The clean and jerk is a complex and technical weightlifting movement that requires a solid level of skill and strength. It is a two-part lift that involves lifting a barbell from the ground to the shoulders (the clean), then locking out the barbell overhead (the jerk).

The clean and jerk is one of the two lifts contested in the sport of weightlifting, along with the snatch. In this article, we will take a detailed look at the different phases of the clean and jerk and how to perform each phase correctly.

How to Clean Like an Olympic Athlete

We’re going to focus on the full squat clean, not the power clean or split clean or any other variation. The squat clean is the most common and efficient method for moving the most weight possible.

Don’t be fooled by watching the pros make it look easy. There are actually five main phases of the clean:

1. The setup
2. The first pull
3. The second pull
4. The third pull
5. And the squat

It’s important to understand that while there are broad techniques most athletes can apply to their training, you should work on the fine details with a coach if possible.

The Set Up

How you set up for a clean will vary somewhat based on your proportions. A good rule of thumb here is that when viewed from the side, the lifter’s hips should be higher than the knees, the shoulders above the hips, and in front of the bar, the elbow pits rotated in, and most importantly mid-foot pressure.

Those with longer legs may have higher hips and a wider stance, while those with shorter legs may have their hips lower and stance narrower. I suggest experimenting to see what feels the best for you!

The First Pull

The first pull is generally referred to as the pull from the ground until the bar passes the knee. The main priority of the first pull is to not let the bar move forward off the ground and to maintain the same torso angle from the ground to the knee. I prefer to think of this as the “first push” as most people let their hips rise too fast — imagining this as pushing against the ground with your legs helps fix this issue.

In order to prevent the bar from moving forward around your knees, you need to move your knees back out of the way WITHOUT letting your balance shift back to your heels or letting your toes lift. This will help you get a better drive with the legs as you transition to the second pull.

One way to isolate and work on your first pull is with the tempo clean. By slowing down the pull, you can notice and fix things you normally speed through, which has a ton of potential to clean up your technique.

The Second Pull

The second pull happens as the lifter transitions from right above the knee until the extension of the legs (around hip-height). The main goal is to get your knees under the bar enough to have optimal leg drive while still keeping your shoulders in front of the bar. As the bar crosses your knees after the first pull, you’ll need to push your knees forward under the bar without leaning your torso back behind the bar. This solves both of the main priorities of the second pull and allows for maximal leg drive.

This also leads to a more vertical bar path, preventing athletes from pushing the bar away with the hips, resulting in a loopy bar path. A good cue is to try to make your hips AND knees extend at the same time, not hips first, then knees. One drill you can use to work on this is the double pause clean. By stopping above the knee, you can isolate the second pull and make any changes to your normal technique. This solves many issues in the second pull, helping with your power output.

The Third Pull

The third pull can be tricky to understand, but it’s the difference between elite lifts and amateur ones. The third pull happens from the top of the extension to the bottom of the squat. The goal of the third pull is not to elevate the bar any higher, but to use the moment of weightlessness it has at the peak of its height to pull yourself under the bar.

The idea here is that instead of pull, drop, catch, we’re much faster if we pull OURSELVES under the bar. This allows us to meet the bar better instead of having it crash on us at the bottom making the squat much easier to recover from.

Another goal of the third pull is to keep the bar close to the body as we pull under. Rotating the elbows as I mentioned in the set-up portion of the article will make a big difference with this. One way you can practice this is with the tall clean, which is a great drill to learn how to keep the bar close AND has the added benefit of helping improve speed under the bar!

The Squat

Once you land in the bottom of a front squat, you’ll need to stand the weight up to complete the clean. This is a good chance to talk about foot movement. Most people should start with a closer pulling stance, then move their feet out at the top of the extension (third pull) and land in their squat stance. Doing this will help make the squat feel easier and set you up for a better jerk.

Perhaps the biggest key to making the squat feel easy is to meet the bar on the way down with braced abs. These two things allow you to ride the bounce of the squat rather than get pinned at the bottom and be forced to pause-front squat it up and waste a ton of energy on the recovery. Check out this video for a quick front squat tutorial!

Dialing in Your Split Jerk

Let’s focus on the split jerk rather than the push, power, or squat jerk. Most athletes use the split jerk in competition as it has the highest ratio of efficiency:room-for-error.

