THE ULTIMATE HIP, KNEE AND ANKLE GUIDE FOR ONE LEGGED SQUATS

By Sean Schniederjan, RKC

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WARNING: This eBook is for your personal use only. You may NOT Give Away, Share Or Resell This Intellectual Property In Any Way

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You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Disclaimer
The author and publisher of this Ebook and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this Ebook. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this Ebook. The information contained in this Ebook is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in this Ebook, you are taking full responsibility for your actions. Always consult your physician before physical exercise.

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This book is dedicated to my wife Anne, my daughter Lucy, and my friend Karen. Couldnt have done this without your generous help and support. Also to three teachers who passed on some of the information in this book: Pavel Tsatsouline, Dr. Mark Cheng, and Mark Reifkind. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

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Introduction: The One Legged Squat: Achieving Optimal Hip, Knee And Ankle Function Discovering Mobility The Close Stance Squat Hamstrings Abs Hip Stability Rotators and Extensors Front/Back Rooting Imbalance=Glute or Quad Dominance Open Hip Flexors, Cure Glute Amnesia, and Root Stronger with Your Heel

Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 11 Page 13 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17

Page 18 Front/Back Imbalances and Knee Pain Strengthening Your Hip Rotators If Your Toes Point Out Creating S P A C E in your hips Rocking Exercise "Pure Hip Movement" Fixing Your Individual Issues (Summary) Strengthening and Programming to Take Your One Legged Squats and General Leg Strength to a New Level The Pure Bodyweight Method Program The Weighted/Bodyweight Squat Hybrid Program Kettlebell Double Front Squat The Front Squat/Pistol Conversion Guide Page 19 Page 21 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26

Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31

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The Barbell Zercher Squat

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INTRODUCTION: THE ONE LEGGED SQUAT: ACHIEVING OPTIMAL HIP, KNEE, AND ANKLE FUNCTION
I wanted to write this book before I knew what would be written. A painful muscle imbalance prevented me from performing one legged squats with my left leg for 1 year and 3 months. Every day during that time I searched for the answer to this annoying phenomenon in my left hip. Out of the struggle came awareness that the one legged squat is the ultimate indicator of a solidly functioning hip, knee, and ankle. A two legged squat could still be performed by masking the imbalance. The muscle imbalance allowed me to perform almost any exercise imaginable. I could run, jump, do two legged squats, deadlifts, etc. These were all exercises that could not prima facie expose dysfunction. The one legged squat identified the imbalance. No matter what I tried or how hard I willed it, the task could not be done. Engineers design bridges and buildings to withstand much higher loads than they will be required to uphold in their day to day use. They overload the structures to ensure function. The loading in a one-legged squat follows this reasonable tradition of engineering. The hip, knee and ankle are "overloaded." You will notice that once you are capable of one legged squatting, two legged squatting is easier, weighted squats are easier, and going up stairs is easier. With this constantly in mind, I searched for the solution to a well-functioning hip, knee, and ankle that was fully capable of handling the load of a one legged squat. I knew that full function would be restored the day I could shoot the pistol again with the left leg. The goal was simple and defined - getting there was the hard part. I didnt have a map and began my search in the wrong place. There were two huge distractions that pulled me away from the right places: flexibility and joint mobility. Both have their place and should be done from time to time, but the answer I sought was Strength. With the exception of hamstring flexibility work (which in this context is strengthening like pulling a slingshot further back to load the gluteus maximus), every fix in this book is a muscle strengthening exercise. Ironically, the one legged squat, an indicator of advanced hip and ankle mobility considered "beyond" what average people can or will accomplish (I don't agree with this) is achieved not through mobility work, but almost exclusively through strength work. The problem is that some of these strength exercises are small and subtle and some are big and obvious. The answer lies in discovering how both the obvious and the subtle

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work together to render the hip, knee, and ankle capable of an exercise where success relies solely on the ability of the three to function according to their natural roles.

