Top 3 Helps For Overhead Stability

Over the past 2 months I have been integrated into the King’s Ridge Athletics system and have been working with a lot of their athletes in both middle and high school. Having no input into the prior training that happened at the school they have done everything from yoga to P90X to the traditional bench press, incline bench press, deficit bench press, half squat, DB bench press, DB incline bench press football program. Therefore, when I stepped into the weight room and began looking at their movement patterns and strengths and weaknesses, I began to see a number of HUGE problems. Hip flexor inactivity, glut inactivity, severe anterior to posterior imbalance in the shoulders, etc etc. The biggest problem I faced and saw was due to lack of overhead stability. For example, one of the football players can bench press 300+ lbs but can’t hold a unweighted 45lb barbell over his head for a minute! And when he tried it held it with bent arms out in front of his head with a severely hyperextended lumbar. You can imagine my expression at that point. With those problems in front of me, I have spent the summer integrating work that is designed to help balance their upper body out and create both mobility and stability overhead. Obviously, I can’t have them snatch if they can’t get the bar into the right position. Which is hard for me to swallow. Here are the top 3 ways I have seen improvement in overhead stability with basic high school programming.
1. Isometric Holds: It doesn’t matter what overhead position work or movement you are working, creating intentionally timed isometric holds overhead at the end of a set helps to both strengthen that position overhead and mobilize the rotator cuff and posterior deltoids for stability. We do a lot of overhead pressing in one form or another. Push press, strict press, DB seated press, etc. Forcing students to control the weight in such a way that they pause at the top of EVERY rep and hold for 5 seconds on the last rep was a MASSIVE change for the kids. They were used to throwing the bar up as fast as they could, never stabilizing it at all, controlling the fall back down, and throwing it back up again; all to the anterior plane of their body. Thus when I asked them to show control each rep and hold for 5 seconds each set, their numbers dropped by 50%. Seriously, some guys who were used to using 50lb dumbbells were not able to handle the 20’s. However, the stability and comfortability overhead they are gaining noticeable and massive.
2. Posterior Shoulder Strict Work: One of the biggest reasons for a lack of stability overhead is a lack of strength in their posterior deltoids, rhomboids, traps, and thoracic spine. Like I said, many of the students are really really good at bench press and yet could not do 5 strict, deadhang pullups. Their bent over row would have a been a great video to tag Crossfit in if I wanted to make another false, fail video. Furthermore, none of them could complete a upright row with a unweighted barbell. That kind of imbalance is a recipe for shoulder injury. Therefore, one of my major goals over the summer and this fall is to help balance them out. Strict pullups, eccentric descent pullups, tempo bent over rows, DB shoulder complexes, and narrow grip overhead squatting are some of the many ways we are working this weakness. The focus for 99% of this work is strict, tempo, controlled work in such a way that the athletes are forced to control their body in space and forced to recruit the proper muscle groups without allowing for compensation by the stronger ones. Forcing strict, tempo work not only creates healthy shoulders but is the foundation for the more advanced movements with the barbell and in the gymnastics realm.
3. Consistent, Regular Warmup Routines: With everything, there is prep work that must be done to create a polished final product. Cooking, painting, carpentry, and ironically weightlifting. I have always used the phrase, warmup like you work, so you will work like you warmup. These kids, when they did warmup, did the basic dynamic range of motion movements and then get right on the bar. No mobility work or partner stretching work was ever given priority. Imagine if you were trying to teach a group to snatch who had never snatched before and they had not yet picked up even a PVC pipe. Their shoulders, hips, and everything else aren’t going to start cooperating until you’re done working out. Thus, I made it a priority to complete 3 basic warmup and mobility drills DAILY. Regardless of what we are doing that day, we will always do these three things. First, we will always do my snatch warmup. It’s great for establishing proper movement patterns and perfect for helping warmup up the shoulders and hips. Second, we will always do some form of partner mashing on the thoracic spine in which one athlete is laying on a lacrosse ball or pvc pipe while the partner “helps” them get both of their hands behind their head and eventually on the ground. Think of this as prep work for the movements to come. Lastly, we always complete some pause and tempo OHS with a empty barbell. I believe the barbell to be the best mobilizer and having students use a barbell or a training barbell overhead not only helps their squat but helps ingrain a strong position overhead. Basically putting a barbell overhead after doing the proper prep work helps create a comfortability with the movement and ultimately creates proper positioning over time.
These kids are super malleable and will, in time, be balanced. Helping that happen takes time, consistency, unrelenting persistence, and a whole lot patience. Give these 3 things a shot if you or your athletes are struggling with the same things.