By Sean Schniederjan, RKC - Your Strength · PDF fileMy journeyto success began with Pavel Tsatsouline in his Naked Warrior book and in the practice of “box pistols” – or simply

Copyright © 2013 – Strength Productions LLC - All Rights Reserved Worldwide. 1

THE ULTIMATE HIP, KNEE AND

ANKLE GUIDE FOR ONE LEGGED

SQUATS

By Sean Schniederjan, RKC


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

Intellectual Property In Any Way

All Rights Reserved

Copyright © 2013 – Strength Productions LLC. All rights are reserved.You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprintany part of it without written consent from the author, except for theinclusion of brief quotations in a review.

DisclaimerThe author and publisher of this Ebook and the accompanying materials have used their bestefforts in preparing this Ebook. The author and publisher make no representation orwarranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contentsof 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 fullresponsibility for your actions. Always consult your physician before physical exercise.


This book is dedicated to my wife Anne, my daughter Lucy, and my friend Karen.Couldn’t have done this without your generous help and support. Also to threeteachers who passed on some of the information in this book: Pavel Tsatsouline, Dr.Mark Cheng, and Mark Reifkind. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.


Introduction: The One Legged Squat: Achieving OptimalHip, Knee And Ankle Function Page 5

Discovering Mobility Page 6

The Close Stance Squat Page 7

Hamstrings Page 11

Abs Page 13

Hip Stability Page 15

Rotators and Extensors Page 16

Front/Back Rooting Imbalance=Glute or Quad Dominance Page 17

Open Hip Flexors, Cure Glute Amnesia, and Root Strongerwith Your Heel

Page 18

Front/Back Imbalances and Knee Pain Page 19

Strengthening Your Hip Rotators Page 21

If Your Toes Point Out Page 23

Creating S P A C E in your hips Page 24

Rocking Exercise "Pure Hip Movement" Page 25

Fixing Your Individual Issues (Summary) Page 26

Strengthening and Programming to Take YourOne Legged Squats and General Leg Strength to a New Level Page 27

The Pure Bodyweight Method Program Page 28

The Weighted/Bodyweight Squat Hybrid Program Page 29

Kettlebell Double Front Squat Page 30

The Front Squat/Pistol Conversion Guide Page 31


The Barbell Zercher Squat Page 33

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 myleft leg for 1 year and 3 months. Every day during that time I searched for the answer tothis annoying phenomenon in my left hip.

Out of the struggle came awareness that the one legged squat is the ultimate indicator of asolidly functioning hip, knee, and ankle. A two legged squat could still be performed bymasking the imbalance.

The muscle imbalance allowed me to perform almost any exercise imaginable. I couldrun, jump, do two legged squats, deadlifts, etc. These were all exercises that could notprima facie expose dysfunction. The one legged squat identified the imbalance. Nomatter 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 berequired to uphold in their day to day use. They “overload” the structures to ensurefunction. The loading in a one-legged squat follows this reasonable tradition ofengineering. The hip, knee and ankle are "overloaded." You will notice that once you arecapable of one legged squatting, two legged squatting is easier, weighted squats areeasier, 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 thatfull 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 didn’t have a mapand began my search in the wrong place. There were two huge distractions that pulled meaway from the right places: flexibility and joint mobility. Both have their place andshould 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 strengtheninglike pulling a slingshot further back to load the gluteus maximus), every fix in this bookis a muscle strengthening exercise.

Ironically, the one legged squat, an indicator of advanced hip and ankle mobilityconsidered "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 arebig and obvious. The answer lies in discovering how both the obvious and the subtle


work together to render the hip, knee, and ankle capable of an exercise where successrelies 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 inthe practice of “box pistols” – or simply getting out of a chair on one leg. After time, Istrengthened my legs, created a “groove” and eventually managed a full one legged squatholding onto a kettlebell for counter-weight. However, the pure bodyweight versionproved more difficult, and the full butt to heel pistol without counter-weight completelyeluded me. What I really wanted was to be able to drop down on both legs withouthaving 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 inthe pistol was gone. But as fate would have it, the shortcuts for doing one legged squatswere revealed in a bodyweight workshop I produced with Pavel. During that workshop in2009, my inability to do a close stance squat exposed my lack of ankle mobility. Workingwith Pavel one on one, I tried the pistol and did not make it more than ¼ of the way downbefore falling back. Pavel graciously said “you are tired”, but I was also weak, immobileand frustrated.

