A pistol squat is a one-legged squat, where the free leg (the one you are not squatting with) is held straight out in front of you. (I imagine the name comes from the idea that your leg, sticking out in front, resembles the barrel of a pistol.) To do a pistol squat:
Keeping that leg out in front of you, and your torso upright, bend your standing (right) leg until your hip joint is at or below the level of your knee.
Pistol squats are often done free-handed, but it’s OK (by me, the self-appointed queen of pistol squats) to hold the toe of the free leg with your hand. Pistol squats are ideally done with the free leg completely straight, but it’s also OK to bend that knee a bit if you need to.
You don’t need to do your pistol squats “ass to grass” (with your butt nearly touching the ground), but you can if you want. It’s more impressive that way.
Strengthen your quads
Let’s cover the most obvious thing first. To squat down and up on one leg, that one leg needs to be able to support the weight of your whole body. In other words, that leg is working twice as hard as if you were doing a normal squat with both feet on the ground.
Mathematically, I figure that if you can squat with a barbell on your back that is equal to your own body weight, then your legs are probably strong enough to each do a pistol squat unweighted. That's a minimum, though—the stronger your legs are, the easier pistols will be.
Just being good at two-legged squats does not guarantee you have all the strength you need to squat on one leg. Moving your body up and down requires strength mainly from your quads, as we discussed. But when you’re on one leg, you also need:
Adductor strength (in your inner thigh muscles) to assist the quads and to counterbalance the abductors.
How to work up to it: You can target each muscle directly, but you’ll get a really good bang for your buck by doing unilateral (one-sided) leg exercises like:
Lunges (forward and/or reverse)
Step-downs, in which you control the lowering-down portion of the movement and then use your free leg to help push you back up to the top
Pistol squats to a box, where you sit down on a box or bench behind you and then stand back up using only one leg (I sometimes call these “one-leg stand-ups”). If the box is fairly tall, these are a lot easier than regular pistol squats.
While you work on your hip flexor strength (seated and hanging leg raises are great, by the way), you can take them out of the equation for the moment by holding your toes with your hand as you descend into your squat.
Improve your balance
One-legged exercises will help you build this balance, but so will standing balance exercises, like standing on one foot while you brush your teeth. Once you’re stable standing up, try moving around and bending your knee. Notice how you have to move your butt back and chest forward to stay balanced as your knee bends. This will become very important.
Pistol squats are most impressive when they’re done “ass-to-grass,” going as far down as your body will allow. This means your butt is nearly touching your shoes, and typically your knees will need to go pretty far forward of your toes. (And no, you won’t ruin your knees by putting your knees over your toes.)
How to work up to it: Here are some tips for ankle mobility, which include stretches but also a few quick fixes like wearing shoes with an elevated heel.
Practice is crucial
Finally, we come to the truth that skilled movements take practice. The stronger and more mobile you are, the less practice it may take, but ultimately you need to learn how to do a pistol squat. Being able to balance on one foot while standing up isn’t the same thing as being able to balance when you’re fully in the squat position, and you’ll have to be able to balance as you descend through all the positions in between.
How to work up to it: One way to practice before you’ve gotten the full move down is to lower yourself down on one leg, roll onto your back, and then try to roll forward again, balance on your foot and stand up. This gives you some momentum, which helps when you don’t quite have the strength to accelerate yourself upward yet.
Ultimately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how to get your first pistol squat. Some people have the strength but are missing the mobility, or vice versa. Some people are at a disadvantage in one way but have an advantage somewhere else; for example, I have mile-long thighbones, which means I have to get into a pretty extreme knees-over-toes position, but I also have good enough ankle mobility to get there and to be strong in that position. Figure out what you’re missing, and eliminate your weak points. And if you aren’t sure what your weak point is, just work on everything. You’ll get there soon enough.
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