In my view, pistol squats are the goal; the movement you want to achieve. They aren’t a training method to get leg hypertrophy. They are the thing you train for, not the thing you use to train for other things. It’s like any other gymnast skill you don’t use the planche to get jacked shoulders. You want jacked shoulders so you can do the planche.
I agree 100%. Pistol squat is already an advanced movement that requires a fair bit of strength and balance to achieve. I used to be able to do them but not anymore, even though my 1 RM squat for example is higher. Not sure why.
Same. The pistol squat is a huge goal for me. That's not to say I'll stop developing once I get to it, but I'll be pretty happy with myself once I reach it
They are also great for training balance under shifting load. I used to do 3 sets of 20, barefoot on a mini-trampoline as part of off season snowboard training. They made a noticeable difference from season to season (though not nearly as much as riding a unicycle!).
@keithdavis8461 it's not that hard. Try to do them elevated, f.e. standing on a chair, so your not working leg will be not in front of you but more below. Also you can decrease range of the motion to make it easier.
I know you're joking, but seriiusly even if you actually find them difficult, his point stands. If your goal is greater balance and mobility, pistol squats are a great exercise. They're also great for joint health. If your goal is muscular hypertrophy, however, you're better off squatting heavy.
@nickzardiashvili624 I think they are not best for hypertrophy, but still are good enough. You can do their assisted version, for example with rings, or wall assisted (like you would do wall handstand pushups) to eliminate balance factor, and to not keep your not working leg straight to eliminate mobility factor. They are good for home workout when you don't have access to heavy weights and Squat rack. Also it is easier to overload them, since + 20 kg weight vest to Pistol Squat is like +40 kg for both legs. But I still would recommend to start from not assisted one's to gain some basic balance.
so why aren’t we training for stability&balance? why don’t we want to be more mobile and flexible ? that’s real strength why be muscular, but stiff and fragile?
there are better exercises for mobility and flexibility like dynamic stretches, and resistance band movements. Training with lifts that are unstable are only going to make you more sustainable to injury
Pistol squat - Shrimp squat - Sissy squat - Reverse nordic curl - Dragon squat - One leg sissy squat _(as far as I know, nobody has done a full free one leg sissy squat, so here's your challenge)_ . Yeah, there's a LOT of leg exercises in calisthenics, and I only wrote the harder ones. Plus, with reverse nordics, and other squat variations, balance isn't an obstacle and you can easily add weights.
So that means, even if You will train hella strong leg, You will be very easy target to overthrown compare to someone who train pistol squat. Balance is everything!
Naw, put two people in a wrestling match. One can do insane hack reps and weights - one can do insane numbers of pistols. Assuming equal levels of skill, I know who's gonna be on their ass
Honestly I feel like stability being the limiting factor is a good thing, so many people focus on training strength, that they don't realise that the uses of that strength are limited by their lack of stability and flexibility. Strength is awesome, but it's useless in the real world if you don't give your body the flexibility and stability to make full use of that strength, moving freely and safely all at once. That said, I understand everyone has their own goals, and to each their own.
I know right?thats why i prefer calisthenics exersises because they don't target only one muscle , they target 3 or 5 ,plus challenge your mobility and balance. All at once!
@@ioannaa0 very well said. I am experiencing the best gains of my life, am working out the most frequently I ever have, and my body is injury free. Calisthenics are the best form of resistance training!
Stability is strength. Lack of stability just means lack of strength in some muscles. Some people spend their days at gym only training quads and growing muscular imbalance of course they don't have stability - all their leg muscles are weak except for quads.
@@sk-sm9sh I agree with you, a lack of strength in some muscle groups is definitely a part of what causes instability, but I also feel like stability is at least partially muscle control too. Like a hack squat still trains the legs. But the barbell squat teaches the muscles how to coordinate to safely achieve balance under a load. If every muscle was just activating at full force you'd fall on your face. The problem with the hack squat is exactly that, you're just pushing heavy weight at full force. There's no real control or refinement to it, and even if there was, it's not teaching you how to safely carry a load, because you're basically laying down on a machine pushing with your legs. It's quite literally designed for you to ignore stability limitations and focus solely on loading as much weight as possible to build muscle, this is completely fine, but most people don't really understand the differences between using machines and working with free weights, and that's what needs to change. Once again I completely agree with you but hopefully I gave a good explanation of my perspective too.
