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Kettlebell Beast Tamer - Pistol Squat

WhomtheBellTolls

Level 5 Valued Member
Hi Strongfriends!
I’m on my journey to Beast Tamer. Already able to achieve the Press with the 48.
My pull up is my weakest but am doing the fighter Pull up program every second day and making constant progress.
My issue is the Pistol Squat.. I’m just not sure how to program it. As to how many reps or volume I should be achieving each training day?
Im training the 3 exercises 3 days a week.
I currently do 3 reps with the 32kg on both legs.
 
WhomtheBellTolls said:
Hi Strongfriends!
I’m on my journey to Beast Tamer. Already able to achieve the Press with the 48.
My pull up is my weakest but am doing the fighter Pull up program every second day and making constant progress.
My issue is the Pistol Squat.. I’m just not sure how to program it. As to how many reps or volume I should be achieving each training day?
Im training the 3 exercises 3 days a week.
I currently do 3 reps with the 32kg on both legs.
Click to expand...
Any chance you can upload a vid of your pistol??

What I would recommend at the moment:

Use the 28kg and work up to getting a set of 8-10 reps then retest your 32kg pistol..

Haven't gotten a 48kg pistol yet but when I managed 3-4 with the 36 I got the 44kg
 
Mark Limbaga said:
Any chance you can upload a vid of your pistol??

What I would recommend at the moment:

Use the 28kg and work up to getting a set of 8-10 reps then retest your 32kg pistol..

Haven't gotten a 48kg pistol yet but when I managed 3-4 with the 36 I got the 44kg
Click to expand...
I’ll take a video next time I train them. 44kg is pretty solid! Training them with a higher rep range is better or lower reps more sets?
How do you train them?
 
WhomtheBellTolls said:
I’ll take a video next time I train them. 44kg is pretty solid! Training them with a higher rep range is better or lower reps more sets?
How do you train them?
Click to expand...
It really depends on how you respond..

Some movements respond better to low-medium reps while others respond to medium-high reps
 
Anna C said:
I honestly have no idea how to program pistol squat for the Beast Tamer feat... But I know who I would reach out to! Master SFG @Karen Smith helped me regain OAPU with a super effective 6 week program last year.
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Karen was kind enough to give me her pistol program for free when I reached out to her via email. There might be times that she could not be able to catch up with all emails, or she might not be providing her program for free anymore, but she did for me.

Some of her programs can be found in the articles of SF website + her articles about pistol squats which are on SF website are second to none in the wild.
 
WhomtheBellTolls said:
Hi Strongfriends!
I’m on my journey to Beast Tamer. Already able to achieve the Press with the 48.
My pull up is my weakest but am doing the fighter Pull up program every second day and making constant progress.
My issue is the Pistol Squat.. I’m just not sure how to program it. As to how many reps or volume I should be achieving each training day?
Im training the 3 exercises 3 days a week.
I currently do 3 reps with the 32kg on both legs.
Click to expand...
When I was working towards my first 48kg pistol squat I learned the following things…

No other squatting helps. Barbell squats are next to useless. You better be ready to do a LOT of pistols and only pistols.

Swing a lotta bells. When I was working up to my first attempts at the 48 I’d do my pistol training then do a lot of heavy 2H swings, one arm swings, double swings and double snatches.

As for programming I can offer 2 golden nuggets…

1. Minimise the balance component. When you do the beast squat you’ll only balance on one leg for a few seconds so doing sets of 10 with a light weight is next to useless. You’ll fail because of your balance before you fail because of your strength. I only ever did sets of 1-3 reps but I did a lot of sets. I recommend using 60-90s intervals. So if you currently do 3 reps with 32kg I’d recommend doing 1 rep OTM and build up the sets till you’re doing 10-20 reps per leg in one session. Then progress to 2 reps per set. (Only one leg per minute).