I have a few pictures from that workshop which illustrate perfectly and naturallysomeone with mobility issues. We will use them to learn the pitfalls of performing a fullbodyweight one-legged squat and how to overcome them.



THE CLOSE STANCE SQUAT

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

In this picture from 2009, this is as far downas the author could go in a close stance squat.Immobile ankles prevented the knees fromgoing further beyond the toes. Ankledorsiflexion (range of ankle motion whichbrings toes closer to the shins) must beimproved in order to perform a close stancesquat or pistol.

Pictured to the right, the author’sankles still do not want to dorsiflexeven when using a partner. If theauthor were to let go, he would rollbackwards onto that nice green grass.This drill allows the hips to descendinto the full squat without fallingbackward, but is not helpingdorsiflexion.


In this picture, the author’s ankles have noproblem with dorsiflexion. The knees areout over the toes, hence greater ankledorsiflexion.

Why does holding a weight improve ankle mobility? Equilibrium is achieved becausepreviously the weight was pulling from the heels and posterior - now it is balanced withthe extra load in front. This is the reason that a lot of people can manage a one leggedsquat holding onto a weight, but will have poor balance, or fall over when they attempt apure bodyweight squat.

The key to getting comfortable in the close stance position is to fix ankle dorsiflexion andhip mobility. It is essentially a balancing act: you need to displace the load so that youtake it away from the backside (i.e. heels and hips) and distribute it to the anterior chainstarting 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 strengtheningexercise for muscles that usually get neglected: hip flexors (the muscles that flex yourhips and are used to pull down into a squat) and tibialis anterior (the muscles around theshin that pull your ankle toward your shin, dorsiflexion).


Strengthening your tibialis muscles will open a doorway to easier and more comfortablemovement and over time make doing bodyweight pistols easy. To my knowledge, theonly advantage to exercising the tibialis is to have enough good ankle mobility to performa pistol. Achieving the ankle mobility necessary can be done with ZERO joint mobilitytraining (i.e. ankle circles, passive ankle stretching work, etc.) which is a tremendousshort cut.

The partner drill for strengthening hip flexors and tibia is a pull for your legs whichsimulates pulling yourself into the bottom position of a squat. It is effective for bettersquatting by strengthening the muscles for the eccentric movement of the squat.

Here is the partner drill for strengthening hipflexors 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 anklemobility more or less instantly. It is a solid investment for someone who really wants todo a BW pistol. I was completely unaware of this benefit when I purchased them. I justthought it would be cool to hang upside down. I started doing inverted squats and the abexercises you might have seen.

A significant portion of bodyweight goes to the ankleflexors and the hip flexors. If your bodyweight is notover what the boots can handle, you can intensify theload on the hip and ankle flexors by unhooking one bootso that a significant portion of bodyweight is applied toonly one leg. That is a LOT of resistance to strengthenthe tibia and hip flexor.


Then one day I randomly attempted a close stance squat. Mobility had improved so muchthat I felt very at ease in the bottom position. It took me a while to figure out that thissudden mobility was the result of the gravity boots. The gravity boots did the same thingas the partner drill, but 1) I didn’t need a partner, 2) I could apply resistance for a greateramount of time, and 3) the resistance was greater than the partner drill since the load wasmy entire bodyweight minus the weight of my lower legs. My new found ankle mobilitywas a direct result of strengthening a neglected muscle, NOT mobility drills and passiveankle 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 longerperiod of time, resistance to the tibia and hip flexors can be applied by looping a weightaround your foot. If you do not have a kettlebell, try putting your foot under an objectthat will not move and pull up. This drill will strengthen the anterior hip and anklemuscles without the use of gravity boots.

Structural ankle issues

You may have ankle mobility issues that are “structural.” In that case your mobility willimprove but you will never get to full dorsiflexion. If this is the case, then do squats withyour heel elevated slightly to compensate for the lack of mobility.


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 mustshoot out behind you (as opposed to down toward the ground as in a squat), and kneesbend little or not at all.

The more flexible your hamstrings, the further back your hinge can go. The tighter yourhamstrings, the more inhibited your hip hinge. Hip hinge exercises like deadlifts andswings “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 notenough.

