Improving the One Legged Squat- a.k.a The Pistol

The pistol is one of the most impressive feats of leg strength I know. While there are a lot of gym rats that can back squat hundreds of pounds, I've seen very few people that that can perform a single pistol. It takes balance, leg strength, core strength,  flexibility and great body awareness.  Of course this exercise should be reserved for individuals with healthy knees and who have devoted time to developing strong legs and a perfecting the standard two legged squat.

In the world of professional sports, strength coaches have come to the realization that base strength and functional strength are two different things. For example it's great when an athlete can back squat almost three times his bodyweight, but rarely will an athlete ever push off of both legs equally and simultaneously during a given movement. For example, while running, jumping from a run, tackling, throwing, punching and kicking athletes use one leg to push off against the ground.  For this reason strength and conditioning coaches will build a minimum required amount of strength with traditional squats then build more specific usable/transferable strength with variations of single leg squats. The pistol and its variations are perhaps the most difficult squats to master.

Two years ago I learned how to perform the one-legged squat known as the pistol.
When I first attempted it with just my bodyweight I failed every time,  consistently falling over backwards.
In the beginning I could only perform a pistol off of a high surface such as a chair or bench. Then one day  I tried holding a kettlebell out in front of my body and Ta-Da, I nailed my first pistol.  Holding a kettlebell out in front of my body gave my just enough counter balance to perform a pistol without losing my balance and rocking backward. I still couldn't do a pistol without holding onto a kettlebell but I figured it was okay if I used a weight because more is better.

I sporadically practiced my pistols when the mood struct me, but when I did so I could only perform them while holding onto a weight in front of me. Holding onto a weight turned into a crutch. I became better at weighted pistols but never improved my bodyweight pistol. I could hold onto a weight sometimes as light as a 3lb dumbbell and do pistols perfectly but wipe out every time I tried them without weight.

Now as I prepare for attending a future RKC level II certification I have been refocusing my efforts on the pistol. I have been performing up to 100 reps a day of the pistol onto a low elevation about 2 feet high. I will lower myself just barely touching the surface then stand up as explosively as possible. I've been gradually lowering the surface throughout the training with the goal of not resting any weight on the surface, just touching it lightly before standing back up. After each rep I would replay my performance and try to to find areas I could improve upon. As the surface became lower and lower I started having more revelations about the technique and what worked for me. Today I successfully completed five consecutive bodyweight pistols on each leg without a platform. I am far from having mastered the pistol, but I am on my way with a long term goal of building up to 50 or more consecutive one-leg squats.

Here is what I learned so far

• Using a weight for a counter balance encourages me to shift my weight way back during the pistol. 
• Sitting way back into a bodyweight pistols makes me fall over backward.
• Performing a "naked" (a.k.a. Bodyweight) pistol requires a different kind of weight shift that I was not learning while holding a kettlebell, specifically it requires shifting my weight forward.
• Holding a kettlebell in front automatically creates tension throughout my core allowing me to balance easily.
• I tend to not generate enough tension throughout the entire movement when performing bodyweight pistols.
• To generate tension I need to fire my entire core, reach forward with my hands, clench my fists, lean forward and grip the floor with my toes. 
• I frequently fall backward toward the non-working side during naked pistols.
• Since I fall backward toward the non-working side I need counter balance by shifting more weight forward and toward the working side. To do so I focused  on putting the weight of my upper body directly over my working foot and knee as much as possible. This means nearly laying my chest against my thigh, leaning toward my working leg and rotating the femur of my working leg inward toward the free leg.
• To prevent cramping in the hip-flexor of the "non-working" side I focused on pushing the leg forward instead of lifting it. Pushing the leg forward solved the cramping issue and helped to shift even more weight forward improving my center balance.

If you would like to learn how perform the pistol I highly recommend the following resources

• "The Naked Warrior" by Pavel Tsatsouline and "Convict Conditioning" by Paul Wade
  Both are excellent books on how to build elite strength with body weight exercises only. 
• RKC level II instructors
  All RKC level IIs have demonstrated competency in the pistol and have a variety of progressions and corrective drills for teaching the pistol.