I was abroad for 10 weeks and only did pistol squats. I worked up to doing 7x7 alternating between legs without pause. When I went back to back squats, I felt increased explosive sttength out of the bottom. Strength is strength. I think pistol squats are a great exercise, especially for high volume
So I'd say I disagree with them being a short term option. I think they are a long term necessity, with progressive overload in the form of harder balancing forms
Variability and instability are rarely a bad thing in training. The more variability, the better a movement can be adapted to actual life. And don't we actually train for transfer? So we can live better, easier, healthier? Instead of bulking more and more only for aesthetics while ignoring quality of life
Excellent information! That actually clears up a few things, like the value of hack squats. I find that hack squats with a weight that doesn't compromise form (or blood pressure), allowing for 15+ repetitions, is highly effective.
I feel the ability to do Pistols is a great demonstration of Strength and difficult for some as a method to obtain it. Which surprised me that Daniel uses Pistols right off the bat in his Limitless Legs Program.
Because there are many ways to train balance and coordination, while there are fewer ways to train strength and hypertrophy. Balance and coordination are much more domain specific - an ice skater and a motorcyclist and a basketball player all need balance and coordination, but in very different ways. Having a strong bilateral (or stable unilateral) squat will generalize across more domains of activity than being able to do lots of pistol squats. Also critically, hacks and barbell squats load the legs and the torso, while pistols do not load the torso any more significantly than an unloaded bilateral squat. If you're really so desperate to compromise your strength training by layering balance on top of it, just hang your plates from bands
For me pistol squat is the only exercise that make me escape the chicken leg realm. And yes, the balancing problem but only when I start adding weights over 30kg and not because of heavy added load but the sheer size of the weight affecting body balance.
I got lower back spasms doing pistol squats with incorrect form. Never slouch your back while performing this movement. Always keep it upright like he's showing here. Hope no one goes through months of physio therapy sessions like i did. Peace.
@@KenjiDev i had no idea what those movements are. Turned out its a stance positions. By the way, my back got immensely better after doing full range slow regular squats. I'll definitely add this to my routine. Thanks alot man.
The problem I find is the over-emphasis of strength over various other factors such as flexibility, stability and being able to move well. Sure, getting stronger is a good thing, but your overall flexibility is just as important later on in life.
I just noticed how for pistol squats balance is communicated as down point while for ring dips, instability is communicated favorably. That being said pistol squats seem like one-arm pushups in that they are hard versions of basic exercises and progressive load is more difficult due to instability.
The dofference is that on dips it isn't balance, is a lack of development in some stabiliser muscles, that you can improve with rings. In pistol squats, it's actually balance and not stability that lacks
@@78supergood well in a sense, but in a pistol squat it's more your core and maybe ankle that need to be stable (as to keep your mass centered and stuff), and it's already their function and they do it all the time, your leg doesn't gain much by that instability, but with the rings its another thing I feel like, but idk I might be just wrong,
@@FranciscoJose-cu1jj Ah I see. So different muscles may be more responsible for stability for pistol squats unlike rings which use the same muscles for strength and stability.
Any athlete needs to learn and maintain the ability to do the pistol squat even if you progress better with the barbell, the hack is more useful for bodybuilders but has little transfer to other movements
Instability forces you to train balance and balance is key for many athletic movements , Football , Martial Arts , and can prevent injuries placing your foot on an unstable surface in a bad angle .
Totally agree. To improve the series of pistol squats I lightly grab another surface for support, with one or two fingers maximum, to make sure I don't cheat and lift my weight with my arm. I know I'm taking away an important part of the exercise, such as the work of the stabilizer muscles, but it's better to feel the quadriceps.
thats what i did during lockdown wen the gyms were closed; i lightly grabbed something with one hand couple fingers and eventually worked upto 40lbs vest and 50lbs db on the other hand and my squats/etc acutally went up wen the gyms reopened
The instabuility is what gets trained, since it is caused by underdeveloped small muscules, which will get developed through that kind of exercise, albeit starting from something easier first
Imo, adding weights make the balancing EASIER. When you have a dumbbell in each hand, it makes it a lot easier to stabilize your weight. Of course, you will reach a point where the dumbbells get so heavy that it becomes hard to balance again, but at that point you have already become freakishly strong.