A pistol demands an “advanced hip hinge”, or hips that can move back really far. Thisrequires that the full muscle be stretched with targeted hamstring flexibility work. Theaccidental flexibility your hamstrings get from hinging exercises like deadlifts andswings will not do the job.

Here you can get an idea of how the hips must hinge backwards. You can see that if thehamstrings are tight, the ability to shoot the hips back is hindered.

Hips back and knees forward


Let’s combine this lesson about the hips and hamstring flexibility with our abovediscussion 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 ahighly functional posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes). By functional I mean both mobileand 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 advancedhip mobility needed for a bodyweight pistol.

Make sure that your back remains flaton the floor and your knees areextended or are very close to fullextension. Use a band or belt andpassively raise one leg as high as it willgo before the knee starts to flex

Hold it

Now using the resistance of theband or belt, push hard against itwith your leg and tense your gluteand hamstring as you push againstthe resistance. Do this for 3-5seconds tensing your muscleshard. Now relax and slowlyexhale your breathe as you use thebelt to pull your leg further intostretch

Practice this until you have enough flexibility to pull your leg back so that your foot isaround the level of your head

Enjoy your deeper hip hinge. You will need it for one legged squats!


ABS

In Naked Warrior, Pavel shows that your abs act as your strength “amplifier” and thatyou 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 stabilizeyour spine and initiate your ascent from the bottom position. You need to train your absto be ready to fire when you are descending, and most importantly ascending out of thebottom position.

I found out something very interesting about a training shift in law enforcement in recentyears when I attended a local citizen’s police academy. Officer training is now almostexclusively scenario based where officers are trained in the most life like situationspossible. The reason is obvious: if your training is as realistic as possible, then there willbe fewer surprises when the real situation presents itself. The last thing you want issurprises that weren’t accounted for in your training. This is antithetical to beingprepared.

I found this to be true as well for ab training and pistols. If you train your abs to fire in asituation 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 andprepared to work. Since the bottom of a pistol is not the most natural position, the lastthing you want is to be in this unnatural position and to try and remember how to fireyour 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 whenshortened. An ant can fall off a tall building, a cat doesn't take the fall so well, a personbreaks arms and legs, and a large animal fares worse. Small is strong and our musclesfollow 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 bodyweightstrength.

You can practice the hollow position by following these steps:

"Hiss" through your mouth with your tongueon the top of your mouth and send thepressure of your breathe down into yourdiaphragm

At the same time "pull down" your abs soyour "tailbone and belly button meet."Your upper back will be rounding (thoracicflexion).


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

In the bottom of a one legged squat you need your abs, especially if you are just learningthe 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 canexperience the sensation of pressurizing your abs in a way that emulates how they willneed to be pressurized at the bottom of a pistol.


HIP STABILITY

You can’t do a one legged squat with knee pain. I’m not a doctor, but I did experiencesharp knee pain for a year and three months that prohibited me from doing a one leggedsquat 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 bevery 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 onlycould I do a pistol on my right leg, it was completely effortless. The power in my rightleg 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 myhips 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 abad habit of sitting with my left leg perpetually out to the side and the hip internallyrotated.

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 dorock bottom one legged squats once more.

The two things are:

1) Strengthening Hip Abductors and Adductors (provided relief to kneepressure/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 mostpart, eliminated hip and knee instability and allowed me to pistol again on the leftside).


ROTATORS AND EXTENSORS

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

Your foot roots into the ground in three places:

When all three of these are connected to the ground, your hipsare functioning properly and all is well. When you walk, yourheel should make contact with the ground and then 2 and 3more or less simultaneously. If there is a delay or only 2 or 3makes contact with the ground, there is trouble.1

Let us consider two possible imbalances in the foot and how these problems were thecause of imbalances in my hip:

1) Front/back imbalance. This is where either the heel is rooting far more than theballs in the front or the balls in the front are rooting more than the heel in theback. Sometimes one or the other will come up off the ground. In thediagram 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 theother. In the diagram this would be 1 and 2 taken together as opposed to 1and 3 taken together.

A functioning hip and knee will manifest itself in all three of these points rooting into theground.

One of the experts I spoke with advised me to push my left leg down into the ground ashard as I could to fix my right/left hip imbalance. The problem was that I was unable todo that because of my messed up hips. I could not root my left foot into the ground on allthree 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 theyrelate to the hip, but let’s take a closer look.

