Bored of Squats? Try Pistol Squats instead

                    

Research from the Allied Dunbar national fitness survey showed that 30% of men and 50% of women aged 65-74 did not have enough strength in their dominant leg to exert a force required to lift 50% of their bodyweight. When trying to get up from a chair for example, they had to use their arms and push down on the chair.

"Squats will wreck your knees" is something I hear a lot but it's like this. If you don't do something the right way it's no good and can be harmful but if you follow the rules, this is one of the best exercises. You don't need a squat rack, barbell, spotter or anything so if you haven't got access to a gym, this is it right here.

Technique for squatting

There are three simple but very important rules you need to follow.

1. Keep weight on the heels, not the toes.

See, most people here tend to put all their weight on their toes, and the heel is lifted off the ground. The correct way is to keep your heels planted firmly on the ground, no lifting allowed. This will take the stress of the knees.

2. Make sure the knees don't go over the line of the toes. For a lot of people, once their thighs go past parallel with the ground, their knees go over. The trick is to bend at the hip flexors (muscles on top of the thighs) rather than the knees. You might have tight hip flexors in which case you need to get that fixed with some hip flexor stretching before you start doing squats. Once you've learned how to bend at the hip flexors, you should be able to go past parallel without the knees going over the line of the toes.

3. Make sure the feet and knees are always facing the same direction. I followed previous two rules but noticed that I was still experiencing a sharp pain in the knees. I noticed that this only happened whenever I tried to spread the knees outwards, in which case the feet would be facing forwards while the knees would be going outwards. Then someone told me to just keep the knees and feet facing the same direction. Once I started doing this there was no more pain.

Now that the boring stuff is out the way, let's see how you can make this more interesting. You can of course add weight by either holding dumbbells or a barbell, but you can also add pauses during the movement, which makes it much harder. Try it. Then there are one leg squats. Personally, I do regular bodyweight squats first thing in the morning just to keep the joints healthy. To make the legs stronger I prefer one leg squats.

One legged squats or Pistols

The one leg squat or pistol as the Russians like to call it is one of my favourite exercises. Check out YouTube to see a demo. I like the convenience. If you're travelling somewhere and can't use a gym this is great. If you're at the office and you don't feel like going to a gym to work your legs after a hard day just do this exercise while at work. Obviously this will make your legs stronger as a lot of strength is required to lift your whole body off the floor on one leg but it'll also improve your balance and coordination. If you practice this regularly do you think you'll need assistance when trying to lift yourself out of a chair when you're over 60 years old? Hell no you won't.

What it's done for me

My legs are now a lot stronger. The strength has carried over into other exercises such as the leg press, even though I never do that but just test it once in a while

My front kick has benefited a lot since I started doing pistols. Others have told me that it's helped with their sprinting and jumping.

More advanced

When pistols get too easy but you want to build more strength in your legs, you can do the same thing as you do with regular squats. Add pauses or add weight. You can hold dumbbells, kettlebells, buckets of water or whatever. Oh, the same safety rules apply (do not lift heels up, keep knees and feet in same direction and don't let knee go over the toe).

How to train

The best way to train for this is to start off doing the exercise off a box or chair or something. Maybe every time you get up from a chair you could do it on one leg. Just remember to stay on your heels, keep your shin as straight as possible, keep your feet and knees in the same direction and make sure your knee does not go over your toes. As you get better, increase the depth and use a lower box or chair, or maybe a step. You can also practice without the help of any of these and just go as far down as you can and then push back up. To help keep balance you can hold your arms out in front of you. The quickest way to be able to do this exercise, and the way I did it is to use the "grease the groove" method, which you can learn more about with a quick Google search.

Not for everyone

I've been doing this exercise for about a year and have had no problems once I corrected my technique (keeping knees and feet in same direction). You don't have to make that same mistake, practice perfect technique from the start. Still, some people may have underlying medical problems and the exercise may not be for everyone. If you experience any problems such as back pain or anything else go see your doc and get the all clear for you to do this first.

Note: Always consult your doctor before starting any kind of exercise programme. Try the exercises in this article at your own risk.

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