There are five main phases of the split jerk:

1. Rack position
2. Dip
3. Drive
4. Transition to split
5. Recovery

Rack Position

The rack position for the jerk is sometimes different from that of the clean/front squat. The main priority is keeping a vertical torso and choosing an elbow height that allows you to stay vertical in the dip and drive. While most coaches universally agree, high-as-possible is the best elbow height for the clean, there is much more wiggle room for the jerk.

My personal preference is lower elbows with the shoulders pushed forward, and the bar resting in the palms while behind the delts and in front of the collarbone. You should generally choose a grip on the barbell that’s easy to transition to from the clean. Either the same or slightly wider than your clean grip works for most athletes. This allows you to have the most efficient punch under the bar (though your mobility and proportions may force higher elbow height or a bar placement further toward the fingertips).

Stance is less important, but for most people, I recommend choosing a stance that is wide enough to prevent falling forward in the dip, but not too wide where you lose out on power output. This takes some experimentation. As always, try it for yourself and find what works best for you!

The Dip

The dip is where most mistakes are made in the lift. The dip takes place from the standing rack position to the lowest point the bar goes by bending into your knees. The main priorities of the dip are to keep the torso completely vertical, to control the timing of the dip, and to control the height of the dip.

Most issues in the jerk can be solved by focusing on these main points. If you’re falling forward in the dip, you will likely push the bar forward overhead. If you dip too suddenly, you’ll likely begin the drive too slowly and have the bar crash on you at the bottom of the lift. If you dip too low, you’ll likely fall forward at the bottom of the dip.

One drill you can use to nail your dip technique is the pause jerk + jerk complex, which allows you to fix any issues in the dip before completing the rest of the lift!

The Drive

The drive is often not an issue if the dip was perfect, however, there are a few things you’ll want to focus on. The drive happens from the lowest point in the dip to the highest point of the barbell. The goal of the drive is to maintain a vertical torso, to make the legs do 100% of the work to elevate the bar, and to time the punch under correctly.

While it is mainly a priority in the dip to keep the torso vertical, and not often a huge problem to drive forward out of a vertical dip, it’s still something you should be aware of. A good cue is to drive through the heels as much as possible which should stop you from leaning forward in the drive.

In order to make your legs do the work, your arms should be relatively relaxed throughout the dip and drive. Rely on your legs for the upward power. Only once the bar has reached maximum height do your arms actually take on any weight, but that is for the next phase. If you focus on these cues, you’ll have a TON of success with all variations of the jerk.

The Transition To Split

Once you’ve launched the bar from your shoulders to its highest position in space, you’ll need some fancy footwork to land in a split position. The success of this phase of the lift is largely based on two things; timing of your arms, and the speed/balance of your footwork.

If your legs have done the job correctly in the dip phase, then your arms’ should add speed to the lift by punching your body under the bar into the split. Similar to the “pull under” in the third pull of the clean, the “punch under” takes advantage of the weightlessness of the bar at the peak of the drive. Rather than falling under, we can make the lift faster and more controlled by punching ourselves under the bar.

It’s important to note that if your arms begin working too soon before you complete the drive, or too late after the drive, your timing will be off resulting in a press out or loss of speed. If the timing of the punch is something you need to practice, I suggest using the tall jerk as part of your warm-up. This drill is designed to help lifters feel the punch and use their arms/shoulders to create speed under the bar.

When it comes to footwork and balance in the split, there are a lot of variations from lifter to lifter based on proportions (are we seeing a theme here?), but a good rule of thumb is to aim for these main points:

• Vertical front shin
• Bent back knee
• Back heel off the ground
• Balance 50/50 between both legs
• Torso vertical and core braced

One way you can work on just the footwork element of the lift is to practice bodyweight footwork drills. These are low-impact and don’t tax the shoulders, making it easy to get a ton of practice in. By keeping the timing, footwork, and balance in mind, you’ll be an incredibly efficient lifter, and won’t need to rely on a large amount of strength reserves to move big weights.

Recovering The Split

Recovering from the split jerk takes place from the lowest point of the split to the final point of the lift before dropping the bar. This is a relatively simple phase, with the main goal to maintain stability in the recovery. The key is to prevent the bar from moving forward or backward while you’re standing up. The best way to do this is to use 1-2 shuffle steps with your front foot, then one step forward with your back leg.

This recovery method helps prevent any big steps in either direction that result in the barbell moving laterally. It’s much less likely you’ll miss the lift by taking large, unstable steps. Often lifters will take a big step forward with the back leg, causing the bar to drift forward, sometimes missing the lift at the last moment. Less often, but still happens is taking a big step back with the front leg and missing the lift behind or losing stability.

