Exercise Tutorial: Pistol Squat
What Is a Pistol Squat
The Pistol Squat is the cooler and older sibling of the bodyweight squat. Taking away one leg from the regular squat completely changes the game and makes a once comfortable movement much harder. This is a great way to overload the regular squat if you don’t have access to weights and are looking to challenge your legs.
Since you are only using one leg, all of your body weight shifts over to that leg. This is 2x more weight compared to the traditional squat! Although there is a learning curve, once mastered it will be your go-to exercise, maybe even a party trick!
How to Pistol Squat
Stand with both feet straight. Extend the opposite leg forward.
The heel should be close to the floor.
Extend arms forward for balance purposes.
The leg that stands now starts to bend.
Go all the way down without touching the floor.
Push with the heel, and extend the leg up.
Be ready to repeat all these steps or switch legs.
Pistol Squat Form
Remember not to lean forward.
Push with the heel.
Brace core.
Keep chest high when going down, and coming up.
Eyes looking forward.
Pistol Squat Progression
These pistol squat progressions will help you advance into getting closer to strengthen the necessary muscles and to achieve a pistol squat.
Deep Squat
First and foremost, how deep is your squat? Can you do a full knee flexion comfortably? If not, I recommend nailing this part first before attempting any of the below unilateral pistol squat variations. It would help if you made sure that your hips, knees, and ankles have proper mobility to be able to recruit the muscles thoroughly.
Box or Bench Pistol Squat
For this variation, you will need a box, bench, or even a chair. These items are usually the perfect height to start the first unilateral pistol squat. Unlike the regular squat, where your legs are more off to the side to impose proper balance, the opposite is true for the pistol. You have to make sure that the weight-bearing portion aligns below your hip. The bench, box, or chair is behind you so that you can land your glutes on them. Once you are seated, engage your whole body, and stand back up.
Assisted Pistol Squat
This progression will allow you to get into a pistol at full range. At home, using a large towel around a stable object (i.e., railing) will work great as a suspension.
TRX Pistol Squat
Using TRX ropes, grab both handles to create tension. Keep one leg in contact with the floor and lift the other leg off the ground. Begin to squat down slowly and drive through the bottom of the foot back to get back to the starting position. Use the TRX as support if you need it. The goal is to reduce reliance on the TRX over time.
Chair Pistol Squat
In this progression, you will be going into full coverage on your own! Make sure to have something beside you, like a chair. Try to get back up on your own. However, if you find that you are unable to use the chair or item of choice to help boost yourself back up.
Weighted Pistol Squat
Weighted pistol squats can be done with dumbbells, kettlebells, ankle weights, and more types of equipment. It’s essential to understand if you're a beginner, you will need to strengthen your lower body muscles to avoid risking an injury.
Kettlebell Pistol Squat
Either grab the kettlebell with both arms, keeping it close to the chest or far from the trunk. Or, grabbing it with one arm or two arms and placing it on the shoulders. Finally, holding on to the kettlebell with the arms flexed. These are all the ways that a kettlebell pistol squat is performed.
Pistol Squat Benefits
If you think pistol squats are one of those exercises that trainers and fit people do just to show off, you are right, but also wrong. The almighty pistol is an advanced unilateral lower body exercise that tests the strength of your core and your entire leg from glutes to ankles. There are many benefits with knowing how to do a proper pistol, so allow me to share a few of them:
Improves Overall Balance
The most obvious benefit is that it improves your balance. You are trying to do a squat with one leg.
Notes Your Imbalances
Not only will you help your balance, but you will also help balance the strength of each leg. Doing a regular squat with both legs will allow getting the best of both worlds, helping you descend and ascend. When you take away a limb, you will notice an imbalance.
One leg will be stronger, have more movement, more balance, etc. than the opposite leg. Mastering a pistol will help you conquer those imbalances, which will improve all of your other (bilateral) lower body exercises.
Full Muscle Recruitment
You have to eventually go into the full range of motion when doing an accurate pistol, which means your leg is enrolling most of the muscles to accomplish this. Something that probably does not happen with regular squats (even if it is a loaded squat).
Improving Strength
With full range muscle recruitment, you are firing up those posterior chain muscles, making them bionic!
Pistol Squat Mobility
You are 100% increasing the mobility of your ankles, knees, and hips. You will notice when practicing your pistols for the first time that you may have a limited range in some or all of these areas. IT’s OK, the more you practice, the better the mobility gets.
Pistol Squat Muscles Worked
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Calves
How to Program the Pistol Squat
As with learning anything in life, repetition is key. Ensure that you are performing this exercise a couple of times a week, adjusted to your abilities so that you can learn the movement quickly! We don’t want to have fatigue so that we can give our maximal effort into perfecting this movement or overloading it.
Pistol Squat Knee Pain
To avoid knee pain, make sure that all surrounding muscles are strengthened. Also, while performing the split squat, there is no pain in the knee. If you experience any type of pain, stop immediately. If this pain persists, consult a physician.
How to Strengthen the Surrounding Knee Muscles to Avoid Knee Pain While Doing a Pistol Squat
Adductor Split Squat
Loop a resistance band around a sturdy pole or structure at the knee level. Assume a lunge position and step the lead leg into the band. Your lead knee should be in line beside your support structure. Ensure there is some tension in the band. Begin to lunge, you should feel the band pulling your knee towards your support structure. The goal of this exercise is to resist the force pulling your knee towards the structure and keep the knee in line with your ankle.
Abductor Split Squat
Loop a resistance band around a sturdy pole or structure at the knee level. Step the leg farthest away from the structure into the band so that the band is coming across your body. Begin to lunge, you should feel the band pulling your knee towards your support structure. The goal of this exercise is to resist the force pulling your knee towards the structure, engage the glutes and keep the knee in line with your ankle.
Performing the Adductor and Abductor Split Squat is important for the stability of the knee. A lot of knee instability that occurs when squatting stems from having weak adductors or abductors or having one that overpowers the other. Strengthening both the adductors and abductors will help ensure that your knees are strong and stable for this hard single-leg exercise.