Why You Need The Pistol Squat

Learning to move pain-free

Last week at Disney, I watched a lot of people in pain and using motorized scooters.

Now let’s imagine you go to Disney because you have lots of money.

You’ve worked long and hard to make money so you can afford cool things and trips.

But you limp around in pain for 10 days.

Tired, cranky, uncomfortable. An old man

Tell me how that’s going to get better 10 years from now on it’s own.

It’s going to get worse.

A broken body makes having fun challenging.

It’s a super shitty situation to be in.

It weighs on your family too, because they see you in pain.

But you can fix it.

Which brings me to this…

Barbell squats are great, but life is full of off balance impacts and requirements for stability. Think jumping over a puddle or slipping on ice.

Maybe it’s jumping up onto something or simply stepping up onto a bench to see the fireworks better over a late night crowd.

So while squats and deadlifts might rule for pure muscle mass (arguably,) shrimp and pistol squats should be the cornerstone of your lower body work.

Now I understand that these are very challenging movements when you can barely bend your knees or walk without pain.

Skip challenging, they’re darn near impossible.

But having said that… you’ll find your daily activities becoming easier and painless if you work towards them in a very slow and progressive manner.

Every day gets a little better until 4–6 months from now, you’ll realize one day that nothing hurts.

You just need to be patient and use the right regressions for what’s hurting you NOW.

I just wanted you to know that even though the muscle magazines may be pushing tons of squats, deadlifts and bench presses… these shouldn’t be what you default to.

You have to use the tools that serve you. The tools you have access to easily, and that produce the outcomes you want.

Being able to squeeze in some bodyweight mobility and strength work anywhere and anytime between kids, work, cooking supper, feeding the cats… it all adds up to you getting better.

You can’t really do this with barbell exercises that require travel to the gym, changing your clothes, warming up and all that.

That’s it for today. Just wanted to share some thoughts and let you know I have a free pistol squat course you can download. I created it for myself when I was injured to get me back to teaching fitness boot camps as fast as possible.

Get your free pistol squat course here.

Raymond Burton


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