by Forest Vance, author
Up until about two and a half years ago, I had never done a pistol squat in my life. I thought that because I’m a ‘big guy’, because I’ve had two knee surgeries, and a whole host of other reasons, pistols weren’t for me…
Long story short – I was wrong! The pistol is a great body weight – only exercise for building strength; it’s not hard on your knees if you do it right, and big guys can and should do pistol squats.
However, performing pistol squats correctly is key to getting the most out of them and staying injury free. The way I was personally able to work up to doing 8-10 or so consecutive reps on each leg – and the way I’ve since worked clients of mine up to doing pistol squats, too – is with the following progression:
1. BODY WEIGHT SQUAT AND CLOSE STANCE BODY WEIGHT SQUAT
Before you learn to do a pistol on ONE leg, you must learn how to do it correctly on TWO legs. Seems obvious, but a lot of folks go wrong here.
Start with this one and get good at it, then move to doing the next step in the pistol progression.
2. SUSPENSION TRAINER/PARTNER ASSISTED PISTOL
In this drill, you use the assistance of a partner holding your hands or a suspension trainer like the TRX to do an assisted pistol squat.
This is a really good one because it lets you get the feel of and ‘grove’ of the pistol, while ‘unweighting’ the exercise to varying degrees while you learn it.
3. BOX PISTOL
The next step in the progression is to perform the pistol on to a box.
First, sit on the box and do a pistol from the ‘bottom up’ – just start from a seated position and stand up.
Then, do a pistol sitting back on to the box, tap the box but don’t accept weight on it, and stand back up.
Start with a high box and gradually work down the height of the box.
4. THE STANDARD PISTOL SQUAT
For most folks, holding a counter-weight in front of you will make the exercise easier. This is a technique you can use for the box pistol as well as the standard pistol.
In conclusion, the pistol squat can be an intimidating exercise – but it’s really about having the right balance of lower body strength and stability, and practicing your technique.
The benefits are many of incorporating pistol squats into your training program – use the progression outlined in this article and you’ll be well on your way to mastering the pistol.
Forest Vance
MS, RKC II
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