold it for a count of five. Focus on driving the shoulders UP towards your ears (active shoulders), and maintaining as much of a vertical torso/arm position as possible. Remember to push your knees OUT – don’t let them drift in.

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4. Stand up, move your hands in (towards each other) on the bar a few inches, and move your feet in the same distance. With this narrower stance, drop into the hole and hold for a count of five. You may notice you are leaning forward more here, and your arms are coming forward more. Focus on driving the shoulders UP (more UP than BACK – think “active”) and keep your torso as upright as you can.

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5. Repeat three or four more times, moving hands and feet in for each rep. During your last rep, hands and feet should be almost together. You may not get down very far at this point, and you may be leaning crazy forward. That position should improve with time and practice.

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You end up doing 4-5 static holds in the bottom position of the OHS, each with a more narrow hand and foot position than the last. When you are done, do a few more dislocates, and see if you can move your arms in a bit closer now that you’re more stretched out.