Free Pistol

Squat · reps · unilateral The endpoint: a full-depth one-leg squat, no weight, no wedge, no support.

The movement

A complete single-leg squat at full depth — hamstring to calf — with nothing: no counterweight, no heel wedge, no hand support. Descend in balance, pause at the bottom, drive back to standing on one leg. The canonical pistol, the reference standard of bodyweight single-leg squatting.

Set-up — and what each part is for

  • Foot flat; free leg forward, off the floor.
  • Arms your choice — forward is most common (natural counterweight); by the sides is harder (more internal leverage). → feel the whole leg own the balance and the load.
  • Torso upright to start; gaze forward.

The rep — rehearse it before you do it

  • Descend in 2–3 s: knee bends, hips back, torso leans forward, free leg stays forward. → feel the quadriceps and glute carry full bodyweight through the deepest range.
  • Bottom: hamstring near/on calf, 1 s, controlled, heel planted.
  • Drive up through the whole foot to standing, no momentum.
  • Switch sides after all reps on one side.

Breathing

Inhale on the descent, exhale on the drive up; a brief brace at the bottom is natural under full load.

Watch for

  • Bouncing or rocking at the bottom → a controlled pause is the standard, no momentum.
  • Free leg dropping → hip flexor fatigue; set is over.
  • Backward or forward fall → not fully consolidated; return to level 9, use a fingertip if needed, rebuild, re-test.
  • Heel lifting → residual ankle limitation under fatigue.

Within the level

The endpoint stays active after the criterion is met.

  • Harder: arms by the sides; deficit pistol (stand on a raised surface, free leg drops below the floor); slow tempo; added load if you can track it (Open Path).
  • Easier: re-introduce arms-forward or a fingertip; drop to the arms-counterweight level (9).

A note on anatomy. The strict free pistol is partly a question of body proportions. Longer femurs relative to the shins, or stubborn ankle-mobility limits, can make it mechanically hard regardless of strength. If it stalls after long practice and honest ankle work, that may be anatomy, not a training failure — a lasting practice at the counterweight levels (7–8) is a legitimate strength endpoint in its own right. The strict free pistol is one valid endpoint, not the only one.

Dose

Test a clean max per side, then practice at half of the weaker side rounded down, capped at 5 reps per set, same count both sides, weaker side first, spread through the day. At a 3-rep criterion, the daily set is typically 1 clean rep per side.