ID what’s holding you back. Do the reps. Revel in you mastery.

you’re doing it wrong

The Pistol. A goat for many of our group class athletes.

At Madlab, we have a number of methods to regress this movement in a workout for those unable to do a one legged squat.

The trouble is, many of our clients are content to stay at their level of scaling, and are slow to progress towards a big boy/girl pistol.

I think we can do better.

Here is a short trouble shooting guide. I hope you find some of these ideas useful.

Step One – Identify what is holding you back.

There are a few potential barriers that need to be cleared to make a masterful pistol squat a reality:

A. Range of motion restriction

When attempting a full range one legged squat (hamstring touches calf), the athlete’s ankle ROM is often (not always) the main limitation.

Here is good assessment video from Greg Robins

Its tough to standardize an assessment like this because everyone has different lever lengths. But we’re shooting for between 3-5″.

Consider 5″ a pass for Daddy LongLegs, and 4″ a pass for Weiner Dogs.

If you find a Range of Motion limitation try some of the following drills, and then retest.

Drill 1: Pulsing, toes up, knee bent from Kevin Neeld

Note how the athlete moves his knee toward midline, straight forward and then away from midline.

Drill 2: Active Dorsiflextion Holds

Drill 3: Drunken Goblet Squat (use the link if video doesn’t play).

ERR/weighted CARs – ankle mortise articulation #FRC #mobility #training

A video posted by Dr. Andreo Spina (@drandreospina) on Nov 22, 2013 at 10:23am PST

B. Lack of balance

An athlete’s balance in the pistol squat also has a range of motion element. If you can’t organize yourself so that half your bodyweight is in front of your base of support while the other half is behind, you’re going to fall over. The same can be said for weight shifted left vs right.

Part 1- A bottom up approach to balance.

Intrinsic foot strength is needed to form a strong and dynamic base of support. This strength is needed to quickly and effectively adjust to accommodate a constantly shifting centre of mass.

Check out this FRC video:

Its hard to really appreciate how hard this stuff is until you try it.

Part 2- A top down approach to balance.

The vestibular system is a sensory network that provides the lion’s share of information about your body’s movement and orientation in space to your brain. If this system is compromised, even a little bit, balance control will certainly be effected.

The good news is, like most other things the vestibular system can be trained.

The bad news is, effectively training the vestibular system is a little more involved than I’m prepared to go over here, but if you’re looking for more info, pull me aside and ask.

C. Inadequate lower body strength

I’m sure this is no surprise to any of you. Pistols require a good deal of strength to overcome gravity from a disadvantaged lower-body lever position (ass to the grass).

The Pausing Beaupre Hold is a great drill to strengthen this relatively weak position.

Step Two – Get your reps in

Apply enough stimulus to coax adaptation and super-compensation.

Do the work you need to progress towards your goal when you’re focused and unhurried.

And then scale what you need scale to get through the workout.

Add the appropriate drills to your warm up or strength session. Add them them into your cool down.  Do them at home during commercial breaks, in line at the bank…just do them.

Collect a butload of quality reps, its the only way to move forward.

Step Three – Revel in your pistol mastery.

Beautiful women will instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano.

Andy

Friday’s Workout:

Warm Up:

20 Glute march

25/25 Halos

10/10 Table tops

10/10 Drunken Goblet Squat (see video/link above)

10 Cuban press

(:15) Snatch – 6 sets of 2 (85-90% of 1rm)

(:45) Workout: Pistol/Muscle Up Amrap Medley

14 min amrap

8/8 pistols

3 muscle ups

Muscle up  Progression:

1 Muscle up = 1 C2B pull up/1 dip or push up/1 ghsu or v snap

Optional Finisher: 30 strict toes to bar

Saturday’s Workout:

Warm Up: Coach’s choice then…

10 minute Dead Bug (Yeah!)

(:25) Groove Workout movements

(:40) The Bear

5 Deadlift

5 Hang power clean

5 Thruster

-Choose barbell or dumbells

-Score is what weight you finished all 20 rounds

-There are separate leaderboards for barbells and dumbells

-NO DROPPING DUMBELLS!!

Optional Finisher: Eazy 1000m row then 15 minutes on roller – cervical spine to lumbar / bottom of lats to elbow / quads and hip flexor/ it bands / glutes majors and meds

Have a great weekend!

HOS