Also flexibility, not just balance. Pistol squat for life! You require an already strong core (abs and lower back) also. Add weight or simply as a warm up if you are advamced.
It depends on your goal. I like training strength and balance. However, I think pistol squats are more representative of those skills than a vehicle to get you across the finish line.
I used to powerlift. Squatted 505 before pistol squats. Started doing weighted pistol squats, without touching a bar in 6 months, squatted 545 lbs while being 20 lbs lighter. It’s not ideal for high reps/ hypertrophy I’ll give you that, but explosive plyometric training with weighted pistol squats gave me power, and such a high level of stability at 220 lbs that 545 felt like 315 on my back. Pistol squats are worth it, if you’re able to do weighted pistol squats, they’re worth it as well. You’ll hack squat more while doing a harder exercise as opposed to just hack squatting and not having athletic ability and mobility
But what about wall pistol squat or any assisted pistol squat? Like free handstand push ups are difficult as well because of balance, however wall handstand push ups are still good for hypertrophy.
Stability is strength. Lacking stability just means lacking strenght in some muscles. Its exactly why pistol squats are great. Leg has many muscles. But if you go to squat rack to only train your quads ylu are creating muscular imbalance with some muscles overdeveloped whilst others underdeveloped.
As a martial artist, I'm looking for balance, stability and strength though. I'm not looking for hypertrophy and muscle mass. Pistol squats are much better for that than a big ole bulk leg that I can barely stand on.
In climbing pistol squats are KING. They have their place. there's NO PROBLEM with pistol squats. you can add weight and balancing with additional weight is completely attainable. Pistol squat for mobility and balance and strength through range
Maybe because I didn't do a ton of progression work on these but I don't know how people do them it feels like my knee is going to explode when I try to go down. And that's when I was in really good shape and could do tons of one-legged step ups and squats/ lunges. I think I heard somewhere one-legged movements are not even ideal and that efficacious because you can just get as much work done with both legs and then you're not getting hip displacement.
Try doing a pistol squat on an upside-down Bosu ball; the goal IS strength-with-balance! Not just one or the other. Even partial one-legged squats like this are helpful for technical trail runs on uneven surfaces. Function.
Pistol squat is a combination of strength, stability, flexibility and mobility all things that a athlete possess. Traditional machine training is going to put glamor muscle and strength and that's it.
The other problem with pistol squats is that they can lead to serious injury unless executed with perfect form. And because they are demanding, few people can maintain perfect form...
Im at that point where pistol squats are to easy. I can do em with 30kg extra, but i have no weights at home nor a gym membership. Sissy squats also got extremely easy for me, as well as calve raises (including single leg), so hamstring is the only muscle i can effectively build with body weight
I mean... yes, but healthwise it is a very good idea to train that balance and it is a good idea to walk over uneven ground, swim once in a while, stuff like that to train all those little muscles, that might not be visible, but often lead to pain if neglected.
Stability *is* strength tho :^) if you're not stable you're not truly strong you just have a couple of specific muscles that are well developed but a bunch of atrophic ones Besides the point of calisthenics is not hypertrophy, it's real usable strength
Which is why you should work on skills with the focus and energy they deserve, not try to cram all attributes into a single movement that develops everything poorly.
You can try smith machine pistol squats. No need for stabilization as the machine provides it and you can safely go to failure. I do them and my quads end up fried.
True, I can do about 8-10 pistol squats per leg but every time I’ve tried to actually incorporate it in my training I hurt my knees somehow because I’m too unstable
You are an authority; however, I am not so sure about the machine hack squat. I guess it depends on your goal. If athleticism and injury prevention are objectives, I feel some stability challenge is not such a bad thing. My inability to perform a pistol, points out the many range of motion problems I possess.
I actually can do pistol squats but only with a plate under my heel. I can’t do Asian squat either, my ankles just can’t bend that much. When I was playing volleyball it is crucial for players to strengthen their ankles to prevent injuries so I did, but is there an effective way I can have my ankles become flexible?
If you are having difficulty in balancing the body while soing pistol squats. Then isn't it why you are training? To imrove balance with strength right?
