During a “FREE” Trial Fitness Training session with guzzFit we can fast track your pistol squat development using a TRX!
Your legs and glutes are the strongest muscles in your body or at least they should be unless you’re skipping one too many leg days!
Expecting your upper body to compensate the weight needed to work them harder and harder can be dangerous without perfect form. It can lead to problems ranging from lumbago and muscle strains to sciatica and bulging or fully herniated discs.
The main problem with the back squat is that as your legs and glutes get stronger, the increase in load required, adds a lot of weight onto your back. This puts a huge vertical pressure on your spine, compressing your vertebrae.
Pistol squats don’t have this problem. Doing unweighted pistol squats is more or less equivalent to doing back squats with your own weight added to the barbell.
When you start to add weight to a pistol squat, there is some strain on the back, but more from a stabilising standpoint, and the weight needn’t be as high as that for a back squat.
The benefits of a pistol squat are:
– Isolation of each leg for balancing strength deficits
– Full range of muscle recruitment
– Increase ankle joint mobility and flexibility
– Improved balance
– Strengthening of stabilising muscles in the leg
– Improved proprioception through the leg and core
– Removes danger of damaging spine (compared to back squat)
So when you master the pistol squat, you’ll not only be giving your legs the best workout they can get, you’ll also be working on much more.
The added benefit of adding weight is that you don’t need to add much to get similar results to adding a lot on the back. Like I mentioned, the pistol squat without any weight is essentially the same as back squatting your own bodyweight.
Once you’ve mastered the pistol you can start to add weight by holding something in your hands, like a goblet squat. As previously mentioned, this is a great way to increase the strength needed to perform the movement with minimal risk of injury to the spine.
Pistol squats are a great addition to anyone’s workout, especially if you have issues with back squats, they can be a great substitute. For those that have no problems with barbell back squats, they are simply a great addition to a solid lower body routine, helping to even up any bilateral leg strength deficit.
