The Pistol Squat is one of THE best bodyweight exercises for the legs. It's essentially a freestanding one-legged squat, coming down with your non-supporting leg shooting straight out in front.
It's a great exercise...extremely challenging and incredibly effective for developing leg strength and power.
It's also a simple straight-up-and-down movement with very little LATERAL muscle involvement.
That's where THIS version of the Pistol comes in.
This Pistol exercise works more of the glutes than the regular version...
This exercise is going to take the Pistol one step further by adding in a lateral component to the movement pattern. This is going to increase the involvement of the gluteus medius and minimus muscles of the hip.
These two muscles are the smaller of the "gluteus" muscles and are two of the primary abductors of the hip (which means they act to move the leg away from the centerline of the body).
For complete glute development, you need to work these muscles...and for maximum lateral strength and power, which is absolutely CRITICAL for sports and athletic performance, you NEED to include direct lateral movements into your training.
This exercise fits the bill and requires basically ZERO equipment to do...just something solid to hold onto.
If you're a woman looking to target your glute and hip area in addition to your legs, this exercise is a very effective way to do that when training at home.
How To Do The Pistol Side Squat for Gluteus Medius...
First, stand beside that solid object, balancing on the foot that is closest to the object. I'm just using the upright of my power rack, but you can use literally anything that you can get a grip on that's solid enough to support your weight as you're doing the exercise.
Your foot should be about a foot away from the object.
Now start to squat down on that plant leg, with your other leg pointing forward.
Here's where the grip on the object comes in. It's going to act as a way to spot yourself (if needed) AND most importantly for our purposes, it's going to act as a PIVOT point for the squat.
Come ALL the way down until your butt is ALMOST touching the ground. You should be leaning to the side about 45 degrees at this point, using your arm to maintain the angle of your body.
DO NOT sit down on the ground and DO NOT let any part of your leg touch the ground.
Now dig in and push back up. Your grip on the object will be the pivot point again as you try to push AWAY from the object. This is what's going to activate the gluteus medius and minimus strongly.
Come all the way up to the top then repeat for as many reps as you can get.
This is a tough exercise, so if you can only come down part of the way, that's fine. Just squat down as far as you can and you'll still get great benefits from the exercise.
Once you've done all your reps on one leg, switch to the other leg.
Get as many reps as you can on the other side then you're done your set.
You'll very quickly discover which side of your body is stronger doing this kind of single-leg training as well.
If you get strong enough that you can perform 6 to 8 rep sets of this exercise and you want to start adding extra resistance, you can very easily hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in your non-gripping hand, or even wear a weight vest. There are plenty of options.
Give this exercise a try next time you're working legs or focusing on bodyweight training...it's a bodyweight leg exercise that hits the hips in a very unique and very effective fashion.
For a more conventional pistol style of exercise, but with assistance, try the Towel Pistol.
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Want more unique and challenging exercises to work your entire body with simple equipment? All you need is just a barbell, dumbbells and a bench. Check out The Best Home Gym Exercises You've Never Heard Of!
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