Overhead Squat Prep

Before you can overhead squat a barbell, you have to overhead squat a dowel. And before you can overhead squat a dowel, you have to be able to pass a dowel through from front to back with arms locked.

The pass-through is the prerequisite. If your shoulders can’t handle the stick at snatch grip width, they can’t handle the bar overhead.

So the progression is: pass-throughs → dowel overhead squats → empty bar overhead squats → loaded overhead squats.

Each step is possible only when the previous one is clean.