How To Master Single-Leg Squats (Pistols) - Part 4

<< Part 3 - Airborne Lunges <<

You still need help with pistols (single-leg squats)?

Alright, I have one more exercise that you can do to help you build up to being able to do a full, to the ground pistol, on each leg.

Don't hop right into this exercise though, it's pretty difficult. Read parts 1 through 3 of this series first and start practicing those moves before you try to add this exercise to your workouts.

Let's get into the basics of the fourth exercise.

Negative-Free Pistols

Now this is going to be the most difficult out of the 4 exercises I've taught you because you'll actually be doing half of a full pistol from the ground.

They're called "negative-free" because you take the negative portion out of the exercise. You won't be squatting down on one leg with this exercise.

• You squat deep down on two legs and then at the bottom you slowly put one leg out in front of you and then you stand back up, completing the squat on only one leg.
• This is going to be a little easier on your knees but you'll still need to hold your hands out in front of you for balance.
• Stay tight and tense up your whole body as you're trying to stand back up.
• You'll want to do this exercise for each leg equally.

If you want to learn more about body weight power moves like this, then you should pick up a copy of The Naked Warrior; it's the book that taught me how to do a pistol.

You can set up a workout for this exercise a variety of different ways, but this is also a strength move. So you're going to want to do sets of low repetitions again.

When I did this exercise, I'd do 8 sets of 2 for each leg, just like with the last exercise. Once again I was only doing sets of 2 in order to ensure that my legs were fresh and would be functioning at optimal strength during each set.

Once you get to the third or forth repetition, your strength is slowly going to drop off because your fast twitch muscle fibers are going to be cooked. These are your biggest and strongest muscle fibers, but they get fatigued really quick.

I'm going to recommend again that you stay in the 1-5 rep range for an exercise like this. You can decide how many sets you'd like to do based on how much overall volume you can handle.

If you want to baby step your way into this exercise you can use the same method for box pistols; the exercise you learned about in the first article.

You can also do this every time you get up out of a chair. You sit down with 2 legs like you normally do, but when you stand up you only use one leg. That will really help you "grease the groove".

That's it! Go ahead and get started with this exercise. I hope this 4-part article series will help enable you to complete full pistols!

Stay strong!