The pistol squat is a single leg squat where your inactive leg is straight out in front of you during the movement.
The setup:
You’ll start with your feet close together and pointing in the same direction as your toes. Your weight should be on the front of your heel.
Brace your cores, take your non working foot off the ground, and you’re ready to start the movement.
The movement:
Similar to the regular squat you’re going to start by shifting your weight backwards by pushing your hips back as you start you decent.
The hard thing about the pistol squat is being able to shift your weight forward as you lower yourself in such a way that requires a lot of ankle flexibility.
You will also find that your knee is jutting out in front of your toe to keep balance. And although a lot of us were taught to avoid this position, as long as you’re able to keep your weight towards your heel, and your knee pointed in the direction of your toe… you’re not going to harm yourself.
Once you’ve overcome the ankle flexibility needed in the middle of the pistol squat to keep your balance, you’ll then shift your hips back again and find the bottom of the squat.
From the bottom you can simply drive through the front of your heel and return to the start. This is also not the easiest, but you’ll find that it is easier than you might have initially thought.
If you have any questions about this please let us know!