can you do ONE?

[ergomaniac]

its called a pistol. get this book. the naked warrior by pavel tsatsouline. it a one legged squat. stand on one foot and with your other leg extended straight out before you, squat. all the way down. rock bottom. and push up.
took me a year. and i was squatin 315. it all in your hips.
the book is a detailed description of two exercise. the pistol and the one handed push up. currently working the latter

 

[unfedpuppy]

Like this?

Looks tough. It would work on your balance as well.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWvIu7s-vIM"]YouTube - Pistol Squats[/ame]

 

[HeadDoc]

nope. I can do a back squat of 360. It's not just strenght. It also involves incredible hip flexibility. I work on the latter quite a bit.

 

[youngstunna]

I just did a couple of them holding a refridgerator over my head....LOL

 

[Nico Cujo]

I used to do those when I was younger and more flexible. I think I'll try to do them again and see what happens.

 

[ergomaniac]

Like this?

Looks tough. It would work on your balance as well.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWvIu7s-vIM

thats badass. jumping up from the ground is the one i want. thanks for the add on. couple of things that helped me.
raise your heal. i use to have trouble squatting and one of the remedies was said to be raise your heal. turns out it was really widen my stance and learn to use my hips.
another is to hang your other leg. off a table maybe. taking this out of the equation should make it easier and leave focus for pressing your other other leg.
practice in a doorway. if you start to loose balance youll have support.
non these are in the book but all helped me. without support in flat feet did take time tho. i do think its worth it. im trying to live better with less most times and this fits in great. idont need a gym

 

[tenpoundsleft]

I've started doing these - I'm nowhere near the dude in the video - but I can do 5 or so on each leg. No bloody jumping up on plyo boxes though. LOL And doing them standing on a kettlebell seems like asking for a sprained ankle. I find it easier holding a DB in my arms, with arms stretched out in front of me - at least until my balance improves.

I have a slightly f-d up lower back, even with a solid core something still isn't right, so I try to keep my squat and deadlift weights down, do them slow instead of heavy.

Hoping pistols could be a good way to build strong legs. Thoughts on that? The guy in the vid has great quads.

 

[Nutpuncher]

this is awesome and bad ass. Will start trying body weight only. Hopefully this will help me become a better ninja.

 

[Mayne]

1 arm pull up is a real feat of strength a lot harder compared with both of these, but none of them is by any means an easy exercise to do

 

[tenpoundsleft]

1 arm pull up is a real feat of strength a lot harder compared with both of these, but none of them is by any means an easy exercise to do

Yeah but.... the thread is about pistol squats - and I think those can help build strength, and are possible to do even for heavier and taller guys. Whereas one arm pullups I think is more or less for the ultra lean and short-ish calisthenics folks - hard to use as a strength-building exercise anyway. I could be wrong.

 

[Mayne]

Yeah but.... the thread is about pistol squats - and I think those can help build strength, and are possible to do even for heavier and taller guys. Whereas one arm pullups I think is more or less for the ultra lean and short-ish calisthenics folks - hard to use as a strength-building exercise anyway. I could be wrong.

1 arm pull up is one of the main exercises arm wrestlers use from what I know, a local guy who won a world championship could do, from what I remember, 10 with right arm. As for pistols, it's a lot more technique, but it's a great balance exercise. 1 arm push ups are really mostly based on technique, I know a guy who never sat foot in a gym winning bets he could do 1 arm push ups. I used to do pistol squats carrying 20kg bag before I ever began working out in a gym with free weights, but I used to do lots of hanging exercises like pull ups and dips and needed a way for me to work out legs, hence how back then I also found about pistols, it's honestly up to debate which is harder a pistol squat or a 315 lb squat, I personally could only atg squat 225 when I started and as I said I could do a few 45lb pistols. Also not many people really work out pull ups as a strength exercise, it being a stretching one usually requires higher reps and not many people often attempt 1 RM or even base it around a strength building routine hence why not many can do 1 arm pull ups but most likely not many 400 lb guys could do one either way.

 

[UncleB]

Bodyweight exercises are calisthenics, no matter how those with a book to sell attempt to dress them up.