DISCOVERING MOBILITY
Like pretty much everyone, I failed my initial attempt at the one legged squat. My journey to success began with Pavel Tsatsouline in his Naked Warrior book and in the practice of box pistols or simply getting out of a chair on one leg. After time, I strengthened my legs, created a groove and eventually managed a full one legged squat holding onto a kettlebell for counter-weight. However, the pure bodyweight version proved more difficult, and the full butt to heel pistol without counter-weight completely eluded me. What I really wanted was to be able to drop down on both legs without having to rely on a counterweight to compensate for my poor balance and coordination. A year or two went by, I got distracted with other things and the progress I had made in the pistol was gone. But as fate would have it, the shortcuts for doing one legged squats were revealed in a bodyweight workshop I produced with Pavel. During that workshop in 2009, my inability to do a close stance squat exposed my lack of ankle mobility. Working with Pavel one on one, I tried the pistol and did not make it more than of the way down before falling back. Pavel graciously said you are tired, but I was also weak, immobile and frustrated. I have a few pictures from that workshop which illustrate perfectly and naturally someone with mobility issues. We will use them to learn the pitfalls of performing a full bodyweight one-legged squat and how to overcome them.

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THE CLOSE STANCE SQUAT

A close stance squat is a squat where the feet are very close together or even touching. It takes more hip and ankle mobility than a squat with a wider stance and is a great progression to hitting a one legged squat. Perhaps more importantly, the close stance squat is a mobility screen which provides automatic feedback of good or bad hip and ankle mobility. You need to be able to perform a close stance squat to have the mobility to do a BW pistol.

In this picture from 2009, this is as far down as the author could go in a close stance squat. Immobile ankles prevented the knees from going further beyond the toes. Ankle dorsiflexion (range of ankle motion which brings toes closer to the shins) must be improved in order to perform a close stance squat or pistol.

Pictured to the right, the authors ankles still do not want to dorsiflex even when using a partner. If the author were to let go, he would roll backwards onto that nice green grass. This drill allows the hips to descend into the full squat without falling backward, but is not helping dorsiflexion.

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In this picture, the authors ankles have no problem with dorsiflexion. The knees are out over the toes, hence greater ankle dorsiflexion.

Why does holding a weight improve ankle mobility? Equilibrium is achieved because previously the weight was pulling from the heels and posterior - now it is balanced with the extra load in front. This is the reason that a lot of people can manage a one legged squat holding onto a weight, but will have poor balance, or fall over when they attempt a pure bodyweight squat. The key to getting comfortable in the close stance position is to fix ankle dorsiflexion and hip mobility. It is essentially a balancing act: you need to displace the load so that you take it away from the backside (i.e. heels and hips) and distribute it to the anterior chain starting at the balls of your feet up through your tibia, quads and hip flexors. Here is the fix or corrective that is typically taught. It is actually a strengthening exercise for muscles that usually get neglected: hip flexors (the muscles that flex your hips and are used to pull down into a squat) and tibialis anterior (the muscles around the shin that pull your ankle toward your shin, dorsiflexion).

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Strengthening your tibialis muscles will open a doorway to easier and more comfortable movement and over time make doing bodyweight pistols easy. To my knowledge, the only advantage to exercising the tibialis is to have enough good ankle mobility to perform a pistol. Achieving the ankle mobility necessary can be done with ZERO joint mobility training (i.e. ankle circles, passive ankle stretching work, etc.) which is a tremendous short cut. The partner drill for strengthening hip flexors and tibia is a pull for your legs which simulates pulling yourself into the bottom position of a squat. It is effective for better squatting by strengthening the muscles for the eccentric movement of the squat.

Here is the partner drill for strengthening hip flexors and tibia.

There are two ways to do this same strengthening drill without a partner. If you can access gravity boots, they will permanently improve your hip and ankle mobility more or less instantly. It is a solid investment for someone who really wants to do a BW pistol. I was completely unaware of this benefit when I purchased them. I just thought it would be cool to hang upside down. I started doing inverted squats and the ab exercises you might have seen.

A significant portion of bodyweight goes to the ankle flexors and the hip flexors. If your bodyweight is not over what the boots can handle, you can intensify the load on the hip and ankle flexors by unhooking one boot so that a significant portion of bodyweight is applied to only one leg. That is a LOT of resistance to strengthen the tibia and hip flexor.

