I achieved the pistol squat on my left leg after 0.5 years of training!

[marathigoodboy]

My legs have always been my strongest part, and so I achieved the pistol squat on the right leg after 3 weeks of training. Since then I've been doing negatives on the left and positives on the right leg. I managed to get to 7 reps on the right leg while my left one, though it was getting slower negatives over time, was stuck at 0.
Today I decided to try and push one out on the left leg since I was very satisfied with it the day prior. And BOOM, I got it and screamed in excitement. It had been a while since I last unlocked an exercise so getting it was awesome.
Never.Skip.Legday.

 

[crazeehell]

@marathigoodboy Damn congrats, took me 0.5734 years

 

[sarahjean87]

@crazeehell

0.5734 years

209.42 days.

 

[ianmat]

@sarahjean87 I believe you mean 209.29 days.

3 hours can be a long time.

 

[keereamm]

@marathigoodboy Congrats, keep up the good work.

 

[marathigoodboy]

@keereamm Thank you
And good luck on your own journey

 

[jamesjcyn]

@marathigoodboy hell yeah. the pistol squat is a goat exercise you see almost no one do at the gym. Started doing them next to a wall in case i leaned over but now I do them freestanding. My left leg is definitely stronger than my right but i can do weighted on both. the weights actually make it easier. Going off the kinobody bodyweight program the next steps are speed pistols and jumping pistols

 

[amduke26]

@jamesjcyn Weights really help if you don’t quite have enough ankle dorsiflexion flexibilty.

 

[omnitude]

@amduke26 How do you train that flexibility? Mine's terrible, i can barely do a normal squat, i have to do hindi squats for good form.

 

[christian_bellin]

@omnitude Spend more time in a squat position. Maybe with just one foot flat on the ground and alternating back and forth. Use a door knob or some other implement for counter balance. Over time your ankles get used to moving around in the position.

 

[tp243]

@omnitude I found just doing pistols as deep as I could and gradually increasing the ROM worked better than anything else. I tried voodoo flossing and every other mobility aid but none of them seemed to work for me.

 

[smiller]

@omnitude Front of feet on stairs while sinking heels and deep ass lunges

 

[anaseini]

@omnitude I assume a Hindi squat is the same as what people call the third world squat

 

[mysteryalizerex]

@anaseini Lol never heard or used any of these terms, certainly dont plan to start but my squat game is ON THE RISE

 

[cafered]

@anaseini A slightly better way to put it (and definitely less racist, though I don't think that's the intention of the phrase) to put it is a toddler squat, cause kids can do that shit but we old people can't

 

[anaseini]

@cafered Toddlers have perfect squat and bear hug lifting form for sure. I first read the term from a green beret that was all around the world. Racist? Because white people don't grow up or live in third world countries? Is that the assumption?

 

[cafered]

@anaseini Oh people have definitely called it a third world squat for a long time, I'm not trying to imply those people are awful people for saying that

I'm saying I appreciated a different term that probably makes more sense without other context. I mean as soon as someone said to me "third world squat" I knew exactly what they meant the first time, because I've seen images of people in the third world in the full squat position. I mean seriously, I just googled image searched third world and the first picture of an individual person is a black person in the deep squat position

You're right, white people also grow up impoverished and in the third world, and maybe classist or something is a better choice of words. But that's kind of a weak gotcha moment, because the idea is the negative connotation of the term "third world" regardless of black or white people (and before someone hops in to be pedantic, I don't care if that term third world technically has to do only with how powers were aligned after WW2 and Switzerland is technically third world)

Basically my TLR is I had a moment when someone gave me the term "toddler squat" where I said "Huh, toddler squat probably actually describes it better without extra context" and it doesn't negatively impact me at all to say toddler squat, so I'll say toddler squat because I think it's a better term and pass it along to people. It's not a hill I'm going to die on if someone calls it a third world squat, especially if it starts to get dragged into an annoying and pedantic gotcha argument about racism

 

[anaseini]

@cafered I do believe more people would vision it better if it was referred to as a toddler squat. Sorry if I came off strong.

 

[omnitude]

@anaseini What? No. You squat with only the ball of your feet in the ground

 

[anaseini]

@omnitude Ohhh thanks. I thought it was the resting squat relaxing all the way down with your soles planted