To work on this, practice pausing in your split position for two seconds each rep to stabilize and give yourself time to remember how to recover correctly. You can also use jerk recovery to isolate and practice just the recovery phase of the lift. (PLUS you’ll be able to go heavier than you could jerk, which is great for confidence in your overhead strength.)

Applying Your Technique Work In Training

We covered a ton of information today, which can leave a lot of people feeling confused about where to start. If you’re brand new to the Olympic lifts, I recommend checking out my FREE beginner weightlifting program. This will take you from never-touched-a-barbell to feeling confident and strong in your snatch and clean and jerk!

If you’re already training the clean and jerk but want to work on each of these phases, then pick out which phase you need to work on, and try the drills I mentioned for each phase. You can make a ton of progress with some periodic, intentional work, either before or after your normal training sessions.

Sample Workout

Double Pause Clean + Double Pause Jerk

Double Pause Clean: pause above the knee and pause in the power position, then finish the clean as normal.
Double Pause Jerk: pause at the bottom of the dip and pause in the split position

3x (3+3) at 60%
3x (2+2) at 65%
1x (1+1) at 70%
1x (1+1) at 75%
1x (1+1) at 80%

The lighter volume work here will give you plenty of reps to practice, before applying the new techniques you learn on the heavier sets. Give this workout a try and tag me @bigbendstrength on Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube.

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Your glutes are the largest muscle group in your body. They’re responsible for almost everything your legs do—walking, running, jumping, squatting, lunging, and just standing upright. As far as moving through space goes, strong glutes are the bedrock of overall athleticism & the lunge is the queen of all glute exercises.

Master Lunges for Powerful Glutes

The most accomplished athletes have well-rounded glutes, especially if their sport demands a lot of explosive hip movement. Olympic gymnasts, sprinters, weightlifters, NFL athletes, and professional cyclists all have similarly intense demands required from their lower trunks.

Full glutes have been featured in ancient works of art for centuries and as a more recent obsession in pop culture. It’s impossible to miss when someone is gluteal-endowed and we may be hard-wired to notice:

“It stands to reason that both males and females were attracted to nice glutes, instinctively making the connection to big, strong glutes and survival, reproduction, hunting and protection.”

Bret Contreras, Glen Cordoza (2019); The Glute Lab.

So how do you build yourself one of those coveted plump rumps that men, women, and nonbinary people alike pretend not to side-eye? First of all, if you don’t want a bigger butt, you’re lying (even if you’ve already got one), so let’s accept that fact. Second, it pays to understand your anatomy.

Glute Anatomy Refresher

Your glutes are made up of three major muscles that articulate your hip joints in several different directions:

• Abduction (moving the leg away from the body, out to the side)
• Extension (pulling the leg out behind you when running)
• External rotation (butterfly pose or frog stretch)
• Internal rotation (hockey goalie stance)

The largest and most known, gluteus maximus, does the bulk of the work and is the main muscle we have to thank for keeping us bipedal. Its number one job is to bring your body back to an upright position after stooping, crouching, or squatting.

The second largest muscle, the gluteus medius, is most responsible for internal and external rotation of the hip, while the smaller gluteus minimus helps to abduct the thigh.

Why Lunge?

Lunges hit all of the major muscles in your posterior chain: quads, hamstrings, calves, and of course, your glutes. Thinking back to our anatomy, lunges are the exact up-and-down movement that the glutes are in charge of. Weight training with lunges adds load to your glutes to make them stronger in their most purposeful movement: pushing your legs against the ground.

Lunges are excellent for unilateral strength—they also challenge your hip and core stability. They’re the perfect bodyweight movement to burn out your butt for accessory work, but if you want real glute hypertrophy and soreness, weighted lunges are the way to go.

Start working in a few sets of heavier or high-rep lunges once a week and check that dump truck in the mirror again after a few months. Use our guide and try every lunge variation out there to keep things spicy.

How to Do Barbell Reverse Lunges

Points of Performance

Lunges are super versatile and can be done without any equipment or holding whatever weight you have available. The barbell lunge is pretty basic so we’ll focus on that to break down the form, then cover other variations later.

No matter where you hold weight, your core should stay tight and stable.

If you start to wobble, or your back loses tension and your core turns to mashed potatoes, scale the weight down to something more manageable.

Forward vs. Reverse?

Both variations work the entire posterior chain, but there’s a slight emphasis on the quads with forward lunges and a slight emphasis on the glutes with reverse lunges. For our booty-building purposes, we encourage step-back or reverse lunges.

