The Pistol Squat Movement Library contains various movements that are intended to help your progress with your pistols.
The pistol squat is a unilateral movement which is just a fancy way of saying its a single limb exercise. The pistol squat involves squatting down with one leg and then coming back up.
There are two main points-of-performance that make the pistol squat challenging.
First, the pistol squat involves balance. When performing the movement, we aren’t just doing it while standing up. Bodyweight and limbs are moving and navigating and shifting as you move down then up. The pistol squat involves proprioception and balance to perform.
Second, the pistol squat needs a certain level of strength to perform. How much strength is hard to say. As a general rule of thumb, I encourage people to be able to barbell back squat at least their body weight before they begin working on pistols. That isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, just a general recommendation I use with my clients before introducing pistols into the training program.
Once you are comfortable performing pistol squats, you can easily make them harder. You can challenge your balance, challenge your strength, or challenge both at the same time.
To work your strength more, you can hold weight in a rack position like a front squat. Holding a kettlebell upside down, I find, is the best tool for this – but you can use anything you’d like.
To work your balance more, you can stand on a partial surface, unstable surface, or hold a barbell overhead like in an overhead squat.