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Then one day I randomly attempted a close stance squat. Mobility had improved so much that I felt very at ease in the bottom position. It took me a while to figure out that this sudden mobility was the result of the gravity boots. The gravity boots did the same thing as the partner drill, but 1) I didnt need a partner, 2) I could apply resistance for a greater amount of time, and 3) the resistance was greater than the partner drill since the load was my entire bodyweight minus the weight of my lower legs. My new found ankle mobility was a direct result of strengthening a neglected muscle, NOT mobility drills and passive ankle stretching. This unexpected revelation was like an early birthday present.

Although gravity boots make it easier to have increased load on the tibia for a longer period of time, resistance to the tibia and hip flexors can be applied by looping a weight around your foot. If you do not have a kettlebell, try putting your foot under an object that will not move and pull up. This drill will strengthen the anterior hip and ankle muscles without the use of gravity boots. Structural ankle issues You may have ankle mobility issues that are structural. In that case your mobility will improve but you will never get to full dorsiflexion. If this is the case, then do squats with your heel elevated slightly to compensate for the lack of mobility.

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HAMSTRINGS
A hip hinge stretches the hamstrings. Tight hamstrings inhibit superior hip mobility (your hip hinge) and pistols require superior hip mobility (a "superior" hip hinge).

To perform a hip hinge which properly loads the glutes and posterior chain, the hips must shoot out behind you (as opposed to down toward the ground as in a squat), and knees bend little or not at all. The more flexible your hamstrings, the further back your hinge can go. The tighter your hamstrings, the more inhibited your hip hinge. Hip hinge exercises like deadlifts and swings load the hamstrings and give them some degree of flexibility automatically. You will feel a stretch through proper hip hinge loading. For pistols however, this is not enough. A pistol demands an advanced hip hinge, or hips that can move back really far. This requires that the full muscle be stretched with targeted hamstring flexibility work. The accidental flexibility your hamstrings get from hinging exercises like deadlifts and swings will not do the job. Here you can get an idea of how the hips must hinge backwards. You can see that if the hamstrings are tight, the ability to shoot the hips back is hindered.

Hips back and knees forward

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Lets combine this lesson about the hips and hamstring flexibility with our above discussion about ankle dorsiflexion. We see that the pistol is a compromise movement it is one that demands a highly functional anterior chain (tibia, hip flexors, abs) and a highly functional posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes). By functional I mean both mobile and strong. Both chains must operate simultaneously at above average levels.

Stretching Your Hamstrings

This is a very effective way to overcome hamstring tightness and provides the advanced hip mobility needed for a bodyweight pistol.

Make sure that your back remains flat on the floor and your knees are extended or are very close to full extension. Use a band or belt and passively raise one leg as high as it will go before the knee starts to flex Hold it

Now using the resistance of the band or belt, push hard against it with your leg and tense your glute and hamstring as you push against the resistance. Do this for 3-5 seconds tensing your muscles hard. Now relax and slowly exhale your breathe as you use the belt to pull your leg further into stretch

Practice this until you have enough flexibility to pull your leg back so that your foot is around the level of your head Enjoy your deeper hip hinge. You will need it for one legged squats!

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ABS
In Naked Warrior, Pavel shows that your abs act as your strength amplifier and that you need to have your amplifier turned on when you do one legged squats. For a pistol beginner, this is especially true. To do a pistol, your abs must fire to stabilize your spine and initiate your ascent from the bottom position. You need to train your abs to be ready to fire when you are descending, and most importantly ascending out of the bottom position. I found out something very interesting about a training shift in law enforcement in recent years when I attended a local citizens police academy. Officer training is now almost exclusively scenario based where officers are trained in the most life like situations possible. The reason is obvious: if your training is as realistic as possible, then there will be fewer surprises when the real situation presents itself. The last thing you want is surprises that werent accounted for in your training. This is antithetical to being prepared. I found this to be true as well for ab training and pistols. If you train your abs to fire in a situation that is very similar to the scenario of being in the bottom of a pistol position, then when you are actually in the bottom of the pistol your abs will be comfortable and prepared to work. Since the bottom of a pistol is not the most natural position, the last thing you want is to be in this unnatural position and to try and remember how to fire your abs. Be prepared before you go in, but first a word about abdominal strength. The abs like anything else in nature are stronger and more durable than big things when shortened. An ant can fall off a tall building, a cat doesn't take the fall so well, a person breaks arms and legs, and a large animal fares worse. Small is strong and our muscles follow this universal pattern. A muscular contraction is a shortening of the muscle. Shortening the abs is known as the "hollow position." Gymnasts use it to accomplish their insane feats of bodyweight strength. You can practice the hollow position by following these steps: "Hiss" through your mouth with your tongue on the top of your mouth and send the pressure of your breathe down into your diaphragm At the same time "pull down" your abs so your "tailbone and belly button meet." Your upper back will be rounding (thoracic flexion).