The pistol squat is a cool skill, but a poor training method. Ive asked several moderate level ballet dancers to try one and they can all pull it off with ease depsite never having heard of the movement. The way i finally got a pistol was to stop training pistol regressions and just barbell squat and stretch a lot.
My right knee gets dislocated after doing few reps of pistol squats, since it is required to go deep during perfomance of this exercise...How to continue doing pistol squats under such circumstance?
Anybody ever tried sissy squats on a hack machine? They definitely workaround the balancing limitation of that movement. You’ve just got to be careful and progress up to it safely first with regular sissy squats, unless you want to just dive in and rupture a tendon 🤷🏻♂️ like I did with pelican curls
Balancing on pistol squats becomes easier when you do it with weights. It's easier for me to pistol squat with 24 kg in one hand rather than weight free
I can safely do 3x6 reps of pistol squats on each leg. Did shrimp squats for a long time and then -boom - one day I found out I could do pistols. I don't have machines at my disposal, sadly. I do body weight movements in slow motion, Bulgarian split squats with weights and front + back squats in rotation. Still not with a lot of weight because I'm working out alone at home, but it's enough for me.
Just hold on something with both hands and you good, a bar in front of you like smith machine or a door pull up bar, put a weighted vest on and that's it
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In my view, pistol squats are the goal; the movement you want to achieve. They aren’t a training method to get leg hypertrophy. They are the thing you train for, not the thing you use to train for other things.
It’s like any other gymnast skill you don’t use the planche to get jacked shoulders. You want jacked shoulders so you can do the planche.
I agree 100%. Pistol squat is already an advanced movement that requires a fair bit of strength and balance to achieve. I used to be able to do them but not anymore, even though my 1 RM squat for example is higher. Not sure why.
Same. The pistol squat is a huge goal for me. That's not to say I'll stop developing once I get to it, but I'll be pretty happy with myself once I reach it
They are also great for training balance under shifting load. I used to do 3 sets of 20, barefoot on a mini-trampoline as part of off season snowboard training. They made a noticeable difference from season to season (though not nearly as much as riding a unicycle!).
@@geoffreylevens9045bro that's actually pretty cool
What? I could do a pistol squat after a week of training bro how is that a goal lmao
Yeah, ill let you know when pistol squats get too easy!🤣
😅
Like never for me!😢
@keithdavis8461 it's not that hard. Try to do them elevated, f.e. standing on a chair, so your not working leg will be not in front of you but more below. Also you can decrease range of the motion to make it easier.
I know you're joking, but seriiusly even if you actually find them difficult, his point stands. If your goal is greater balance and mobility, pistol squats are a great exercise. They're also great for joint health. If your goal is muscular hypertrophy, however, you're better off squatting heavy.
@nickzardiashvili624 I think they are not best for hypertrophy, but still are good enough.
You can do their assisted version, for example with rings, or wall assisted (like you would do wall handstand pushups) to eliminate balance factor, and to not keep your not working leg straight to eliminate mobility factor.
They are good for home workout when you don't have access to heavy weights and Squat rack. Also it is easier to overload them, since + 20 kg weight vest to Pistol Squat is like +40 kg for both legs.
But I still would recommend to start from not assisted one's to gain some basic balance.
so why aren’t we training for stability&balance?
why don’t we want to be more mobile and flexible ? that’s real strength
why be muscular, but stiff and fragile?
there are better exercises for mobility and flexibility like dynamic stretches, and resistance band movements. Training with lifts that are unstable are only going to make you more sustainable to injury
@@insertname8811 yea but why not take them on your usual weightlifting?
preach brother!
Pistol squat - Shrimp squat - Sissy squat - Reverse nordic curl - Dragon squat - One leg sissy squat _(as far as I know, nobody has done a full free one leg sissy squat, so here's your challenge)_ .
Yeah, there's a LOT of leg exercises in calisthenics, and I only wrote the harder ones. Plus, with reverse nordics, and other squat variations, balance isn't an obstacle and you can easily add weights.
How do you add weights on reverse Nordics? I already almost fall over.