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


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 ofthe feet wants to come off the ground is asign of posterior dominate movement. Aclose stance squat will expose the posteriorheel dominant imbalance. At a certaindepth, you will simply fall backwards. Allthe rooting is in the heel. We discussed thatstrengthening the ankle dorsiflexing shinmuscle and the hip flexors will give you theability to pull your weight forward over thefront 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 youstrengthen the anterior muscles of the leg you are able to root the front and back of thefoot. Front/back balance is restored.

Quad Dominant Squatting

The opposite of this posterior dominance (weight going exclusively through the heels andfalling backward in a close stance squat) is anterior, or quad dominance which manifestsitself 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 upfrom a bottom shelf, they will almost always lift their heels up. In our sedentary societywhich has lost its ability to use the glutes and root into the ground with the heels, thequad dominant squat is very common.

After I regained my ability to do one legged squats again, I noticed that I was rootinghard 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.


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 heelswith an exercise called “kick backs”. Stand up and kick your leg back. Most people willnot be able to kick back very far because of tight hip flexors. In fact, several people Ihave worked with cannot extend in this way at all. No worries. Do kick backs every dayand your extension will improve.

Kick back with your glute and hold it. A fewdays of this will loosen the hip flexors and turnyour glutes on. When you walk, kick back alittle so your glutes fire. In a society that sits alot, this movement is pure gold.

To disassociate your hips, lean forward witha 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. Createdistance between your heel and the glute that is firing. Kick back as far aspossible and extend the heel. Hold it for 20 seconds. You should feel a stronghamstring 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 hingeexercises. I like this better than bridging exercises for extension because you don’t haveto get on the ground and because you can use it to disassociate the hips.


FRONT/BACK IMBALANCES AND KNEE PAIN

I never experienced knee pain while working through front to back imbalances in my hipsand rooting. Why? The reason is because the hips, knees and ankles never got out of their“track”.

Now let’s 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)

We’ve already discussed how flexion and extension lead to rooting and poor balance insquatting through a posterior or anterior dominated squat.

Now we’ll 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 andthe front tires start to slide, the back tires inevitably and quickly follow suit. One hip andknee 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 kneewould be all over the place. I was all too aware of this when I recertified for my RKC in2012, as my team leader Mark Toomey watched me front squat with a 24kg kettlebell andcommented “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 shouldtrack over the toes and not shake around. If they do, they are not receiving the stabilitythey need from their "big brother” the hip.


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 outto 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 walland use it as resistance to abduct your leg against. If you are sitting, you can also just putyour 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 hardto find. A cue: fire your “inner glute” as if you are trying to “pull” your glute into yourinner thigh by the firing of the inner thigh muscle. You can also do these in a deadliftposition.

If you have knee pain, try these simple exercises. They may relieve pressure in yourknees. They may not.

Now let’s look at the rotators. These little muscles are subtle and harder to target.


STRENGTHENING YOUR HIP ROTATORS

These were the exercises that made the difference in getting back to doing a full pistol onthe left side.

The following rotator strengthening exercise target the gluteus minimus and are all donelaying on the side. This increases the resistance and strengthening aspect greatly.

While laying on your side, extend thehip and flex both knees. Rotate yourtop leg so that the top foot (left foot inthis picture) comes up as far as it canand hold it.

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

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


Now rotate back the other way

Now rotate further

Now back in


Now extend the knee like youare finishing a squat

Go through these different positions in the side laying position for a minute or two orthree. If you have hip stability issues then your top hip will be on fire in a short time. Goto failure a few times a day. Keep working it and strengthening it. Do it every day for aweek or two.

These rotation and hip isolating exercises and the kickback exercise above are paramountfor hip stabilization. The internal and external rotation from the side exercises hitgluteus 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 leasthave a functioning hip.

IF YOUR TOES POINT OUT

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

Try this stance yourself and rootstrongly into the point below your littletoe. You should feel it in the outside ofyour hips.


Creating S P A C E In Your Hips

Now with the weight on the outside of bothfeet rooted under your little toes, sit back intoyour heels and glutes, keeping pressure on theoutside of your foot. “Pry” your hips “apart”in this position, firing your glutes and outsidehip muscles as hard as you can.