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The shortening and high pressure down in the abs is extremely strong and can resist high amounts of force you can take a punch in this position. It also helps generate high amounts of force you can punch harder.

In the bottom of a one legged squat you need your abs, especially if you are just learning the movement. To this end, I recommend doing the ab shortening drills sitting down. Your hips are flexed in a similar manner as in the bottom of a squat so you can experience the sensation of pressurizing your abs in a way that emulates how they will need to be pressurized at the bottom of a pistol.

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HIP STABILITY
You cant do a one legged squat with knee pain. Im not a doctor, but I did experience sharp knee pain for a year and three months that prohibited me from doing a one legged squat on my left leg. It took me that long to figure out what was going on and to fix it. The solution was to stabilize the left hip, and the exercise to correct it turned out to be very simple. I'll get more into that below. Here is something strange yet interesting: although I had lost hip stability in the left hip, hip stability in my right hip and strength in my right leg was better than ever. Not only could I do a pistol on my right leg, it was completely effortless. The power in my right leg was incredible (imagine ascending from the bottom of a pistol without any exertion that is what it felt like). On the left hip it was the opposite: instability, weakness, and pain. The stability in my hips had shifted unilaterally. One side won the jackpot, the other was left with nothing. How does this happen? Obviously it is muscle imbalance. I believe mine came from a bad habit of sitting with my left leg perpetually out to the side and the hip internally rotated. For me, there were two things I had to address, each of which provided a layer of relief. The first allowed me to do normal activities without pain, but not the one legged squat. The second more or less helped restore full function to my hip and knee so that I could do rock bottom one legged squats once more. The two things are: 1) Strengthening Hip Abductors and Adductors (provided relief to knee pressure/pain that allowed me to go up and down stairs without pain). 2) Strengthening hip rotators and extenders to regain hip stability (this, for the most part, eliminated hip and knee instability and allowed me to pistol again on the left side).

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ROTATORS AND EXTENSORS

There is a definite relationship between the function of your hips and how your feet root into the ground.

Your foot roots into the ground in three places: When all three of these are connected to the ground, your hips are functioning properly and all is well. When you walk, your heel should make contact with the ground and then 2 and 3 more or less simultaneously. If there is a delay or only 2 or 3 makes contact with the ground, there is trouble.
1

Let us consider two possible imbalances in the foot and how these problems were the cause of imbalances in my hip: 1) Front/back imbalance. This is where either the heel is rooting far more than the balls in the front or the balls in the front are rooting more than the heel in the back. Sometimes one or the other will come up off the ground. In the diagram this would be 1 as opposed to 2 and 3 taken together or vice versa. 2) Side/Side imbalance. This is where one side of the foot is rooting more than the other. In the diagram this would be 1 and 2 taken together as opposed to 1 and 3 taken together. A functioning hip and knee will manifest itself in all three of these points rooting into the ground. One of the experts I spoke with advised me to push my left leg down into the ground as hard as I could to fix my right/left hip imbalance. The problem was that I was unable to do that because of my messed up hips. I could not root my left foot into the ground on all three points no matter how hard I tried. My hips needed special attention. The descriptions of the two rooting imbalances above should give a clue about how they relate to the hip, but lets take a closer look.

http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/rooting-to-increase-your-strength-power-and-balance/

