But before I talk about that, let’s start at the beginning.

What is a pistol?

A pistol is a one-legged squat to the floor, with the other leg stretched out in front of you.  It challenges your strength, balance and flexibility, all at the same time.  You’ll know you’ve got it right if people ask you if you’ve taken up Cossack dancing.  It looks like this…

Is a pistol just a one-legged squat?

No.  Often, people use the term “pistol” interchangeably with the term “one-legged squat”.  But while a pistol is definitely a one-legged squat, a one-legged squat isn’t necessarily a pistol.  Hmm, I feel a Venn diagram coming on… Or maybe not.  You get the idea.

Some coaches have their athletes do one-legged squats from a bench, to take the flexibility issue for the non-working leg out of the equation.  These one-legged squats aren’t really pistols, as the name comes from the position that the body makes when at the bottom of the lift and the one-legged squat off a bench doesn’t form the pistol shape.

How do you do a pistol?

I am not going to give a pistol tutorial here as there are already plenty of good ones on the internet.  The best tutorials I have seen are:

• Beast Skills Pistol Tutorial – Jim goes through a number of techniques for learning the pistol.  I particularly like the door frame technique as it was the way I learned.  Did I mention that I want to be Jim when I grow up?
• Mike Mahler Stair-Step Approach to One-Legged Squats – Mike explains how to use a normal flight of stairs to learn the pistol.  Nice and simple.
• Steve Cotter’s Mastering the One-Legged Squat – Steve gives some useful guidelines on what to do if you have any pain or discomfort while doing pistols.  And we’d be wise to listen to Steve.  His name has a tendency of cropping up when people talk about pistols.

OK, I’ve mastered the pistol.  What’s next?

Add weight.  Use dumbbells, kettlebells, or plates.  I am currently languishing at around 30kg but hoping to hit half-bodyweight (c. 36kg) by the end of October.

When I add weight, I tend to use a 12″ box to stand on.  This helps me avoid stressing my lower back.  By using a box, I decrease the amount of lumbar flexion I undergo during the exercise, as my inactive leg gets to drop a bit lower.  It also makes it easier to hold the weights, as they don’t hit the floor.

You can see that I look a lot more comfortable on the box than on the ground!

How does that stack up?

Poorly.  Dragondoor runs a beast tamer challenge, which is regarded as quite a tough test that includes pistols and very few people achieve it.  I think there are 13 officially recorded successes to date.  The challenge is to lift a 48kg kettlebell in the following lifts:

• a pull-up
• a pistol
• a one-arm press

Of course, there could be lots of people who have achieved the 48kg pistol but struggle with the one-arm press and pull-up but I doubt it…

So who holds the world record?

I wish I knew for sure!  Happily, Adam is there to help.  Coming back to the Investments Series, Adam says “I think the best pistol squatter in the world is Steve Cotter, who is able to pistol two 32kg bells, and most impressively leap from the floor at bottom position to a table top with ease (video).”

Doing a bit of my own research, I found a reference on the Dragondoor forum to someone asking the same question who has the biggest pistol?  On that thread, the answer was also Steve Cotter, with 2 x 40kg kettlebells.  Whether that’s internet inflation or incremental improvement on the 2 x 32kg that Adam remembers, it is hard to say…

Double bodyweight pistol?

I am going to assume that Steve probably weighs at least 80kg, so the rough ball-park for the world record pistol is therefore around double bodyweight, which has a nice ring to it.  I can’t find any reference to this on Google, but if anyone can point me in the right direction, I’d be really interested to hear about it…

Garage gym goers don’t spend time in their garage for the décor or the ambiance.  They can’t distract themselves from an unsuccessful workout by ogling girls on the treadmill, retreating to the sauna or floating in the pool.  The garage gym goer wants results.

Results can be measured in pounds or kilograms, by a measuring tape around the waist, or the more high-tech method of taking a photograph in front of a mirror.  Results can be hitting the deadlift PR you’ve been working towards for three years or finally getting your first one-arm press up.

Whatever result you want, there are articles on the internet that will tell you how to achieve it.  But how can you know which articles are trustworthy and which are not?

The top 10 free strength and fitness websites

Here at The Garage Gym Online, I’ve been combing the internet for several years now for the best information on strength training, fat loss and fitness.  This is my top 10 list of the resources and writers that I have come to rely upon:

1. T-Nation must be at the top of any list of free resources for strength training.  T-Nation have gone out of their way to be the premier free source of the highest quality information in the field, attracting the best writers and the best coaches to share their insights.  The only caveat is that they are also a supplement company so beware the hype when it comes to articles about supplements.
2. Eric Cressey is probably the fastest rising star of the celebrity strength and conditioning coaches on the internet at the moment.  His material is always worth reading and his insights are wide-ranging.  He has particular expertise in baseball (and therefore shoulder injuries).  I benefited hugely from Eric’s writing (mostly published on T-Nation) two years ago when I overdid my pull-ups and dips and neglected my foam rolling.  A couple of weeks following some of Eric’s protocols in his shoulder savers series on T-Nation and I was back in the gym and have had no problems since.
3. Mike Robertson is another rising star who has done much to alter the face of the strength and conditioning market as it is seen on the internet.  Mike does a regular podcast where he interviews other strength coaches.  These are always worth listening to and Mike often brings other extremely knowledgeable people into the limelight who wouldn’t normally seek it.
4. Diesel Crew are the authority on the internet for grip training but they also have a number of great general “how to” articles, including the best “how to squat” article I have ever read.
5. Elite FTS are the authority on the internet for powerlifting.  I learned more from Dave Tate’s “how to bench” video than anything else I have ever seen.  The next time I was in the garage, lying on the bench, all I could hear was Dave’s voice in my head saying “you don’t know how to f**king bench, keep your traps tight and grip the bar tighter”.  I swear my bench went up 5kgs just by watching that video.
6. Lyle MacDonald is probably the one source of dietary information as regards cutting fat or gaining muscle that I trust on the internet (with the caveat that Alan Aragon is starting to win me over but that’s another story).  From his early appearances on T-Nation to his present status as fat-loss guru, Lyle has always won my respect.
7. Dragondoor, the vehicle for the remarkable human that is Pavel Tsatsouline, is a great source of articles about bodyweight and kettlebell training.  Not very frequently updated, I tend only to go there if I am looking for an article that I have already read before.
8. Beast Skills is the bodyweight exercise website I always dreamed of creating but have never been strong enough to do.  All I can say is, I want to be Jim when I grow up.  Wait… I’m already older than he is… Damn.
9. Strength Coach Podcasts is a free podcast that offers an insight into the world of Mike Boyle’s Strength Coach, a subscription-only site that boasts a roster of the most well-known sports and strength coaches in the US. 
10. Superhuman Radio is another free podcast run by the extremely easy-going and likeable Carl Lanore.  Carl’s zest for life and sheer enjoyment at discussing strength and fitness, particularly as he embarks on his fifth decade, is a joy to listen to.  Miss this and your life will be poorer for it.

That’s it for the websites.  I hope you found it a useful list.  Did I miss any out that you would have put in?  Do you have any great websites to share?  I’m always on the lookout for new information that I can put to work in my garage and I’d appreciate any insights you may have.

Next week, I’m going to write about the top 10 strength and fitness blogs that I read regularly.