Setup

Unrack the barbell on your back like you would for a back squat. With your feet about hip-width stance, keep your chest up and brace your core to make sure you’re not arching into your low back. Maintain a neutral spine with your eyes forward.

Lunge

Step one leg back landing on the ball of your foot and allow your back knee to kiss the ground. You only need to go back far enough to create about a 90 degree angle with your bent front leg. Most of your weight should be in that front leg, while the rear leg is mainly there for balance. Keep your front knee tracking in line with your toes, don’t let it cave in or flare out. Maintain an upright torso, no leaning.

Recover

Press into the ground with your front leg (feeling your glutes fire) and bring the rear leg up to meet the front, coming back up to a standing position. Repeat for reps on the same side, or switch legs to alternate.

Lunge Variations (change how you hold the weight)

Lunges are a natural movement that don’t require equipment. But if you want to hold weight for stronger glutes or mix up the way you lunge, there are a ton of ways to do it. Pretty much any of the ways to hold weight below can be combined with any of the ways to lunge, so pick your poison.

Suitcase Lunge

As the name implies, hold a dumbbell, kettlebell, or soup can in each hand down at your sides, like you’re carrying two suitcases. Like a farmer’s carry, this variation works the stabilizers in your shoulders as well.

Back Rack Lunges

Hold the weight on your back like you would for a back squat (reference our Points of Performance above). Feel free to try this one using a sandbag, family pet, or small child.

Front Rack Lunges

Hold a barbell, kettlebells, or dumbbells on your shoulders like you would for a front squat or when catching a power clean. Keep your elbows pointing relatively forward to support the weight.

Bowtie Lunges

This cutely-named variation is reminiscent of the goblet squat and a good way to lunge with lighter weight. Hold a single dumbbell under your chin, gripping each head in one hand (which looks like you’re wearing a bow tie).

Single Arm Lunges

Hold weight in one hand at a time for any variation of your choice. This will challenge your midline stability and balance more than supporting weight equally in both hands.

Overhead Lunges

Hold a weight overhead with one arm at a time or both. This is a more advanced variation, so be sure to keep your ribs down and core tight to keep from arching your back or overextending your shoulders.

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Have you seen people on that weird machine, kicking back with both legs like some kind of superhero donkey?? The reverse hyperextension is actually an extremely useful movement for building posterior chain strength, and it pays to understand it.

Reverse Hypers: Crazy-looking, Crazy Effective

Reverse hyperextensions are often underutilized by even competitive athletes. They’re not a popular/common exercise and the dust on the reverse hyper machine is testament to that. It’s awkward and weird to watch, and probably not the most comfortable position for some people.

So, a lot of reverse hyper machines become jacket hangers and tables for water bottles and phones.

But clearly it’s not a useless movement, or the machine wouldn’t have been invented by the badass coaches at Westside Barbell. In fact, if you want a unique movement to add to your rotation of lunges, hip thrusts, and other glute training methods, the reverse hyper is where it’s at.

Why Are Reverse Hypers So Useful?

They Develop Strong Glutes & Low Back…

Reverse hyperextensions are used to load the spine without axially loading it (like with a good morning). We can get a tremendous range of motion and muscle activation through your lumbar back muscles, glutes and hamstrings, which ultimately improves the condition of the entire posterior chain.

Reverse hypers particularly generate a strong glute activation — building them into your glute training program is recommended by many major S&C coaches. Not least because there are few exercises with a straight leg (and therefore greater moment arm) that allow for such a wide range of motion at the hips with the potential for heavy load.

One interesting study found that open chain/straight leg movements such as the reverse hyperextension increase glute activation as much as 19.5%, as well as hamstring activation by 27.9% when compared to closed-chain exercises such as the RDL.

…Which Helps Prevent Injuries

I frequently use reverse hyperextensions with athletes that I’m expecting to take on large, high-volume loads through their lower back. This might include soldiers who are marching long distances or runners who will inevitably start rotating and tilting their hips more during long runs. Most are athletes who want to squat deeper than 90° (parallel), like Olympic lifters or Crossfitters. These athletes are often at risk of posterior pelvic tilt, aka “butt wink” and lower back or glute injuries.

Progressively increasing the load intensity and volume on reverse hypers builds robustness in the tendons of their lower backs through a wide range of motion. This matters because no matter how many times we cue a strong brace, proper hip angle, or glute activation, at some point they will stand up out of a squat with excessive anterior or posterior pelvic tilt. This puts the muscles and tendons of the lower back under stress, so it helps to bulletproof the back body as much as possible.