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FRONT/BACK ROOTING IMBALANCE=GLUTE OR QUAD DOMINANCE

We have already implicitly discussed this imbalance at the beginning of the book. Heel Dominant Squatting Heel dominant rooting where the front of the feet wants to come off the ground is a sign of posterior dominate movement. A close stance squat will expose the posterior heel dominant imbalance. At a certain depth, you will simply fall backwards. All the rooting is in the heel. We discussed that strengthening the ankle dorsiflexing shin muscle and the hip flexors will give you the ability to pull your weight forward over the front of the foot. From the perspective of the foot, this gives balance to rooting the front and the back (from the diagram it means 1 works together with 2 and 3) of your feet. When you strengthen the anterior muscles of the leg you are able to root the front and back of the foot. Front/back balance is restored. Quad Dominant Squatting The opposite of this posterior dominance (weight going exclusively through the heels and falling backward in a close stance squat) is anterior, or quad dominance which manifests itself in raising the heels and falling forward in a close stance squat. If you are at the grocery store and see someone squatting down to pick something up from a bottom shelf, they will almost always lift their heels up. In our sedentary society which has lost its ability to use the glutes and root into the ground with the heels, the quad dominant squat is very common. After I regained my ability to do one legged squats again, I noticed that I was rooting hard with the front of my foot. This caused my pistols to be very slow, difficult and grindy. Most of your power comes from the heel/glute connection.

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OPEN HIP FLEXORS, CURE GLUTE AMNESIA, AND ROOT STRONGER WITH YOUR HEEL An easy way to overcome quad dominance is by turning back on your glutes and heels with an exercise called kick backs. Stand up and kick your leg back. Most people will not be able to kick back very far because of tight hip flexors. In fact, several people I have worked with cannot extend in this way at all. No worries. Do kick backs every day and your extension will improve.

Kick back with your glute and hold it. A few days of this will loosen the hip flexors and turn your glutes on. When you walk, kick back a little so your glutes fire. In a society that sits a lot, this movement is pure gold.

To disassociate your hips, lean forward with a tall spine and kick back even farther.

OK, now here is how to really root with your heel, fire the glutes and make your pistols (and any hip hinge exercise) MUCH stronger. Do a kick back and when your foot is kicked back extend your heel out. Create distance between your heel and the glute that is firing. Kick back as far as possible and extend the heel. Hold it for 20 seconds. You should feel a strong hamstring contraction as well.

I do these throughout the day because I sit a lot, and in my brief warm ups before lifting. A very easy way to fix bad movement and posture and to strengthen pistols and hip hinge exercises. I like this better than bridging exercises for extension because you dont have to get on the ground and because you can use it to disassociate the hips.

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FRONT/BACK IMBALANCES AND KNEE PAIN

I never experienced knee pain while working through front to back imbalances in my hips and rooting. Why? The reason is because the hips, knees and ankles never got out of their track. Now lets get into the imbalance that can and will have accompanying knee pain: Side/Side Hip and Rooting Imbalances The hip can basically move in five ways: In front of you (flexion) Behind you (extension) Inside (adduction) Outside (abduction) Internal/External Rotation (rotation)

Weve already discussed how flexion and extension lead to rooting and poor balance in squatting through a posterior or anterior dominated squat. Now well talk about side to side and rotation imbalances. Gray Cook often says "joint problems swim upstream." When you lose stability in the hip, you lose it in the knee. If you drive in the snow and the front tires start to slide, the back tires inevitably and quickly follow suit. One hip and knee can have perfect stability while the other is an unstable mess. My left knee had no stability because my left hip had no stability. So when I squatted, my right leg was fine and the left leg was a mess. In a two legged squat, my left knee would be all over the place. I was all too aware of this when I recertified for my RKC in 2012, as my team leader Mark Toomey watched me front squat with a 24kg kettlebell and commented your knee is a little shaky. If someone were sitting next to my left knee, they might have been seriously injured. I notice this with a lot of squatters: their knees cannot stay on track. Your knees should track over the toes and not shake around. If they do, they are not receiving the stability they need from their "big brother the hip.

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There are a few things to look at - adduction/abduction and the rotators. An imbalance in the adductors/abductors is easy enough to fix. If your leg is pulling out to the side, then you need to strengthen the muscle that pulls it in, the adductor.

Put something between your knees and squeeze your knees together as hard as you can. This will strengthen your adductors. To strengthen the abductors, stand next to a wall and use it as resistance to abduct your leg against. If you are sitting, you can also just put your hand outside your knee and push your knee out against the resistance of your hand. A second adductor drill Stand up and engage your inner thigh muscle, flex it hard. It is a bit unnatural and hard to find. A cue: fire your inner glute as if you are trying to pull your glute into your inner thigh by the firing of the inner thigh muscle. You can also do these in a deadlift position. If you have knee pain, try these simple exercises. They may relieve pressure in your knees. They may not. Now lets look at the rotators. These little muscles are subtle and harder to target.

