Here is my take on his top 10 articles:

1. Andropause: if you only read one of these articles, read this one.  Articles drawn from personal experience are, in my opinion, always better than those that have been created from research.  This one is no different.  Here, Mike describes how he came to be interested in hormones and healthy hormone levels.  He gives the background to how he came to have all the symptoms of andropause, including a low sex drive and a poor mood, despite being in his early 30s.  Mike goes on to explain how he dug himself back out of the hole and gives some general recommendations to how you can benefit from his experience. 
2. Leptin: in this article Mike explains how optimising hormone levels is critical to your health.  Hormones influence our moods, thought patterns, behaviors, physical composition and our ability to handle stress. Mike explains that focus of our hormone manipulation should be on the big three hormones, i.e. leptin, insulin, and adrenaline.  Of these three, leptin is the apparently the most important, since insufficient leptin further compromises testosterone and growth hormone.
3. Steve Reeves: as a fan of the oldtime strongmen, it should be no surprise to anyone that I picked this article by Mike on one of the all-time greats of the bodybuilding scene.  Mike gives ten pointers on how Steve trained and also gives a couple of sample workout programmes to boot.
4. Testosterone: as you’re probably gathering by now, Mike is a big fan of optimising hormones through appropriate workout protocols and nutritional programming.  This interesting article has a summary of two different workout programmes, one which he believes will boost testosterone and one which he believes will boost growth hormone.  Even more interesting is the list of key points at the end of the article of other things you can do to boost testosterone naturally.
5. Rest-pause training: this article that Mike did for T-Nation is particularly interesting to me at the moment as I experiment with some DC training.  Here, Mike explains how rest-pause training works.  As he puts it, “since the breaks are short and the weights are heavy, hypertrophy will follow like a charm”.  Sounds good!  In this variation of rest-pause training, Mike suggests that a good way to progress is to start out with 10 x 1 rep of a 3RM on 1 min and then to reduce the rest periods down to 45s, 30s and 15s.  Once 15s is achieved, put the weight up.  Definitely one to try, I think.
6. The swim back: in this short article, Mike gets a bit artistic.  He expounds on his life philosophy by talking about one of the great scenes in the film “Gattaca”.  The story of Gattaca describes how two brothers go through life and are marked by each others’ successes and failures.  As young boys, they often challenged each other to swim far out to sea, each daring the other to swim further.  Every time, the younger and weaker brother lost.  Then one day, the younger brother chose not to save any energy for the swim back.  This time, it was the older brother who gave up.  This became the paradigm around which the two brothers lived the rest of their lives.  The older brother always worked within his limits but the younger took bold risks and lived beyond his (perceived) abilities.  Great film.  Great article.
7. Take charge: Mike tells the story of Adam Shepherd and his book “Scratch Beginnings”, who sets out with nothing more than $25 and a basic education in order to see whether it is possible to get on in life with no head start.  Mike comes to the conclusion that attitude is everything and with the right approach, you can achieve anything.
8. The stair approach to pistols: I have linked to this article before, in my article introducing pistols.  I have found that (especially if you are tall) then it can be a useful way to learn the technique.  I personally believe that most people don’t find pistols hard because they are weak.  I think people find pistols hard because of the balance and the mobility that you need to do them without falling over.  This article is truly great because it recognizes that problem and provides a solution.
9. Protein bars and protein cookies: no Mike Mahler listing would be complete without a reference to his famous protein bars and protein cookies.  Look out for some variants on these coming out on my blog in the summer!
10. Your weakest link: sometimes I think I should print this article by Mike out and stick it on the wall next to my bathroom mirror so I can see it every morning while shaving.  How many times do I have to tell myself that it is pointless continuing to develop my strongest points and best lifts while completely ignoring my weaker ones?  I realize I need to work on my weak points and yet I still find myself in the gym doing pull ups with my bodyweight strapped to my ass and pistols with half my bodyweight in my hands.  On the other hand, I can barely good morning my own weight and my back squat sucks big time.

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So that’s my top 10 articles written by Mike Mahler, a writer who is probably much less well-known than he should be.  If you have a favourite that I have missed off, please let  me know in the comments!

1. Climb stairs – a brand new article about climbing stairs with chains from Elite FTS, just when I need it.  The only problem is that I don’t have any chains.  Hmm, this could be tricky.  Plus, the stairs in my house turn two corners and there’s a big plant at the top which sticks out.
2. Combine running with circuits –Mike Mahler suggests combining running with swings and things.  I like it but I’m not sure I can think of anywhere locally where I could leave a dumbbell lying around and it wouldn’t walk off discretely while I was 200 yards away.
3. Hit things – Mike also gives advice on how to hit things with a hammer.  Sounds good.  I would love to take out some of my hunger-anger out on an inanimate object.  Now I just need a tire and a sledgehammer… damn.
4. Complexes – Chris Shugart has four complexes from four of the best strength coaches in the world.  I hate complexes.  My form goes to hell after the first one and then my joints hurt for days afterwards.  I am sure there are lots of people who are skilled enough to do these safely but I am not one of them.
5. Bike intervals – Dave Draper reminds me that 30s on 30s off for 12 minutes on the bike is as good as anything else these days.  Probably sage advice given the trouble I have finding a routine that I like.  I must confess, I really miss having a Concept 2 rower handy.
6. Hill sprints – Charles Staley recommends hill sprints, which is frustrating as there is a really great hill about 10 minutes jog away from my house.  Frustrating because if I jog there and back as well as running sprints for 20 minutes, it turns into the best part of a 45 minute workout once I’ve put my shoes on and off.  How is that a bad thing, I hear you ask… well, let’s just say I’m not really a cardio king and leave it at that.
7. Lift sandbags – Ben Hanson at ChasingKaz has a great selection of suggestions on how to make use of sandbags for conditioning.  I bought an army duffel bag online about a month ago for £5 and it’s been lying on my dining room floor looking at me accusingly ever since.  Fortunately, the two bags of sand I bought from the local DIY store are round the back of the house so I don’t see them so often…
8. Farmers’ walks – Matthieu Hertilus suggests that I just go and carry heavy stuff around.  Now this sounds promising.  I went through a phase of improvising farmers’ walks in the summer while the weather was nice.  A couple of laps around the garden (it’s quite small, really) and I was definitely feeling it in my upper back and forearms.  I used slings and carabiners to hold 20kg (45lb) plates on dumbbell handles.  Not pretty and they tend to swing around a bit and knock into your legs (especially when you turn corners) but better than nothing.  I’ll do another post tomorrow with some pictures.

Well that’s quite enough cardio for one day.  I need to go and relax on the sofa after all that hard work!

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 Mahler 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…