Theres a few videos that I'll link, I'm trying to get all those skills in leg calisthenics
ruclips.net/video/AIpsvNAT834/видео.htmlsi=JPPUVPMp7p2XQB_P
ruclips.net/video/5293WLDg_nk/видео.htmlsi=xA0Vv1BcPfRILNa7
@@JasonAizatoZemeckis I think RUclips tends to not show comments with links unless the uploader approves them specifically.
All of those require tremendous balance. You’re just silly
So that means, even if You will train hella strong leg, You will be very easy target to overthrown compare to someone who train pistol squat. Balance is everything!
This guy gets it
People are confused and brainwashed about exercise, sadly. This kind of approach seems more for body building, not fitness and health.
Naw, put two people in a wrestling match. One can do insane hack reps and weights - one can do insane numbers of pistols. Assuming equal levels of skill, I know who's gonna be on their ass
Honestly I feel like stability being the limiting factor is a good thing, so many people focus on training strength, that they don't realise that the uses of that strength are limited by their lack of stability and flexibility. Strength is awesome, but it's useless in the real world if you don't give your body the flexibility and stability to make full use of that strength, moving freely and safely all at once. That said, I understand everyone has their own goals, and to each their own.
I know right?thats why i prefer calisthenics exersises because they don't target only one muscle , they target 3 or 5 ,plus challenge your mobility and balance. All at once!
@@ioannaa0 very well said. I am experiencing the best gains of my life, am working out the most frequently I ever have, and my body is injury free. Calisthenics are the best form of resistance training!
Stability is strength. Lack of stability just means lack of strength in some muscles. Some people spend their days at gym only training quads and growing muscular imbalance of course they don't have stability - all their leg muscles are weak except for quads.
@@sk-sm9sh I agree with you, a lack of strength in some muscle groups is definitely a part of what causes instability, but I also feel like stability is at least partially muscle control too. Like a hack squat still trains the legs. But the barbell squat teaches the muscles how to coordinate to safely achieve balance under a load. If every muscle was just activating at full force you'd fall on your face. The problem with the hack squat is exactly that, you're just pushing heavy weight at full force. There's no real control or refinement to it, and even if there was, it's not teaching you how to safely carry a load, because you're basically laying down on a machine pushing with your legs. It's quite literally designed for you to ignore stability limitations and focus solely on loading as much weight as possible to build muscle, this is completely fine, but most people don't really understand the differences between using machines and working with free weights, and that's what needs to change. Once again I completely agree with you but hopefully I gave a good explanation of my perspective too.
I was abroad for 10 weeks and only did pistol squats. I worked up to doing 7x7 alternating between legs without pause. When I went back to back squats, I felt increased explosive sttength out of the bottom. Strength is strength. I think pistol squats are a great exercise, especially for high volume
I think you need to train balance to failure safely as well though if you dnt want to limit your muscular power
So I'd say I disagree with them being a short term option. I think they are a long term necessity, with progressive overload in the form of harder balancing forms
Variability and instability are rarely a bad thing in training. The more variability, the better a movement can be adapted to actual life.
And don't we actually train for transfer? So we can live better, easier, healthier? Instead of bulking more and more only for aesthetics while ignoring quality of life
Well said
Excellent information! That actually clears up a few things, like the value of hack squats. I find that hack squats with a weight that doesn't compromise form (or blood pressure), allowing for 15+ repetitions, is highly effective.
The Yusuke Urameshi squat
I feel the ability to do Pistols is a great demonstration of Strength and difficult for some as a method to obtain it. Which surprised me that Daniel uses Pistols right off the bat in his Limitless Legs Program.
Its hard for him to relate to the normie😅
Yes. You are training balance and coordination above muscular hypertrophy. I fail to see the issue.
Because there are many ways to train balance and coordination, while there are fewer ways to train strength and hypertrophy. Balance and coordination are much more domain specific - an ice skater and a motorcyclist and a basketball player all need balance and coordination, but in very different ways. Having a strong bilateral (or stable unilateral) squat will generalize across more domains of activity than being able to do lots of pistol squats. Also critically, hacks and barbell squats load the legs and the torso, while pistols do not load the torso any more significantly than an unloaded bilateral squat. If you're really so desperate to compromise your strength training by layering balance on top of it, just hang your plates from bands
For me pistol squat is the only exercise that make me escape the chicken leg realm. And yes, the balancing problem but only when I start adding weights over 30kg and not because of heavy added load but the sheer size of the weight affecting body balance.
