How To Do A Pistol Squat
Personally, I like to challenge myself at the gym by learning how to do an exercise that I have never done before. I started off by challenging myself to do diamond push ups, then pull ups, and now I have just learned how to do a pistol squat. The tips that I am about to share with you are the steps that I took to learn how to do a pistol squat. I hope that you find them helpful and are able to do a pistol squat in the near future.
What Is A Pistol Squat?
A pistol squat is an advanced lower body exercise, where you basically do a single leg squat. You lower your body until your butt almost touches the back of your heel while holding the opposite leg out in front of you. This exercise requires strength in your quads, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, calves, core, feet and ankles.
The Benefits Of Pistol Squats
Pistol squats are a great exercise to do because they build strength in your lower body and your core. Pistol squats are popular among runners because the exercise allows them to move their legs through a full range of motion. Meaning it allows them to move their leg as far as possible. Which can come in handy when you are running.
Pistol Squat Progression
Since a pistol squat is a very difficult exercise for even the most highly trained athletes to perform correctly. I recommend that you start with a modified version of a pistol squat. Then progress to a more difficult version. Until you can ultimately perform a pistol squat correctly on your own. Below, I have listed four modifications and progressions that you can do. In order to help you build strength, balance, and mobility.
Narrow Stance Squats
The first thing that I did when learning how to do a pistol squat. I added narrow stance squats to my leg routine. These feel awkward at first and take some getting use to. I kept wanting to move my feet hip width apart. But I forced myself to stick with the narrow stance.
The narrow stance helped me get use to having my legs close together when bending down low.
Single Leg Squats
Next, I started to do single leg squats using the footboard of my bed. Once I got comfortable doing the single leg squats at the height of my footboard. I challenge myself to go even lower by using one of the chairs from my dining room set. From there I literally did single leg squats on any surface I could find that went lower and lower and lower.
The single leg squat helped me practice the form of doing a pistol squat, as well as dropping down low and getting back up.
Assisted Pistol Squats
When I felt comfortable doing single leg squats and could no longer find a surface close to the floor that wasn’t the floor. I started to do assisted pistol squats. I would alternate between doing a cable assisted pistol squat and a TRX suspension assisted pistol squat.
The assisted pistol squat really helped me gage my upper body strength in being able to pull myself up off the floor.
Pistol Squat
Once I felt comfortable doing assisted pistol squats with little to no effort. I tried doing one on my own and I was able to do it. I could only do two to three at a time. But after a while, I kept practicing and was able to do more. I still revisit the steps above to help me improve my balance, form, and endurance.
Warning: If you have any issues with your lower body. Especially with your knees or ankles. Then you might want to avoid doing this exercise. I would recommend that you work with a physical therapist or a personal trainer to work through your issues before moving forward with this exercise.
Personal Training
If you are interested in Personal Training and want to work with me. Then go to my coaching website www.nohemyadornofitness.com. Where I work with clients to help them become the best version of themselves. By creating innovative and effective workout programs that produce lasting results.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post on, how to do a pistol squat. If you have any questions feel free to comment down below. For more fitness advice see these other posts; How To Do A Pull Up, How To Use A Foam Roller, and What’s In My Gym Bag?
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