The pistol squat is more than just a party trick. This popular calisthenics exercise holds a host of benefits, building lower body strength in the glutes, quads, and knees, improving mobility around the ankle and hip joints, and improving balance and proprioception. Given how difficult it can be to perform a pistol squat, it is helpful to follow a step-by-step progression, rather than jumping straight into the full exercise.

Step-by-Step Pistol Squat Progression

Step One - Bodyweight Squat

This develops a base level of lower body squatting strength on two legs, before introducing the extra stability demands of single leg squatting.

• Stand tall with your feet shoulder width apart and feet turned slightly out.

• Bend at the knees and hips at the same time, sitting as deep as you can and pushing your knees past your toes.

• Once you reach the limit of your squat, push through your feet to stand back up.

Step Two - Forward Step Down

The pistol squat requires a lot of forward knee movement on one leg at a time, so learning to load your legs individually on a knee dominant movement is helpful.

• Stand tall on an exercise step with your feet under your hips, facing the edge.

• Reach your right heel to the floor in front of you by pushing your left knee forwards, beyond the left toes before standing back up.

Step Three - 2-Up-1-Down Squat to Box

This lets you start working to parallel with your single leg squats, but without the challenging eccentric portion of the movement. This is great for building confidence in a single leg squat with the safety of a box behind you.

• Place a plyo box behind you within sitting range.

• Pick one foot off the floor and push the opposite knee forward until you are sat on the box, so that you are lowering on one leg.

• Then put both feet on the floor to stand back up.

• Repeat this for the desired reps on both legs and reduce the plyo box height as you get more confident.

Step Four - Single Leg Squat to Box

A simple progression from the 2 up 1 down squat to box develops strength on the way up, improving our single leg concentric strength and balance.

• Put a Gym Jumping Box behind you, within sitting range.

• Raise one foot off the floor and descend towards the box, lowering on one leg.

• Once you touch the plyo box, push back up on the same leg until standing.

Step Five - Eccentric Pistol Squat

This introduces the full demands of the eccentric portion of a pistol squat and establishes a bottom position that you can maintain without falling over, without external support.

• Stand tall with feet facing forwards and hands reaching out in front.

• Lift one leg off the floor and push the opposite knee forwards to initiate the movement.

• When you start to approach parallel, sit down into your bottom position, reaching your hands and chest as far forward as possible to make sure that your centre of mass is directly over your foot, rather than behind it.

• Hold this position for 5-10 seconds before rolling back onto the floor and standing up and repeating on the opposite leg.

Step Six - Pistol Squat

• Stand tall with feet facing forwards and hands reaching out in front.

• Lift one leg off the floor, holding it straight in front of you and push the opposite knee forwards to initiate the movement.

• When you start to approach parallel, sit down into your bottom position, reaching your hands and chest as far forward as possible.

• Push the floor away to reverse the movement and return to your start position before repeating on the opposite leg.

• You can further progress this using a Weight Vest or holding a 10kg Kettlebell in the goblet position.

Top Tip - Top Tip: once you progress onto the next step, don’t disregard the prior steps, for example - when you are training eccentric pistol squats, continue to train single leg squats to box to continue building concentric strength.

If you want to improve your lower body strength and mobility, or even just learn a cool calisthenics exercise, follow this step-by-step progression and you’ll achieve a pistol squat in no time.

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