THE CHICKEN LEG REALM 😂😂😂 must be hellish beign surrounded by chicken legs
Depends on the goal. Usability or sheer size? Balance is functional, size is aesthetic.
Beauty is the symbol of the morally good.
I got lower back spasms doing pistol squats with incorrect form. Never slouch your back while performing this movement. Always keep it upright like he's showing here. Hope no one goes through months of physio therapy sessions like i did. Peace.
You sholda try mabu, to gongu to pubu if pistol squat wrecking you.
@@KenjiDev i had no idea what those movements are. Turned out its a stance positions. By the way, my back got immensely better after doing full range slow regular squats. I'll definitely add this to my routine. Thanks alot man.
@@nonexistent944 IT is horse stance and two more movments for legs from kung-fu. Cheers!
@@KenjiDev can you share any link to videos of showing those movements? It would be helpful.
@@nonexistent944 there you go, complite training for one week:
ruclips.net/p/PL2OhuBUEg0TTENwOOcPEGGL_nuhygWvr1&si=0Zd6AlUe53YuGP6E
I knew he was for real the moment I saw Eugene Teo training him in that clip 😂
mario said free weights are better than machines 🔥
Balance is important just as strength is.
I realized that really quick when I started skateboarding 😅
When you do from 0-5: it's for strength, 5-20: muscle growth, above that, it's endurance and stamina training
Mario gonna have a beef with him soon💀
Who cares about that clown?
😂😂😂😂
Yeah 💀
The problem I find is the over-emphasis of strength over various other factors such as flexibility, stability and being able to move well.
Sure, getting stronger is a good thing, but your overall flexibility is just as important later on in life.
Stability is strength. Lack of stability just means some muscles are weak and not strong enough.
Simple with one hand hold on to something for balance and the other hand hold on to a weight
I just noticed how for pistol squats balance is communicated as down point while for ring dips, instability is communicated favorably.
That being said pistol squats seem like one-arm pushups in that they are hard versions of basic exercises and progressive load is more difficult due to instability.
The dofference is that on dips it isn't balance, is a lack of development in some stabiliser muscles, that you can improve with rings. In pistol squats, it's actually balance and not stability that lacks
Don't you need to be stable in order to be balanced?
@@78supergood well in a sense, but in a pistol squat it's more your core and maybe ankle that need to be stable (as to keep your mass centered and stuff), and it's already their function and they do it all the time, your leg doesn't gain much by that instability, but with the rings its another thing I feel like, but idk I might be just wrong,
@@FranciscoJose-cu1jj Ah I see. So different muscles may be more responsible for stability for pistol squats unlike rings which use the same muscles for strength and stability.
One has just enough instability to be useful for muscle growth while the other one doesn't.
You should talk about the superiority of sprinting for developing lower body
Any athlete needs to learn and maintain the ability to do the pistol squat even if you progress better with the barbell, the hack is more useful for bodybuilders but has little transfer to other movements
Instability forces you to train balance and balance is key for many athletic movements , Football , Martial Arts , and can prevent injuries placing your foot on an unstable surface in a bad angle .
Lol: 'a masochistic désire for high rep training'. Gave me pause 🤔
Totally agree.
To improve the series of pistol squats I lightly grab another surface for support, with one or two fingers maximum, to make sure I don't cheat and lift my weight with my arm.
I know I'm taking away an important part of the exercise, such as the work of the stabilizer muscles, but it's better to feel the quadriceps.
thats what i did during lockdown wen the gyms were closed; i lightly grabbed something with one hand couple fingers and eventually worked upto 40lbs vest and 50lbs db on the other hand and my squats/etc acutally went up wen the gyms reopened
@@funniejooniejoun3913 That's great bro
The instabuility is what gets trained, since it is caused by underdeveloped small muscules, which will get developed through that kind of exercise, albeit starting from something easier first
The main goal of pistol squats is to develop your balance. How well you can balance as you age is one measurement of health and longevity.
Oh then I'll be dead and buried at 25 I guess because I'm 18 and can't walk in a straight line lol
Imo, adding weights make the balancing EASIER. When you have a dumbbell in each hand, it makes it a lot easier to stabilize your weight.