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STRENGTHENING YOUR HIP ROTATORS

These were the exercises that made the difference in getting back to doing a full pistol on the left side. The following rotator strengthening exercise target the gluteus minimus and are all done laying on the side. This increases the resistance and strengthening aspect greatly.

While laying on your side, extend the hip and flex both knees. Rotate your top leg so that the top foot (left foot in this picture) comes up as far as it can and hold it.

Now rotate the hip the other way so it looks like you are in a squat position. Note what is happening here with the top hip. The top leg is being held in position with the strength of the left hip.

This position tackles hip stability issues better than any other I have tried. And when you have stability in the hip, you have stability in the knee. That is the reason these positions fixed the instability and pain in my left knee.

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Now rotate further

Now rotate back the other way

Now back in

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 Now extend the knee like you are finishing a squat

Go through these different positions in the side laying position for a minute or two or three. If you have hip stability issues then your top hip will be on fire in a short time. Go to failure a few times a day. Keep working it and strengthening it. Do it every day for a week or two. These rotation and hip isolating exercises and the kickback exercise above are paramount for hip stabilization. The internal and external rotation from the side exercises hit gluteus minimus and medius. The kickback hits gluteus maximus. These three muscles need to be strong if you want to be strong, or at the very least have a functioning hip.

IF YOUR TOES POINT OUT

When doing jerks with two 88- lb kettlebells, Ivan Denisov, the best kettlebell sport lifter in the world, uses a stance a little beyond shoulder width and feet pointing straight ahead.

Try this stance yourself and root strongly into the point below your little toe. You should feel it in the outside of your hips.

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Creating S P A C E In Your Hips

Now with the weight on the outside of both feet rooted under your little toes, sit back into your heels and glutes, keeping pressure on the outside of your foot. Pry your hips apart in this position, firing your glutes and outside hip muscles as hard as you can.

After this space has been created in your hips and glutes and with the muscles still fully firing: 1. Flex and extend your hips as in a hip hinge, keeping the prying feeling, weight on outside of feet, etc. 2. Shift from one hip to another by placing more weight on one hip than the other and shifting back and forth, feeling the load in the outer glute. You should feel the entire glute contract, like a balloon.

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ROCKING EXERCISE "PURE HIP MOVEMENT" This exercise, from Tim Anderson's Becoming Bulletproof program ties everything together. It is like squatting without load or "pure hip/knee extension and hip/knee flexion." At least that is how I conceive it. I like to perform this rocking movement after the side hip circuit and the kickback.

Get on all fours with torso parallel to the ground and rock back feeling the same space in your hips from the previous section

Then extend forward. The intention of this exercise is hip flexion and extension, so put as much weight on your arms as feels natural. Dont worry about your feet positioning

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FIXING YOUR INDIVIDUAL ISSUES Let us review the list of problems that will prevent you from doing a full one legged squat and the best exercises for fixing them. 1. Posterior Dominant Squat: Strengthen tibia and hip flexors to enable ankle dorsiflexion and even out rooting to the front of your foot. Quad Dominant Squat/Lack of Heel Drive: Kickbacks sticking out heel to strengthen glute maximus. Also do the hip space and glute firing exercise. Knee Instability: Strengthen adductors/abductors. Knee Instability Part II: Strengthen rotators with side laying rotation/extension progressions. Toes Pointing Out: Rooting below the little toe with feet slightly beyond shoulder width. Toes Pointing In: Strengthen rotators with side laying rotation/extension progressions. Abs Not Firing In Bottom Position: Sitting ab pressure/shortening exercise. Weak Legs: See programming and strengthening section below. Hips That Do Not Hinge Far Enough Back: Passive leg raises to stretch hamstrings.

2.

3. 4.

5.

6.

7. 8. 9.

Assessing and addressing these nine things will give you excellent mobility, balance, and leg strength and enable you to do one legged squats - a butt kicking leg workout that can be done anytime and anywhere without the need of extrinsic exercise equipment.

