The pistol squat has been one in every of my favourite body weight workouts for a very long time, but it surely appears to get a whole lot of criticism from others.
Whereas I don’t deny that the potential to hurt oneself is comparatively excessive with this train, the identical is true of any superior motion – even in weight coaching!
Would you attempt to train a weak, tight particular person to do a kettlebell snatch or a barbell clear and jerk?
You shouldn’t attempt to train them to do a pistol squat both. Not but, no less than…
Pistol Stipulations
There’s all the time an opportunity {that a} shortsighted or ignorant individual will harm themselves doing one thing silly, however I imagine that when progressed correctly and practiced with consideration to element, the pistol squat is a improbable train, notably if you’re missing gear.
As a prerequisite, I might strongly advocate getting snug with the two-legged number of squats earlier than making an attempt single leg progressions. The flexibility to carry out forty consecutive, deep two-legged bodyweight squats is an efficient baseline.
As such, it may well take months earlier than you’ll safely construct to something near a full pistol squat.
Even folks with sturdy legs ought to strategy the transfer in a progressive method when they’re new to it. After I first encountered the pistol, I used to be in a position to barbell again squat nearly double my physique weight, but the train was nonetheless past my attain.
Take a look at the video under for some examples of progressions you need to use to steadily work your manner as much as a full pistol:
Pistol Squat Errors
As soon as you’ll be able to carry out a full pistol squat on each legs, it’s probably that there’ll nonetheless be features of your kind which you can proceed to refine.
That’s proper – even after you’re in a position to bang out a couple of reps, there’s a superb probability chances are you’ll be making as least one in every of these technical blunders:
1 – Heel Coming Up
Ankle flexibility is normally the perpetrator right here, so when you’re having a tough time attending to the underside of a pistol squat with out your heel coming off the ground, ensure you’re stretching your calves. Different instances the difficulty is just an absence of power within the legs, glutes and abs.
Both manner, you’ll be able to strive elevating your heel on a floor that’s increased than your toes. This lets you push by way of your heel to assist recruit your glutes and hamstrings without having to flex your ankle as far.
Elevating your heel additionally makes the leverage barely extra favorable, rendering the transfer easier. As you progress, you’ll be able to steadily work your heel nearer to the ground.
2 – Sitting Too Far Again
A pistol squat must be roughly a pure up-and-down motion. So as to do that, your hips should transfer again barely at first, however as you get decrease down you’ll have to carry them ahead once more. Your hamstrings must be pressed into your calf within the backside place.
Many individuals mistakenly sit too far again, which may make it harder to steadiness and/or pressure you to must spherical your again excessively.
Once more, ankle flexibility can contribute to this downside for some folks, however for others it’s merely a matter of bringing extra consciousness to this side of the motion sample.
3 – Extreme Hunching
A sure diploma of rounding within the backbone could also be unavoidable within the pistol squat, and as I’ve all the time mentioned, since your backbone isn’t loaded with weight, it shouldn’t be an issue.
However the extra upright your posture, the more difficult and efficient the train turns into. It simply seems higher, too!
As talked about, this may usually be associated to the issue of sitting too far again, however it may well additionally occur independently of that.
The repair for this one is to consider squeezing your shoulder blades down and again whereas bracing your abs and lifting your chest so as to decrease rounding your backbone.
Once more, generally it’s only a matter of bringing your consciousness to this side of the motion. There’s loads occurring whenever you do a pistol squat!
4 – Airborne Leg Bending/Shaking
The phrase one-legged squat is a bit deceptive . The leg on the bottom shouldn’t be the one one which has to work laborious to attain an ideal pistol.
People who find themselves new to this train are sometimes shocked by how laborious the non-squatting leg has to work simply to remain straight and maintain from hitting the ground.
If you happen to’re combating this, strive holding onto the toes of your airborne leg for as a lot of the vary of movement as you’ll be able to so as to assist that leg keep prolonged.
5 – Not Sufficient Full-Physique Stress
The pistol squat can be a full physique train. Don’t shrink back from this side of it – embrace it – particularly at first.
As you get higher at pistols, you’ll learn to use simply sufficient full physique rigidity to finish a clear rep with out depleting your self too rapidly. Nonetheless, to start with I encourage you to actively take into consideration bracing your abs as laborious as you’ll be able to, particularly throughout the backside portion of the train.
6 – Bouncing
For lots of people, the toughest a part of the pistol squat is initiating the upward ascent from the underside place. Nonetheless, when you bounce out of the underside place, you don’t want as a lot power to return up. That is one thing I used to do myself once I was getting began with pistol squats. As soon as I noticed what I used to be doing, I started enhancing my method. I can’t do as many reps as I used to have the ability to once I would bounce out of the underside place, however the reps I can do really feel higher and are far more difficult.
Pistol Programming
These days, one in every of my favourite methods to observe pistol squats is to make use of a pyramid coaching protocol.
Because of this after a quick warm-up and a set or two or two legged squats, I do only one rep on every leg. Then after a brief break I do two on every leg.
I do three reps on the third set and proceed so as to add a rep on each set till I attain the purpose the place I can now not full a set with good kind. At that time I start taking away a rep on every set till I work my manner again right down to only one rep per leg.
The breaks between units will naturally develop into longer with every set. Take so long as you have to recuperate and deal with method greater than anything.
Watch the video under for extra:
Take a look at my e book Perfecting The Pistol Squat for extra info:
