Why Pistol Squats Are so Hard (and How to Do Them Anyway)

Pistol squats are among the bodyweight strength world’s most impressive feats, right next to things like backflips or a perfect handstand. Well, I can’t do those other two, but I can knock out a bunch of pistol squats. Let’s talk about what goes into one, and what it will take to get you there.

What is a pistol squat?

A pistol squat is a one-legged squat, where the free leg (the one you are not squatting with) is held straight out in front of you. (I imagine the name comes from the idea that your leg, sticking out in front, resembles the barrel of a pistol.) To do a pistol squat:

- Raise one leg (say, your left) straight out in front of you.

- Keeping that leg out in front of you, and your torso upright, bend your standing (right) leg until your hip joint is at or below the level of your knee.

- With the leg still out in front of you, not touching the ground, stand back up.

Pistol squats are often done free-handed, but it’s OK (by me, the self-appointed queen of pistol squats) to hold the toe of the free leg with your hand. Pistol squats are ideally done with the free leg completely straight, but it’s also OK to bend that knee a bit if you need to.

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Pistol squats are most commonly done without weight, but you can also do them with a weight, such as a kettlebell, in your hands. (This makes the balance easier, but requires a bit more strength to stand up.)

You don’t need to do your pistol squats “ass to grass” (with your butt nearly touching the ground), but you can if you want. It’s more impressive that way.

Some people, seeing this description, will go “oh, like this?” and just bust one out. For a select few of us, this is an easy move. But for most of the population, it’s really hard! It takes strength, balance, and mobility to do a pistol squat well. So let’s break down the component, and talk about how to work your way up to a full pistol squat.

Strengthen your quads

Let’s cover the most obvious thing first. To squat down and up on one leg, that one leg needs to be able to support the weight of your whole body. In other words, that leg is working twice as hard as if you were doing a normal squat with both feet on the ground.

Many leg muscles are involved in squats, but the star of pistol squats is a muscle group called the quadriceps. That's a group of four muscles on the front of your thigh. I have a list here of my favorite quad exercises, from goblet squats to barbell squats, and even one or two that don't have "squat" in the name. (The leg press machine is great.)

Mathematically, I figure that if you can squat with a barbell on your back that is equal to your own body weight, then your legs are probably strong enough to each do a pistol squat unweighted. That's a minimum, though—the stronger your legs are, the easier pistols will be.

How to work up to it: Build your leg strength with the quad exercises of your choice. Barbell squats are great, but I’d especially recommend single-leg quad work. Speaking of which...

Work on single-leg strength

Just being good at two-legged squats does not guarantee you have all the strength you need to squat on one leg. Moving your body up and down requires strength mainly from your quads, as we discussed. But when you’re on one leg, you also need:

- Abductor strength (using the muscles of your butt and the outside of your hips) to keep your leg from collapsing inward.

- Adductor strength (in your inner thigh muscles) to assist the quads and to counterbalance the abductors.

- Hip flexor strength (in the muscles that attach to the front of your thigh), to hold your free leg up in the “pistol” position.

How to work up to it: You can target each muscle directly, but you’ll get a really good bang for your buck by doing unilateral (one-sided) leg exercises like:

- Step-ups, increasing the height of the box over time, and adding weight as needed

- Lunges (forward and/or reverse)

- Bulgarian split squats (with your back foot on a bench) or any other type of split squat

- Step-downs, in which you control the lowering-down portion of the movement and then use your free leg to help push you back up to the top

- Shrimp squat progressions, using your free leg behind you

- Pistol squats to a box, where you sit down on a box or bench behind you and then stand back up using only one leg (I sometimes call these “one-leg stand-ups”). If the box is fairly tall, these are a lot easier than regular pistol squats.

All of these exercises can be weighted, if you like. Hold dumbbells in your hands for step-ups, or rack a kettlebell on your shoulder for the box pistols.

While you work on your hip flexor strength (seated and hanging leg raises are great, by the way), you can take them out of the equation for the moment by holding your toes with your hand as you descend into your squat.

Improve your balance

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