After this “space” has been created in your hips and glutes and with the muscles still fullyfiring:

1. Flex and extend your hips as in a hip hinge, keeping the prying feeling, weight onoutside of feet, etc.

2. Shift from one hip to another by placing more weight on one hip than the other andshifting back and forth, feeling the load in the “outer glute.” You should feel the entireglute contract, like a balloon.


ROCKING EXERCISE "PURE HIP MOVEMENT"

This exercise, from Tim Anderson's Becoming Bulletproof program ties everythingtogether. It is like squatting without load or "pure hip/knee extension and hip/kneeflexion." At least that is how I conceive it. I like to perform this rocking movement afterthe side hip circuit and the kickback.

Get on all fours with torso parallel to theground and rock back feeling the samespace in your hips from the previoussection

Then extend forward. The intention ofthis exercise is hip flexion and extension,so put as much weight on your arms asfeels natural. Don’t worry about yourfeet positioning


FIXING YOUR INDIVIDUAL ISSUES

Let us review the list of problems that will prevent you from doing a full one leggedsquat and the best exercises for fixing them.

1. Posterior Dominant Squat: Strengthen tibia and hip flexors to enable ankledorsiflexion and even out rooting to the front of your foot.

2. Quad Dominant Squat/Lack of Heel Drive: Kickbacks sticking out heel tostrengthen glute maximus. Also do the hip space and glute firing exercise.

3. Knee Instability: Strengthen adductors/abductors.

4. Knee Instability Part II: Strengthen rotators with side laying rotation/extensionprogressions.

5. Toes Pointing Out: Rooting below the little toe with feet slightly beyondshoulder width.

6. Toes Pointing In: Strengthen rotators with side laying rotation/extensionprogressions.

7. Abs Not Firing In Bottom Position: Sitting ab pressure/shortening exercise.

8. Weak Legs: See programming and strengthening section below.

9. Hips That Do Not Hinge Far Enough Back: Passive leg raises to stretchhamstrings.

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


STRENGTHENING AND PROGRAMMING TO TAKE YOUR ONE LEGGEDSQUATS AND GENERAL LEG STRENGTH TO A NEW LEVEL

There are three general ways to achieve a full one legged squat from the strengthperspective:

1. Doing high rep bodyweight squats on two legs and adding difficulty.

2. Practicing one legged squats in an easier application.

3. Doing heavy weighted squats for higher absolute strength, i.e. zercher squats witha barbell or kettlebell front squats.

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


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 fullbodyweight pistol:

TWO DAYS PER WEEK

Do 3 sets of deep bodyweight squats 5 reps short of failure. Squat deep and keepyour spine upright and stable, i.e. “proud chest.” Do the reps slowly and under fullcontrol, using pure strength and no momentum or bouncing. Gradually move yourfeet 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 twodays of 10 doubles. Obviously, a lower sitting chair is more difficult, so use chairheights for progression as needed. If you can’t get out of a chair on one leg yet, keepworking the two legged squat program as prescribed and test getting out of a chairone 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 breathecounts per leg

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


THE BODYWEIGHT/WEIGHT LIFTING HYBRID PROGRAM

ONE DAY PER WEEK

10 heavy zercher squat reps or heavy kettlebell or barbell front squat, any rep schemeyou like (5x2, 2x5, 3x3 and a single, 10 singles, 5-3-2, whatever) with a weight youcan barely handle for 5 reps

20 medium front squats using a weight you can squat for 8-10 reps. Do sets of 4 or 5for 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 offand then test your BW one legged squat.

Once you can do a full one legged squats

Once you’ve achieved the full one legged squat, here is a simple program that will veryquickly 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 aweight you can barely handle for 5 reps


KETTLEBELL DOUBLE FRONT SQUAT

As I will explain in my next book, Simple Strength, load must be added to strengthenyour legs. Bodyweight exercise alone does not do the job for really strong legs like it canfor arms. Therefore I strongly advise investing in a barbell or some kettlebells to addload to your squats.

One legged squatting will be much easier if you build up squatting strength with heavierweights. It is no accident that powerlifters and Olympics lifters have no trouble withheavy one legged squats (it is usually the mobility challenge of the bodyweight onlyversion that requires work).

Let’s start with the double kettlebell front squat.

To get into position for a kettlebell frontsquat, “clean” the kettlebell from thefloor.