This improvement in elastic absorption and fast twitch fibers in the hips and lower back is useful for runners, team sports, martial artists (especially those who kick) and a ton of other sport types. By stabilizing the hips and glutes, you can increase your ability to apply force to the ground when running, which makes you faster, more dynamic, and less likely to tweak something.

How to Do Reverse Hypers

There are two ways I suggest doing reverse hyperextensions on the reverse hyper machine.

Controlled Tempo

Breathe in, brace your core and extend your legs back. To activate your glutes more, turn your toes out, otherwise drive upwards through your heels. Squeeze at the top and return to start slowly and under control.

Fast & Full ROM

My favorite for building greater tolerance in lower back muscles and tendons — it’s the same as doing plyometric drills for your ankles, knees and hips. Swing your legs back and up as far as you can, then let the weight swing forward as far as possible, rounding/tucking your back under as you do. Swing back up into full hyperextension of the lower back and glutes.

The intended posterior pelvic tilt at the bottom causes a stretch in the lower back (under minimum effective load) which is great for undoing the damage any sedentary lifestyle choices might have.

This method is also great for building up a tolerance for “butt wink” in squats, since lower back tendons can tolerate greater volumes of stretch under tension with undesired pelvic tilt.

Variations Without a Machine

• Supermen
• Good mornings
• RDL
• Kettlebell swings
• GHD razors/extensions

If you don’t have access to a reverse hyper machine, you can also perform the movement on a GHD or over a bench set up like this:

1. Position the bench at about a 45° angle. Adjust the angle based on your height and what feels comfortable.
2. Lie with your torso on the bench so that your pelvis is supported but your hips and thighs hang off the back. Grip the side of the bench to keep your torso stable.
3. Keeping your knees straight, raise your legs by extending your hips and contracting your glutes. Return to the start position under control. Get creative by adding bands or ankle weights if you have them!

Programming Reverse Hypers

I like to include reverse hypers into my athletes’ programs twice a week or so. More than that isn’t necessary if you’re already getting reasonable loads through your back and glutes from other areas of training.

One session should aim for roughly 50% of bodyweight load to encourage greater ROM under tension. Opt for the second method of form with greater ballistic movement and less control over the tempo.

The other session should work with slower reps at around 70-100% of body weight. Gradually build up to these targets if you haven’t trained that kind of intensity before.

Work in between 2-4 sets of 10-20 reps. The coaches at Westside Barbell might include sets of up to 200 reps, but we usually have other things to do with our day beside reverse hypers.

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We get it. You’re pressed for time in the gym. But skipping the warm up is the surest way to underperform and risk injury. This 3D approach to your bench press warm up not only allows you to lift more weight, but also ensures the long-term health of your shoulder joints and ligaments (which are especially at risk when bench pressing).

Don’t Clown Around With Your Warmups

We’ve all seen that casual gym bro come straight out of the changing room, walk over to the bench press and do a couple of arm swings, then move directly into a working set of 135lbs or 225lbs on the bar. Maybe we’ve even been that guy – don’t lie!

The problem with this lack of warm up is that it can limit your longevity in the weight room, especially when it comes to barbell movements. Without a proper warm up, you’re essentially beating up your joints and muscle tissues.

The barbell bench press can wreak havoc on your shoulders over time.

I see many programs include a ton of scapular-focused primer movements, but that’s only hitting one piece of a well-rounded warm up. For an injury-free bench press, you need a 3D approach to your warm up that includes thoracic mobility, scapula activation, internal rotation inhibition, and external rotation activation.

4 Keys to an Optimal Bench Press

#1 Improve Your Thoracic Mobility

Tackling t-spine mobility depends on your restriction in thoracic extension/flexion and rotation. Getting an assessment is the best way to find this out. An assessment for thoracic extension usually consists of testing your range of motion when lifting your arms above your head:

You can easily test your thoracic rotation at home. Position yourself into child’s pose, place a hand behind your back, and rotate up toward the hand on your back. You should be able to rotate at least 50 degrees.

Once you’ve determined your thoracic limitations/restrictions, add the necessary exercises to your warmup in order to get those tissues mobile. If your thoracic extension could use some work, get a foam roller and actively move through extension and flexion with the roller on your upper back.

If you need help with thoracic rotation, try the thread-the-needle movement. Position yourself into a quadruped (all fours) position and “thread” one arm under your body and across/past your other arm. Repeat this motion on the other side.