Of course, you will reach a point where the dumbbells get so heavy that it becomes hard to balance again, but at that point you have already become freakishly strong.
ohhhh that on the knees good morning looks great to do while my achilles is bothering me
Also flexibility, not just balance. Pistol squat for life! You require an already strong core (abs and lower back) also.
Add weight or simply as a warm up if you are advamced.
That's the point, this exercise is done to strengthen stabilizing muscles.
It depends on your goal. I like training strength and balance. However, I think pistol squats are more representative of those skills than a vehicle to get you across the finish line.
I used to powerlift. Squatted 505 before pistol squats. Started doing weighted pistol squats, without touching a bar in 6 months, squatted 545 lbs while being 20 lbs lighter. It’s not ideal for high reps/ hypertrophy I’ll give you that, but explosive plyometric training with weighted pistol squats gave me power, and such a high level of stability at 220 lbs that 545 felt like 315 on my back. Pistol squats are worth it, if you’re able to do weighted pistol squats, they’re worth it as well. You’ll hack squat more while doing a harder exercise as opposed to just hack squatting and not having athletic ability and mobility
But what about wall pistol squat or any assisted pistol squat? Like free handstand push ups are difficult as well because of balance, however wall handstand push ups are still good for hypertrophy.
Cycling and walking are boss also 👌
17:42 You don’t need to go into classics to test decks. You can use the 1 v 1 mode in the events tab.
Put your back to the wall and try to pistol squat. That's a different challenge for your quads.
This is true for every calisthenics exercise, eventually
For legs, I like hiking up mountains with a 50 lb backpack
Not time effective.
Stability is strength. Lacking stability just means lacking strenght in some muscles. Its exactly why pistol squats are great. Leg has many muscles. But if you go to squat rack to only train your quads ylu are creating muscular imbalance with some muscles overdeveloped whilst others underdeveloped.
As a martial artist, I'm looking for balance, stability and strength though. I'm not looking for hypertrophy and muscle mass. Pistol squats are much better for that than a big ole bulk leg that I can barely stand on.
That's why bulgarians are the superior squat.
In climbing pistol squats are KING. They have their place. there's NO PROBLEM with pistol squats. you can add weight and balancing with additional weight is completely attainable. Pistol squat for mobility and balance and strength through range
Awesome video explaining good, bad and options to be successful
Is that Terrence Teo in the background? Nice to see him appreciating your hack squat effort!
Bro is the only calstinic athlete who trains legs on the internet respect 🙏
Maybe because I didn't do a ton of progression work on these but I don't know how people do them it feels like my knee is going to explode when I try to go down. And that's when I was in really good shape and could do tons of one-legged step ups and squats/ lunges. I think I heard somewhere one-legged movements are not even ideal and that efficacious because you can just get as much work done with both legs and then you're not getting hip displacement.
What about jumping exercises? Sprinting builds muscles in the legs as well
Try doing a pistol squat on an upside-down Bosu ball; the goal IS strength-with-balance! Not just one or the other. Even partial one-legged squats like this are helpful for technical trail runs on uneven surfaces.
Function.
Calisthenic leg day is entirely possible with a bicycle. 🙌🏽
........ wouldn't that be a machine?
@@farstrider79 I’m not sure it counts, you’re moving degrees of your body weight, not adding a considerable amount more.
Problem is you aren’t doing it plyometrically. If you keep with only body weight, plyometric is necessary to continue development.
Pistol squat is a combination of strength, stability, flexibility and mobility all things that a athlete possess. Traditional machine training is going to put glamor muscle and strength and that's it.
Use a dumbbell for stability
I train movements not muscles. Hack squat strength doesn't translate outside the gym but barbell and pistol squats do.
my problem is not balance but ankle flexibility, thats why i put my ankle in some support to do them inclined
The other problem with pistol squats is that they can lead to serious injury unless executed with perfect form. And because they are demanding, few people can maintain perfect form...
please calf injury videos
I stopped pistol squats few months ago cuz i hate the stability factor I now do Bulgarian split squats and squats with 30 kg
I love that shit man the balancing part is the easy part and the fun part but my problem is doing in general lmfao, lol. lmfao, lol.