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STRENGTHENING AND PROGRAMMING TO TAKE YOUR ONE LEGGED SQUATS AND GENERAL LEG STRENGTH TO A NEW LEVEL There are three general ways to achieve a full one legged squat from the strength perspective: 1. 2. 3. Doing high rep bodyweight squats on two legs and adding difficulty. Practicing one legged squats in an easier application. Doing heavy weighted squats for higher absolute strength, i.e. zercher squats with a barbell or kettlebell front squats.

You will learn two programs here. One purely bodyweight, and one weighted squat/bodyweight squat hybrid program.

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THE PURE BODYWEIGHT METHOD PROGRAM

The close stance squat is your mobility goal. Here is a bodyweight only strategy for building strength in your legs and achieving a full bodyweight pistol: TWO DAYS PER WEEK Do 3 sets of deep bodyweight squats 5 reps short of failure. Squat deep and keep your spine upright and stable, i.e. proud chest. Do the reps slowly and under full control, using pure strength and no momentum or bouncing. Gradually move your feet together for mobility work on one of those two days. Practice getting out of a chair on one leg. Alternate one day of 10 singles with two days of 10 doubles. Obviously, a lower sitting chair is more difficult, so use chair heights for progression as needed. If you cant get out of a chair on one leg yet, keep working the two legged squat program as prescribed and test getting out of a chair one legged once a week. Once you can do it, start adding reps.

THREE DAYS PER WEEK Do 2 sets of a tibia/hip flexor strengthening exercise: 2 sets of 10 seconds per leg Stretch your hamstrings with the passive straight leg raise: 2 sets of 10 slow breathe counts per leg

Take as much rest as you want between sets. Test one legged squat in one month.

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THE BODYWEIGHT/WEIGHT LIFTING HYBRID PROGRAM ONE DAY PER WEEK 10 heavy zercher squat reps or heavy kettlebell or barbell front squat, any rep scheme you like (5x2, 2x5, 3x3 and a single, 10 singles, 5-3-2, whatever) with a weight you can barely handle for 5 reps 20 medium front squats using a weight you can squat for 8-10 reps. Do sets of 4 or 5 for 20 total reps. 2 sets of bodyweight squats 5 reps short of failure. Mobility and Stretching

THREE DAYS PER WEEK (or until your hip and ankle mobility are good enough to do a full closed stance squat) Do 2 sets of a tibia/hip flexor strengthening exercise Stretch your hamstrings with the passive straight leg raise

Take as much rest as you want between sets. After four weeks of doing this program with perfect and precise form, take a few days off and then test your BW one legged squat. Once you can do a full one legged squats Once youve achieved the full one legged squat, here is a simple program that will very quickly add reps and overall leg and core strength: ONE DAY PER WEEK 5 sets of one legged squats, two reps short of failure for each set 10 total reps, heavy zercher squats or double kettlebell front squats, whatever rep scheme you choose ((5x2, 2x5, 3x3 and a single, 10 singles, 5-3-2, whatever) with a weight you can barely handle for 5 reps

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KETTLEBELL DOUBLE FRONT SQUAT As I will explain in my next book, Simple Strength, load must be added to strengthen your legs. Bodyweight exercise alone does not do the job for really strong legs like it can for arms. Therefore I strongly advise investing in a barbell or some kettlebells to add load to your squats. One legged squatting will be much easier if you build up squatting strength with heavier weights. It is no accident that powerlifters and Olympics lifters have no trouble with heavy one legged squats (it is usually the mobility challenge of the bodyweight only version that requires work). Lets start with the double kettlebell front squat.

To get into position for a kettlebell front squat, clean the kettlebell from the floor.

In case you are not familiar with cleans, I will give you 4 pointers that will help your clean: 1) Load the hips by hinging them back and then Explode with the hips driving the heels through the ground 2) Puff out your chest 3) Shorten the distance the bells or weights travel by pretending there is a wall 1 foot in front of you and imagining you are cleaning the bells lower (to your hips rather than neck) than you will this shortens the path for you. 4) Keep your elbows in and more or less touching your iliac crest. For more details on the double kettlebell clean and front squat, I highly recommend Geoff Neuperts Kettlebell Strong! program. Once you are in the clean position your abs and lats should be firing to stabilize your spine and keep it straight for the duration of the front squat. Point your toes straight ahead.