In case you are not familiar with cleans, I will give you 4 pointers that will help yourclean:

1) Load the hips by hinging them back and then Explode with the hips driving theheels through the ground2) Puff out your chest3) Shorten the distance the bells or weights travel by pretending there is a wall 1foot in front of you and imagining you are cleaning the bells lower (to your hipsrather 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 recommendGeoff Neupert’s Kettlebell Strong! program.

Once you are in the clean position your abs and lats should be firing to stabilize yourspine and keep it straight for the duration of the front squat.

Point your toes straight ahead.


The Front Squat/Pistol Conversion Guide

Push your hips back and yourknees apart slightly and thendescend. Inhale sharply andactively pull yourself downusing your hip flexors. Keeplooking forward and firing yourabs and lats so your spinedoesn’t bend.

Begin your ascent by a “hissing”exhalation and powering yourfully activated legs and glutes“through the floor”.

Front squats are a seriously terrific exercise for your entire body. You are not onlystrengthening your legs, but spine stabilizers (abs and lats) are getting in on the actionbecause they have to work to neutralize the weight of whatever it is you are holding andto 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 powersquat?) finds double 40 kg bells kick his legs and butt in the strict front squat. That is aserious testimonial.2” A 1200 lb power squat is out of reach for most human beings, butheavy front squats are within reach.

So I’ll use front squats to compare loading with the pistol.

Here are some calculations we can work with:

“…..Single Leg SquatsUpward Moving = Total Body (100%) - 1 Leg (20.37%) = 79.63% of total body weight3”

So if you are 200 pounds, in a single leg squat you are lifting approximately 160pounds on one leg per rep.

Now take a double kettlebell front squat with two 70 pound bells (140 pounds total). Soyou are squatting your bodyweight plus 140 pounds on two legs.

2 http://www.dragondoor.com/articles/kettlebell-muscle/3 http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Bodyweight.html


Here’s the calculation:

“Squats or Deadlifts

Step 1

Calculate weight of body segments that share similar center of gravity and move mostlyupward 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 weight4”

So if your bodyweight is 200, in a double kettlebell front squat with two 70 poundkettlebells you are lifting 120 lbs(60% bodyweight)+140 lbs(kettlebells)=260 lbstotal, 130 lbs per leg.

To summarize:

200 pound person=160 pounds of resistance on one legged squat=130 pounds per leg onfront squat holding 140 pounds of resistance.

120 pound person=96 pounds per leg in one legged squat=71 pounds per leg front squatwith 70 pounds of resistance.

160 pound person=128 pounds per leg in one legged squat=102 pounds per leg frontsquat with 100 pounds

But front squats have a more difficult load placement, so pound for pound they are moredifficult than back squats with an equal weight. I won’t bother trying to calculate thedifference, but suffice it to say that it feels heavier than 130 pounds per leg, and that getsyou 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 leggedsquat, this gives you a nice idea. Work up to front squats with around 75% of yourbodyweight. Get comfortable with them so you can do sets of 5. That will guarantee youthe strength to do a pistol.

4 ibid


Here’s another excellent loaded squat using a barbell, the Zercher Squat

THE BARBELL ZERCHER SQUAT

The Zercher Squat is named after Ed Zercher, a 1930’s strong man. This exercise allowsyou to squat fairly heavy without a squat rack. What is even better is that the weightdistribution does not pull you forward like a heavy front squat so you should be able togo heavier. Since the load is “in” toward your torso it allows you to strongly load yourposterior chain. For that reason it strengthens any hip hinge exercise in addition tomaking your legs very strong. The only cost to all of these benefits is that it stings theinside of the elbows a bit and sometimes causes light bruising if you go heavy enough. Ifyou model short sleeve shirts, be careful.

First get into a deadlift position.

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


With the bar resting on your knees, squatdown and stick your arms through thespace between your knees until the bar isinside the crooks of your elbows.

Puff out your chest and look slightly up. Squeezeall the muscles in your legs, abs, and lats whileshoving your feet through the floor.

Fully lock out at the top by squeezing theglues 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 thefloor.

Documents

By Sean Schniederjan, RKC - Your Strength · PDF fileMy journeyto success began with Pavel Tsatsouline in his Naked Warrior book and in the practice of “box pistols” – or simply