Im at that point where pistol squats are to easy. I can do em with 30kg extra, but i have no weights at home nor a gym membership. Sissy squats also got extremely easy for me, as well as calve raises (including single leg), so hamstring is the only muscle i can effectively build with body weight
I honestly don't think people do pistol squat for hypertrophy. I was only doing it to train my balance. That's it.
you can still achieve a lot from pistol squats if you do them weighted and assisted
I mean... yes, but healthwise it is a very good idea to train that balance and it is a good idea to walk over uneven ground, swim once in a while, stuff like that to train all those little muscles, that might not be visible, but often lead to pain if neglected.
Legend 💚
Stability *is* strength tho :^) if you're not stable you're not truly strong you just have a couple of specific muscles that are well developed but a bunch of atrophic ones
Besides the point of calisthenics is not hypertrophy, it's real usable strength
If only my mobility allowed me to get that low
"force is meaningless without skill" lee sin
Which is why you should work on skills with the focus and energy they deserve, not try to cram all attributes into a single movement that develops everything poorly.
You can try smith machine pistol squats. No need for stabilization as the machine provides it and you can safely go to failure. I do them and my quads end up fried.
True, I can do about 8-10 pistol squats per leg but every time I’ve tried to actually incorporate it in my training I hurt my knees somehow because I’m too unstable
I did piston squat carrying a 20kg child
I like the hack squat machine best.
You are an authority; however, I am not so sure about the machine hack squat. I guess it depends on your goal. If athleticism and injury prevention are objectives, I feel some stability challenge is not such a bad thing. My inability to perform a pistol, points out the many range of motion problems I possess.
Plyometrics work perfectly well for my legs
No variation of a squat will ever beat a backloaded barbell squat
I actually can do pistol squats but only with a plate under my heel. I can’t do Asian squat either, my ankles just can’t bend that much. When I was playing volleyball it is crucial for players to strengthen their ankles to prevent injuries so I did, but is there an effective way I can have my ankles become flexible?
If you are having difficulty in balancing the body while soing pistol squats.
Then isn't it why you are training? To imrove balance with strength right?
But come on one leg looks cool and anime style
Just grab on to something like stairs or a table while doing them
Fantastic you look great I love seeing how your body look working out it incredible you the Man😊❤
Pistol squats are nice for me with my broken Tibia to train my balance at least.
The pistol squat is a cool skill, but a poor training method. Ive asked several moderate level ballet dancers to try one and they can all pull it off with ease depsite never having heard of the movement. The way i finally got a pistol was to stop training pistol regressions and just barbell squat and stretch a lot.
My right knee gets dislocated after doing few reps of pistol squats, since it is required to go deep during perfomance of this exercise...How to continue doing pistol squats under such circumstance?
Relocate it after each rep to complete your set
Anybody ever tried sissy squats on a hack machine?
They definitely workaround the balancing limitation of that movement.
You’ve just got to be careful and progress up to it safely first with regular sissy squats, unless you want to just dive in and rupture a tendon 🤷🏻♂️ like I did with pelican curls
Hack squats are an inefficient movement and overly stress the knees. You’re better off using a smith machine. Ask Mike mentzer
I live in the country and weights are expensivo so it is weighted pistol squats for me
Balancing on pistol squats becomes easier when you do it with weights. It's easier for me to pistol squat with 24 kg in one hand rather than weight free
Using machines for squats isn't the same as bar or bodyweight, with actually using stablizers for functionality
Balance is a VERY important aspect of fitness? Who would want strength without good balance?
“Masochistic Desire”
*Bulgarian Split-Squats have entered the chat*
I can safely do 3x6 reps of pistol squats on each leg. Did shrimp squats for a long time and then -boom - one day I found out I could do pistols.
I don't have machines at my disposal, sadly. I do body weight movements in slow motion, Bulgarian split squats with weights and front + back squats in rotation. Still not with a lot of weight because I'm working out alone at home, but it's enough for me.
How to grow calfs
I prefer horse stance, weighted pistol squats, and road work for training legs
Actually, pistols are better for longevity. You are just looking for a look.
Just hold on something with both hands and you good, a bar in front of you like smith machine or a door pull up bar, put a weighted vest on and that's it
Alex leonidas said it best. Barbell squats are weighted calisthenics.