1 leg barbell back squats have been around for 75 years, the kind holding 2 dumbbells for 150, 1 leg bodyweight squats at least a few thousand.

 

[weighted chinup]

Pistol squats are a good balance check. I can't do one. I tried getting better at them a while back and I can safely say it beat the shit out of my knees more than a2g front squat does, or at least that's how it felt. Even if I could perform them, I personally wouldn't include them just because of how bad they felt on the knees, ymmv though.

A very smart member here posted a pretty good list of mobility standards he recommended a lifter be able to do before starting to learn oly lifts, and being able to perform a pistol squat unassisted was one of his recommendations iirc.

I can't do them though. There are routines / progressions you can follow that eventually work up to being able to do a full pistol squat unassisted though, so if anyone is interested they can learn it with enough patience / practice.

 

[tenpoundsleft]

Bodyweight exercises are calisthenics, no matter how those with a book to sell attempt to dress them up.

1 leg barbell back squats have been around for 75 years, the kind holding 2 dumbbells for 150, 1 leg bodyweight squats at least a few thousand.

Sure, my question was how effective you think this is in building leg strength. I'm trying to go easy on my back. I'll do these anyway, good for balance and flexibility if nothing else.

 

[tenpoundsleft]

1 arm pull up is one of the main exercises arm wrestlers use from what I know, a local guy who won a world championship could do, from what I remember, 10 with right arm. As for pistols, it's a lot more technique, but it's a great balance exercise. 1 arm push ups are really mostly based on technique, I know a guy who never sat foot in a gym winning bets he could do 1 arm push ups. I used to do pistol squats carrying 20kg bag before I ever began working out in a gym with free weights, but I used to do lots of hanging exercises like pull ups and dips and needed a way for me to work out legs, hence how back then I also found about pistols, it's honestly up to debate which is harder a pistol squat or a 315 lb squat, I personally could only atg squat 225 when I started and as I said I could do a few 45lb pistols. Also not many people really work out pull ups as a strength exercise, it being a stretching one usually requires higher reps and not many people often attempt 1 RM or even base it around a strength building routine hence why not many can do 1 arm pull ups but most likely not many 400 lb guys could do one either way.

I agree that one arm pullups is something only the really strong can do. However, I don't see those as a strength building exercise. Pistols on the other hand seem to be good strength builders. Maybe I'm OK at them because of all my skiing in the past. Surprised my knees are still fine, come to think of it.

 

[UncleB]

Sure, my question was how effective you think this is in building leg strength. I'm trying to go easy on my back.

Sorry I wasn't clear: if you have any options, calisthenics are nearly useless for building strength.

Guys like Simmons and Coan advocated weighted single leg work for balancing strength and neurologic control, but only as assistance work. Try to find an intense lower body exercise that spares your back if you need to. I use Jeffersons and BB hacks sometimes for that reason.

 

[ergomaniac]

Sorry I wasn't clear: if you have any options, calisthenics are nearly useless for building strength.

Guys like Simmons and Coan advocated weighted single leg work for balancing strength and neurologic control, but only as assistance work. Try to find an intense lower body exercise that spares your back if you need to. I use Jeffersons and BB hacks sometimes for that reason.

im guessing you cant do ONE .
and if you couldn't do one, but built up the strength to be able to do one or more), what would you call that?

if I remember correctly, pavel does say squats are still king. this isn't a replacement.

 

[anonymous84912]

1 arm pull up is a real feat of strength a lot harder compared with both of these, but none of them is by any means an easy exercise to do

I can actually rep out the pistol squats and do some one-armed pullups. I've even done a weighted one armed pull-up with +25 pounds before lol.

 

[Ozzy619]

1 arm pull up is a real feat of strength a lot harder compared with both of these, but none of them is by any means an easy exercise to do

Start off by doing a 1 arm chin up. Grab your wrist with the hand you're not working. Gradually move your non working hand further down your forearm until you can do a 1 arm chin up unassisted. I've yet to do a 1 arm pull up.

 

[MindlessWork]

Old thread but pistols are damn tough to do if you got balance issues. I can try these using a squat press machine.