Building Muscle No Gym ?
- Thread starter Sensei Creation
- Start date
I don't think pistols and bb squats are that tightly correlated. I mean clearly they both hit your legs pretty hard but the leverage is different. I can squat 1.5 my bodyweight but I can barely do a pistol (still working on the progressions). Currently my bb squat failure is in my abs and my pistol squat failure is driving out of the hole - which is much deeper than I typically bb squat. So I don't think you can say x amounts of pistol squats = x % bw on a barbell. Probably a little different for everyone.
Pistol squatting is even less than the equivalent of a barbell back squat.
You're not lifting the leg that's doing the squatting any more than you would with a barbell back squat. According to this website
http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Segments.html
a well proportioned leg will weight about 17% of your bodyweight. So that means that for a 200 lb guy, he's doing something like a 166 lb back squat, and that's without all the benefits of loading your back with external weight. So it's even less effective than an 83% bodyweight back squat.
The real benefits of pistol squatting is that they're the only non-equipment way to exercise your legs. The only way to get any gains with them is to do them for mass reps (we're talking sets of 10-20 for 5 sets minimum) or to do them explosively, with a leap for height and distance. That's exactly the way gymnasts do them.
The one legged squat is not hard to work up to, either. Back when I lived overseas for 6 months, I worked up to an easy set of 5 in my apartment in 2 months of fairly dedicated work. I started with the ability to do something like 30 bodyweight squats a set (I'm a smoker so my conditioning is and always has been horseshit).
Step 1
Work up to at least 50 bodyweight squats, if not 100 consecutive. Look up form for these, since they're lightweight you might as well use picture perfect form to get the most benefit out of these.
Step 2
Open a door so that you can hold onto the doorknob or the edges of the door for assistance, lowering yourself down on one leg. Work up to 5-10 easy reps.
Step 3
Lower yourself on one leg, and raise yourself on two. This will teach you the balance of it, and teach your one leg to work on it's own in the eccentric portion. I did these alternating on each leg for sets of 10. If you're still shaky "in the hole", I recommend doing a pause at the bottom for a count of 5-10 seconds. That would be the picture furthest to the right.
Step 4
When you're comfortable with step 3, attempt a pistol. You should have enough strength to perform at least one. For bodyweight exercises I tend to make a rep goal (let's say it's 20 per leg) and I time myself how long it takes to do them. The next time, I try to beat that number. Once 20 gets too easy, increase the reps, attempt explosive reps for height and/or distance, or add weight with whatever weight you have.
You're not lifting the leg that's doing the squatting any more than you would with a barbell back squat. According to this website
http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Segments.html
a well proportioned leg will weight about 17% of your bodyweight. So that means that for a 200 lb guy, he's doing something like a 166 lb back squat, and that's without all the benefits of loading your back with external weight. So it's even less effective than an 83% bodyweight back squat.
The real benefits of pistol squatting is that they're the only non-equipment way to exercise your legs. The only way to get any gains with them is to do them for mass reps (we're talking sets of 10-20 for 5 sets minimum) or to do them explosively, with a leap for height and distance. That's exactly the way gymnasts do them.
The one legged squat is not hard to work up to, either. Back when I lived overseas for 6 months, I worked up to an easy set of 5 in my apartment in 2 months of fairly dedicated work. I started with the ability to do something like 30 bodyweight squats a set (I'm a smoker so my conditioning is and always has been horseshit).
Step 1
Work up to at least 50 bodyweight squats, if not 100 consecutive. Look up form for these, since they're lightweight you might as well use picture perfect form to get the most benefit out of these.
Step 2
Open a door so that you can hold onto the doorknob or the edges of the door for assistance, lowering yourself down on one leg. Work up to 5-10 easy reps.
Step 3
Lower yourself on one leg, and raise yourself on two. This will teach you the balance of it, and teach your one leg to work on it's own in the eccentric portion. I did these alternating on each leg for sets of 10. If you're still shaky "in the hole", I recommend doing a pause at the bottom for a count of 5-10 seconds. That would be the picture furthest to the right.
Step 4
When you're comfortable with step 3, attempt a pistol. You should have enough strength to perform at least one. For bodyweight exercises I tend to make a rep goal (let's say it's 20 per leg) and I time myself how long it takes to do them. The next time, I try to beat that number. Once 20 gets too easy, increase the reps, attempt explosive reps for height and/or distance, or add weight with whatever weight you have.
Poker
Woodpecker
rudebwoy said:
I'm bumping this thread as I have recently started doing this 3/4 times a week. I do 40 push ups and 40 pull ups back to back in alternating sets of 10.
Though it's only been a few weeks, it's slowly getting easier and I have noticed that my physique is slowly improving
oilbreh
Woodpecker
Try a kettle bell, you can get a 24kg one for around $70, takes up no space and you can do a full body work out. Ive been able to maintain a pretty good physique without going to the gym. I add in pushups and park pull ups. Just got tired of going to the gym, the smell, the pop music, the monotonous work outs I was doing year in year out. As for legs I just do sprints and trail running (strengthens ankles and all the mobility muscles). Our legs weren't really made for squatting 300lbs, and if you do sprints they will be big enough. The guys in the gym with the classic chicken legs get no leg work outs period. I credit one of the dumbest periods in my life when I was obsessed with getting my squat up. What a waste. Granted without hitting the barbell you will never really look huge with clothes on unless you are naturally built like that, but if its fitted or a tank top you will stand out.
