The Overhead Squat Assessment: The Foundation of Corrective Exercise 

If you're studying for the NASM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) exam, there are few assessments more important than the Overhead Squat Assessment (OHSA). It is the foundation for identifying muscle imbalances, recognizing movement compensations, and selecting appropriate corrective exercises.

Many students try to memorize long tables of overactive and underactive muscles before they truly understand the assessment itself. Unfortunately, that often makes corrective exercise feel overwhelming.

Instead, learn the assessment first.

Once you understand how to perform the Overhead Squat Assessment and what you're looking for, the muscle imbalance tables begin making much more sense.

If you're following this blog series in order, this article will teach you the assessment itself. Later articles will break down every movement compensation individually, including feet turning out, knees caving inward, excessive low back arching, pronation distortion syndrome, lower crossed syndrome, and much more.

Before You Begin

Free Download:

Before continuing, download the FREE NASM Muscle Compensation Chart.

This printable chart summarizes the overactive and underactive muscles associated with every major movement compensation covered throughout this series.

→ Download the FREE Overactive and Underactive Muscle Compensation Chart

Watch the Video Version

Prefer to learn visually?

Watch Overhead Squat Assessment (OHSA) Part 1 on YouTube, then return to this guide for additional explanations and study tips.

→ Watch OHSA Part 1 on YouTube

What Is the Overhead Squat Assessment?

The Overhead Squat Assessment is a dynamic movement assessment used to evaluate how the body moves during a squat.

The word dynamic simply means moving.

Think of it this way:

• Static = standing still
• Dynamic = movement

During the assessment, your client performs repeated overhead squats while you observe their movement patterns from different viewpoints.

Unlike a static posture assessment, the OHSA allows you to see how muscles, joints, and the entire kinetic chain work together during functional movement. The OHSA becomes the primary dynamic assessment students need to understand.

This is important because many muscle imbalances are only obvious while someone is moving.

Someone may appear perfectly normal while standing.

As soon as they squat, however, their feet may rotate outward, their knees may collapse inward, or their low back may arch excessively.

Those movement compensations provide valuable clues about underlying muscle imbalances.

Why NASM Places So Much Emphasis on the OHSA

The Overhead Squat Assessment isn't simply another chapter to memorize.

It becomes the starting point for nearly everything that follows in corrective exercise.

The assessment helps you:

• Identify predictable movement compensations.
• Recognize possible muscle imbalances.
• Select appropriate corrective exercises.
• Measure improvement over time.
• Develop individualized exercise programs.

For the NASM CPT exam, you'll frequently be expected to recognize movement compensations and associate them with the correct muscles and corrective strategies.

Learning the assessment first makes those later topics dramatically easier.

Step 1: Position Your Client Correctly

The assessment begins before your client even starts squatting.

Proper setup matters.

Ask your client to:

• Stand with their feet approximately shoulder-width apart.
• Raise both arms directly overhead.
• Keep the arms as close to the ears as comfortably possible.
• Face directly toward you.

Whenever practical, have the client remove their shoes.

Although this isn't always possible in every training environment, observing the feet without shoes allows you to identify movement compensations much more clearly.

Shoes can hide excessive pronation, altered foot positioning, or other compensations that become much easier to recognize barefoot. As discussed in the video, removing shoes allows you to "see so much more."

Why Bare Feet Make a Difference

Many new trainers overlook this simple recommendation.

Athletic shoes provide support, cushioning, and structure.

Those same features can also hide valuable assessment information.

Without shoes, you can better observe:

• Foot position
• Arch collapse
• Toe alignment
• Weight shifting
• Balance
• Ankle movement

You're trying to observe how the body naturally moves, not how the shoe influences movement.

Step 2: Perform Five Squats From the Front

Once the client is properly positioned, ask them to perform five overhead squats while you observe from directly in front.

This viewpoint is known as the anterior view.

One of the most common mistakes students make is trying to evaluate every body part at once.

Don't.

The anterior view has a very specific purpose.

From the front, you should focus almost exclusively on the structures closest to the ground.

Those include:

• Feet
• Ankles
• Knees

Trying to analyze the shoulders or low back from this angle makes the assessment unnecessarily complicated.

Instead, think:

Front = Ground Up

Feet.

Ankles.

Knees.

That's your job during the first five repetitions.

Step 3: Move to the Side

After completing five repetitions from the front, don't stop the assessment.

Move to the client's side.

Now you'll observe another five squats from the lateral view.

This simple change in position allows you to evaluate completely different movement patterns.

From the side, your attention shifts to:

• Lumbopelvic-Hip Complex (LPHC)
• Shoulders

Trying to evaluate these areas from the front is much more difficult.

By separating the assessment into two viewpoints, NASM simplifies the entire process.

Many students find this much easier to remember:

Anterior View

• Feet
• Ankles
• Knees

Lateral View

• Low back (LPHC)
• Shoulders

Instead of trying to analyze everything at once, focus only on the structures that are easiest to observe from each position. 

What Is the LPHC?

One term you'll encounter repeatedly throughout corrective exercise is LPHC.

It stands for:

Lumbopelvic-Hip Complex.

Rather than repeatedly saying:

• Low back
• Pelvis
• Hips

NASM combines them into one abbreviation.

You'll see this term throughout the CPT exam, corrective exercise chapter, and throughout the remainder of this blog series.

Learning it now will make the later material much easier.

How Deep Should the Client Squat?

Another question many NASM students ask is:

"Does every client need to perform a full squat?"

Ideally, yes...but most often in reality, no.

A full squat generally means the femur (thigh bone) reaches approximately parallel with the ground.

Many clients understand this as "sitting into a chair."

However, not everyone can comfortably reach that depth.

Age, injury history, mobility restrictions, pain, previous surgeries, and balance limitations can all reduce squat depth.

That does not mean you skip the assessment.

Instead, assess whatever depth the client can safely achieve.

Even if someone only performs a quarter squat or half squat, movement compensations may already be visible.

The assessment is still valuable because it provides a baseline that can be compared during future reassessments. As explained in the video, documenting both movement quality and squat depth allows you to measure progress over time rather than expecting perfection on the first assessment.

Test tip: only have your clients squat "to the point of first compensation". Even if they can squat deeper, they don't need to and can risk injury by doing so. We got the info that we needed.

Now that you know how to perform the assessment, the next step is learning how to interpret what you're seeing.

Let's move on to the next article in our series - Overhead Squat Assessment, Part 2.