FINALLY GET A PISTOL SQUAT: NO STRETCHING REQUIRED
Pistol squats, you either have them or you don’t!
What you’re about to get in this post is the easiest most uncomplicated way to FINALLY get your first pistol squat….WITH NO STRETCHING NEEDED!
With any gymnastics movement, there are one of two ways to progress a movement.
1) Reverse engineer the movement, breaking it down into its individual pieces
2) Do a regressed variation of the movement and over time as you progress it, you build up to the full variation
We are covering option two in this post. Option one isn’t wrong BUT it leads to people overcomplicating things and ultimately never actually taking action towards their goals.
And my job as a coach is always to set my clients up for success. The way I feel that’s best to set random people on the internet up for success is to give them the most straightforward and user-friendly approach, THAT ACTUALLY WORKS! And if you are into easy to implement training tips, you will love my newsletter.
Let’s get into it!
IF YOU CAN AIR SQUT….YOU HAVE THE FLEXIBILITY TO PISTOL
A lot of people spend a ton of unnecessary time working hip and ankle mobility, thinking it takes ten times more mobility to perform a single leg squat as opposed to a normal one. If we look at the illustration above, the distance my knee is traveling over my toe (ankle mobility) is roughly the same. You could argue there is a tad more, but not enough in my opinion to warrant hours of ankle mobility work.
Then if we look at my hips, there is slightly more hip flexion occurring (more of my hamstrings covering my calf) BUT, I would argue that’s simply occurring because I’m now on one leg, so the pelvic mechanics require my lower back to round.
WHY DOES EVERYONE STRUGGLE WITH THE PISTOL THEN?….
The non-squatting leg! If you don’t have the hip flexor strength/flexibility to hold that non-squatting leg up, you have no way to produce a counterbalance as you lower down! A simple way to think about hip flexor strength; can you hold an L-sit easily, with straight legs? If not….your hip flexors need work!
MY TOP 3 WAYS TO IMPROVE THAT NON SQUATTING LEG!
Option 1 - Elevated Pistols
Find an elevation you can perform a pistol on, that your leg clears the floor. Over time as strength increases in that non-squatting leg hip, lower the surface.
Option 2 - Counterbalance Pistols
Using a 2-15 lb dumbbell or kettlebell, as you squat down, hold it out in front of you. This will create a counterbalance, allowing you to sit slightly further back, not needing to use those hip flexors as much. As your hip flexor strength improves, you will be able to use less and less weight.
Option 3 - Heel Elevated Pistols
The heel elevation does help out if you lack ankle mobility, BUT the real benefit comes from you being able to sit your weight slightly behind you, making it easier to lift that free leg up. You will want to decrease the heel elevation as strength improves, until you are eventually doing the full variation!
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Go ahead and pick one of the three variations. The elevated variation is going to be the most scaleable, for that reasons I would say its “easiest.” Then the heel elevated and counterbalance are roughly the same difficulty level. Once you picked out the variation you are going to do you can go ahead and perform this 1-2x’s a week 👇.
A. On the minute x 10 minutes:
1. Pistol Squat x 3 reps….Only one leg each minute
If you are more of a visual learner, I cover the exact same thing on my youtube!
Closing Thoughts
And that, my friends, is how you avoid spending endless hours stretching and instead “doing!”
Remember, we don’t always need complicated solutions to simple problems.
Give this a try for 6-8 weeks and I promise you will be on your way to your first pistol squat!