Why Pistol Squats Are so Hard (and How to Do Them)
The pistol squat is one of the most impressive strength exercises in the world, along with things like the back flip or the perfect handstand. Well, I can’t do those other two, but I can hit a bunch of pistol squats. Let’s talk about what goes into one.
Quadruple Strength
Let’s look at the most obvious first. To squat and lift on one leg, that leg must support the weight of the entire body. You need strong quads, i.e. quads, the muscle group of the front of the thigh.
Let’s say you weigh 200 pounds. A typical two-legged air squat involves each of your legs taking on the responsibility of moving 100 pounds of body weight (i.e. half of your body weight) up and down. When you make a pistol, you are asking one leg to take on a full 200 pounds.
So if you want to make pistols, you need strong legs. At a minimum, you should be able to squat with a bodyweight barbell. In other words, the 200-pound person in our example should be able to squat with a 200-pound barbell on their back, forcing both legs to move a total of 400 pounds.
So, this is my hypothesis. I don’t promise that this is an immutable law of nature or anything like that, but it seems to match my experience and that of others I know. This is also the minimum . The stronger your legs, the lighter the pistols will be.
The strength of one leg
Just because you’re good at bi-legged squats doesn’t guarantee you ‘ll have enough strength to squat on one leg. As we have discussed, moving your body up and down requires strength mainly from your quads. But when you stand on one leg, you also need to:
- Abductive strength (using the muscles of the buttocks and outer thighs) so that the leg does not fall inward.
- Strength of the adductors (intrinsic thigh muscles) to assist the quads and balance the abductors.
- The strength of the hip flexors (in the muscles that attach to the front of the thigh) to keep the free leg in the “pistol” position.
If you want to make pistols, you need to work on that too. You can target each muscle directly, but you’ll get really good bang for your buck by doing unilateral (unilateral) leg exercises such as:
- Steps, increasing the height of the box over time and adding weight as needed.
- Lunges (forward and/or backward)
- Bulgarian split squats (putting your back foot on the bench) or any other type of split squat
- Down steps in which you control the downward part of the movement and then use your free leg to push yourself back up to the top.
- Shrimp squats using your free leg behind you
- B-pillar squat , in which both feet are on the ground, but one foot is used more than the other.
- Pistol box squats are where you sit on a box or bench behind you and then stand up using only one leg (sometimes I call this a “one-leg stand”).
All of these exercises can be done with weights. Hold dumbbells in your hands to take a step up, or put a kettlebell on your shoulder to perform a box pistol.
While you’re working on your hip flexor strength (sitting and hanging leg raises are great, by the way), you can temporarily take them out of the equation by holding your toes with your hand as you lower into the squat.
Balance
When you do all these exercises on one leg, it can be difficult for you to balance on just one leg. This is fine! It is also a skill that you can improve very quickly. Practice standing on one foot while imagining your foot as a tripod (thumb, pinky, heel) or do as I did and imagine you are wearing four wheel inline skates and trying to balance your weight between the four wheels at the four corners. your legs.
Single leg exercises will help you develop this balance, as will standing balance exercises such as standing on one leg while you brush your teeth. Once you can stand, try moving around and bending your knee. Notice how you have to push your buttocks back and your chest forward to stay balanced when your knee is bent. This will become very important.
Mobility
Pistol squats are most impressive when they perform “butt to grass” by going as deep as your body will allow. This means that your buttocks are almost touching the shoes, and as a general rule, your knees should be pushed quite far forward of your toes. (And no, you wo n’t ruin your knees by putting your knees on your toes.)
The most common thing that prevents people from doing a deep squat is ankle mobility. In order for the buttocks to drop, the shins must lean forward. To keep the foot on the ground when the shins are bent forward, the Achilles tendon at the back of the ankle needs to be slightly stretched. Here are some ankle mobility tips that include stretching as well as some quick fixes like wearing high heels.
As you lower yourself into the pistol squat position, notice if you feel resistance anywhere else. Depending on your body proportions, you may need to stretch or build strength in other areas.
Technique
Finally, we come to the truth that skillful movements require practice. The stronger and more agile you are, the less practice it may take, but ultimately you need to learn how to do the pistol squat. Being able to balance on one leg while standing is not the same as being able to balance when you’re fully squatting, and you’ll have to balance when you’re down in all the intermediate positions. .
As you practice pistol shooting, you may find that pausing down helps you regain your balance before getting back up; or you may find that you prefer to quickly bounce off the bottom to send you back up.
One way to practice before you master the full downward movement is to get down on one leg, roll over onto your back, and then try to roll forward again, balance on your foot, and stand up . This gives you some momentum which helps when you don’t have the strength yet to accelerate upwards.
Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how to do your first pistol squat. Some people have strength but lack mobility, or vice versa. Some people are disadvantaged in one respect but advantageous in another; for example, I have mile-long thighbones, which means I need to get into a pretty extreme knee-over-toe position, but I also have enough ankle mobility to get there and be strong in that position. Find out what you are missing and fix your weaknesses. And if you’re not sure what your weak point is, just work on everything. You’ll get there soon enough.