I’m going to break down why we teach Pistol Squats, The joint actions and muscles involved, and common mistakes. If you haven’t already, watch the latest video on our instructor instagram account, especially if you’re more of a visual learner like me! 🙂

WHY WE TEACH PISTOL SQUATS

• Pistol squats build up your quad strength and glute strength, especially in the active lifting phase
• Help increase Ankle and Hip mobility
• Improves balance and coordination
• Great for body awareness and revealing weak points in your body (such as weak glutes, poor ankle mobility, and tight hamstrings)

JOINT ACTIONS AND MUSCLES INVOLVED

Lowering (passive) phase:

• Knee Flexion – Hamstrings
• Hip Flexion – Psoas, Quads
• Dorsiflexion – Ankle (dorsi)flexors 

Lifting (active) phase: mainly focusing on these**

• Knee Extension – Quads
• Hip Extension – Glutes
• Plantar Flexion – Ankle (plantar)flexors

COMMON MISTAKES

• Clients will sit too far back on their heels or pull back on the TRX straps, which can make it more difficult to balance and/or force you to have to round your back excessively. See photo:
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• A pistol squat should be more or less a pure up-and-down movement. In order to do this, your hips must move back slightly at first, but as you get lower down you’ll need to bring them forward again. Your hamstrings should be pressed into your calf in the bottom position. See photos, (full range and modified versions:)
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• For a lot of people, the hardest part of the pistol squat is initiating the upward ascent from the bottom position and will resort to “bouncing” in and out of it. Instead they should work smaller and higher until they build up their strength.
• Clients with weak glutes or poor coordination will cave their knees inward towards the inside of their standing foot. The goal should be to align their knees between the first two toes.

USEFUL TALKING POINTS ONCE YOU GET MOVING

• “align your knees with your second toe as you lower down”
• “press firmly into the ground as you begin the lift”
• “single leg postures greatly improve our balance”
• “This should feel like an up-and-down movement, try not to pull back on the straps as you lower”

As a prerequisite, I would strongly recommend getting comfortable with the two-legged modified version with the heel popped so you can gain the coordination and mobility to perform the single-leg version.