Old Forum Single KB overhead squat form?

[GeoffreyLevens]

I have been playing with one arm, overhead squats lately. Starting out I had quite a bit of difficulty getting down "all the way" I think due to thoracic and maybe shoulder mobility issues. By gently working this with lowish weight I have loosened up quite a bit and can get to a bit below femurs parallel to ground no problem.

Looking around the interwebs I find people insisting you "must keep your eyes on the bell" and others insisting you "must keep head straight and eyes front".

After finding that contradiction floating around out there I have tried them both ways, eyes on the bell and eyes front, and this morning mixed them i.e. eyes front to "bottom" then look up at the bell. I can go at least a couple inches deeper looking at the bell though not sure why.

Is there an SFG form standard for these or any reason to prefer one over the other?

 

[Steve Freides]

IMHO, with a light weight, it doesn't matter. When the weight is heavier, for one bell, look at the weight, and for two bells, look forward.

-S-

 

[GeoffreyLevens]

Thank you Steve. You are one who's HO I respect! (I seem to be pretty into single bell work at least for now.)

 

[Steve Freides]

Thank you very much, Geoffrey.

-S-

 

[crash123]

i use one arm overhead squats on a regular basis as an additional move in my get-up. i begin the getup on the floor then at the halfway point when i am standing i add in a one arm overhead squat - since i keep my eyes directed straight ahead at the standing point in the get up, i maintain that focus for the squat - so my eyes look straight ahead, not at the bell. now to Steve's point, i do not perform the squat when i am doing get ups with my "heavy" bell, which is at this point a 40kg - for those i just do 5 TGUs per side by the book, but when i back down to the 32kg, which i do at least twice per week, i will add in the squat, eyes forward.