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Push your hips back and your knees apart slightly and then descend. Inhale sharply and actively pull yourself down using your hip flexors. Keep looking forward and firing your abs and lats so your spine doesnt bend. Begin your ascent by a hissing exhalation and powering your fully activated legs and glutes through the floor.

The Front Squat/Pistol Conversion Guide Front squats are a seriously terrific exercise for your entire body. You are not only strengthening your legs, but spine stabilizers (abs and lats) are getting in on the action because they have to work to neutralize the weight of whatever it is you are holding and to prevent the load from pulling you forward. Front squats give you a rigorous leg workout without relying on a squat rack or spotter. Mark Reifkind says Top squatter and RKC Donnie Thompson (1200+ lbs in the power squat?) finds double 40 kg bells kick his legs and butt in the strict front squat. That is a serious testimonial.2 A 1200 lb power squat is out of reach for most human beings, but heavy front squats are within reach. So Ill use front squats to compare loading with the pistol. Here are some calculations we can work with: ..Single Leg Squats Upward Moving = Total Body (100%) - 1 Leg (20.37%) = 79.63% of total body weight 3 So if you are 200 pounds, in a single leg squat you are lifting approximately 160 pounds on one leg per rep. Now take a double kettlebell front squat with two 70 pound bells (140 pounds total). So you are squatting your bodyweight plus 140 pounds on two legs.
2 3

http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/kettlebell-muscle/ http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Bodyweight.html

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Heres the calculation: Squats or Deadlifts Step 1 Calculate weight of body segments that share similar center of gravity and move mostly upward with added weight, in this case upper body Method A: Head + Trunk + 2 Arms = ~59.26% of total bodyweight Method B: Total Body (100%) - 2 Legs (40.74%) = ~59.26% of total body weight 4 So if your bodyweight is 200, in a double kettlebell front squat with two 70 pound kettlebells you are lifting 120 lbs(60% bodyweight)+140 lbs(kettlebells)=260 lbs total, 130 lbs per leg. To summarize: 200 pound person=160 pounds of resistance on one legged squat=130 pounds per leg on front squat holding 140 pounds of resistance. 120 pound person=96 pounds per leg in one legged squat=71 pounds per leg front squat with 70 pounds of resistance. 160 pound person=128 pounds per leg in one legged squat=102 pounds per leg front squat with 100 pounds But front squats have a more difficult load placement, so pound for pound they are more difficult than back squats with an equal weight. I wont bother trying to calculate the difference, but suffice it to say that it feels heavier than 130 pounds per leg, and that gets you closer to the 160 pounds per leg you are lifting in a one legged squat. There are other variables, but if you want the general strength to pop out of a one legged squat, this gives you a nice idea. Work up to front squats with around 75% of your bodyweight. Get comfortable with them so you can do sets of 5. That will guarantee you the strength to do a pistol.

ibid

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Heres another excellent loaded squat using a barbell, the Zercher Squat THE BARBELL ZERCHER SQUAT The Zercher Squat is named after Ed Zercher, a 1930s strong man. This exercise allows you to squat fairly heavy without a squat rack. What is even better is that the weight distribution does not pull you forward like a heavy front squat so you should be able to go heavier. Since the load is in toward your torso it allows you to strongly load your posterior chain. For that reason it strengthens any hip hinge exercise in addition to making your legs very strong. The only cost to all of these benefits is that it stings the inside of the elbows a bit and sometimes causes light bruising if you go heavy enough. If you model short sleeve shirts, be careful.

First get into a deadlift position.

Deadlift the bar up and set it over your knees. The bar should be in equilibrium so it doesn't roll toward or away from you. This will be around 2 inches in from the tip of your bent knee.

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With the bar resting on your knees, squat down and stick your arms through the space between your knees until the bar is inside the crooks of your elbows.

Puff out your chest and look slightly up. Squeeze all the muscles in your legs, abs, and lats while shoving your feet through the floor.

Fully lock out at the top by squeezing the glues together.

Never do more than a set of 5. When you are finished, return the bar to your knees, slip your arms out, return to the deadlift position, stay tight, and return the bar to the floor.

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