2. Using 2 bells is SIGNIFICANTLY harder and more beneficial than using one bell even if the total weight is the same. I hit 48kg for the first time with one bell very easily. I thought I was nowhere near because I had been training with a pair of 20kg bells. I tried with one 48kg bell on a whim and pleasantly suppressed myself. I didn’t even peak for it!
 
It’s also worth varying the shoes you wear. I can’t remember the beast tamer shoe requirements but I hit my beast pistols barefoot. I found doing some training in converse and some in weightlifting shoes beneficial.

The wider base allowed me to train the movement with even less balance component and thus getting stronger faster.

For want of a better description; it allowed me to learn where I needed to put my Bodyweight whilst providing a bit of a safety net if I got it a little wrong. Like riding a bike with training wheels
 
Simply strong said:
No other squatting helps. Barbell squats are next to useless. You better be ready to do a LOT of pistols and only pistols.
Click to expand...
Never having done a pistol with more than 24kg, take my opinion for what it's worth but I think your statement is only true if you're already strong enough. I've seen people stuck on the floor w. a heavy pistol and their issue was strength, not balance.
 
Boris Bachmann said:
Never having done a pistol with more than 24kg, take my opinion for what it's worth but I think your statement is only true if you're already strong enough. I've seen people stuck on the floor w. a heavy pistol and their issue was strength, not balance.
Click to expand...

When working up to your first pistol squat you should work the following …

Weighted isometric holds in the bottom position

Box pistols (negatives if your not strong enough for that) and weighted box pistols

Full negatives and weighted negatives

Assisted pistols with TRX

Pistols require a lot of skill. Practice that skill
 
Simply strong said:
When working up to your first pistol squat you should work the following …

Weighted isometric holds in the bottom position

Box pistols (negatives if your not strong enough for that) and weighted box pistols

Full negatives and weighted negatives

Assisted pistols with TRX

Pistols require a lot of skill. Practice that skill
Click to expand...
I agree on all of those things. BUT, I strongly disagree with "No other squatting helps" - that was my only point.
 
Boris Bachmann said:
I agree on all of those things. BUT, I strongly disagree with "No other squatting helps" - that was my only point.
Click to expand...
I’m not going to make a statement so strong as to say you’ll have zero benefit.

But it’s worth noting that you HAVE to train pistols first in a session to make sure you minimise the balance component. By the time I got done with pistols I only had energy left for swings and nothing else. So to train other squatting movements you’d have to choose between that or pistols. Given the skill component of pistols I’d always choose to train pistols directly.

Idk when I had pistols as a main focus I just felt like I was wasting time whenever I was doing anything other than pistols and the swing movements I mentioned.
 
Boris Bachmann said:
Again, my point was that if you are too weak for pistols (weighted or bdwt), you might have to start w. (two footed) squats. Are they (almost) worthless from a skill/balance perspective? Yes, but, again, not my point.
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Oh I see! Yes there is great value in training a close stance goblet squat. I think the above variations I mentioned are better but it’s definitely going to strengthen the right places.

As you progress it’s also worth shifting your weight more to one side (trying to get 70-80% of your weight onto one leg). Even once you can do a few full pistols these are worth doing as like a back off set for high volume
 
Slightly off topic but I find a lot of people achieve a weighted pistol before a Bodyweight pistol.

Just like some people can’t squat to depth without a bar on their back I find progressing to a weighted pistol from weighed box pistols and weighted negatives happens quicker than to Bodyweight reps.

Not sure if this a good thing bad thing or irrelevant really but it’s an observation I’ve made.
 
Simply strong said:
Slightly off topic but I find a lot of people achieve a weighted pistol before a Bodyweight pistol.

Just like some people can’t squat to depth without a bar on their back I find progressing to a weighted pistol from weighed box pistols and weighted negatives happens quicker than to Bodyweight reps.

Not sure if this a good thing bad thing or irrelevant really but it’s an observation I’ve made.
Click to expand...
The counterbalance is a big deal for a lot of people.
 
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