#2 Activate Your Scapula

The next part of a proper bench press warm up is activating your scapula retractors. Getting an upper back pre-bench pump preps all of the necessary muscle groups prior to starting your bench press/chest workout.

Some common examples of scapular-dominant movements are band pull-aparts, face pulls, scap push-ups, and YTW stretch.

#3 Inhibit Internal Rotation

The bench press requires you to internally rotate your shoulders forward. As a part of this warm up, you want to inhibit internal rotation. Basically, this is just stretching the muscles responsible for internal rotation.

To accomplish this, you need to do more than just stretch your chest/pecs. What other muscles are involved in internally rotating your shoulders? That’s right, your lats.

There’s a number of ways you can stretch your lats. I suggest picking a few of your favorites and holding them for 3-4 deep breaths.

#4 Activate External Rotation

The final portion of this warm up is activating external rotation (rotator cuff exercises). Your rotator cuffs include three main muscles: teres minor, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus. These muscles help stabilise the shoulder by allowing the head of the humerus to properly fit into its socket with muscular balance front-to-back.

You can activate these muscles with cables, bands, and/or dumbbells from seated or standing positions.

I recommend doing these four movements for 2-3 sets. To incorporate them into your program, perform all four movements, then complete one warm up set of bench press with an empty barbell. Go back to your warm up and complete the total number sets.

Remember: your warm up should be fluid and written with a pencil, not a pen. I say this because you don’t want to be following the same warm up routine forever. Your warm up should change with your workout and with any injury concerns or sticky tissues.

I recommend periodically getting assessed to see if you need any different exercises or modifications.

Increasing blood flow and adequately warming up your ligaments is the best way to reduce injury, prime your muscles to lift more weight, and hit new PRs. The next time your workout includes the bench press, try this comprehensive warm up method and see how your session goes.

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Glute gains are one of the hottest subjects in fitness. Hip thrusts, banded squats, clamshells, monster walks — the assortment of glute exercises is all over the place these days. Want to simplify your glute training with one really dominant movement? RDLs are where it’s at.

RDLs Rule for Glute Strength

When performed correctly, RDLs net a huge muscle response for growth in the glutes. Hip thrusts only target a small range of motion compared to the RDL. What do you need for building muscle? Range of motion. This is where the RDL takes home the gold.
But you need to execute it correctly.

Why is Range of Motion Important?

When we want to grow a muscle, the amount of range we can go through with that muscle is the key to its growth. As is putting the muscle under load during both the concentric (the “up” phase of a lift) and eccentric phase (the “down”) of a lift. The deeper your range of motion through a movement (with control), the more stretching and “tearing” the muscle endures, which is what leads to hypertrophy.

The RDL combines the best of both worlds — you don’t rest the weight on the ground at the bottom of the lift, so your posterior chain is under constant tension for the entire set.

The hip thrust, on the other hand, uses a very small range of motion and it’s easy to forget to control the eccentric phase, so you might find your glutes are working less.

How To Hinge For Perfect Romanian Deadlift Form

The reason most people botch the RDL is because they can’t hinge. We’ve all seen those videos of people rounding their backs, looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Another fault is squatting instead of hinging so they only feel their quads working.

There’s a simple and easy way to learn how to hinge. It starts by opening a door.

Yes, open a door to about 45 degrees, stand a foot away from it and turn so your back is to it, feet shoulder width apart. Without moving your feet, try to shut the door with your bum.

What do you notice? Your shins are vertical, your knees are only slightly bent, your chest dips forward and your hips move backward.

All of these positions are key for a quality RDL. Here’s a breakdown of cues for the RDL by body part.

Knees Fixed

When most people hinge, they squat down at the same time. Your knees should only bend slightly during an RDL — not fully locked, but also not bent like in a squat.

When you bend your knees too much, you take that vital tension out of your hamstrings and glutes. This tension is necessary to elicit a growth response. Your shins stay mostly vertical.

Hips Back

Your glutes move your hips. If your hips aren’t moving, your glutes aren’t growing. By pushing your hips backward in space you’re creating length and stretch in your glutes and hamstrings.

If your hips stop moving backwards and you feel like you’ve hit the end of your range of motion, come back up. It doesn’t matter if you’re only at mid-thigh, your flexibility might stop you there for today, but with time and practice it’ll improve. If you keep going down once your hips stop moving, something else is being loaded and 9 times out of 10 it’s your back. Hips keep moving backward.

Lats Engaged

We want the bar to stay close to our legs. If the bar leaves your body, then your back will jump in and take over the exercise. Not what we want if we’re trying to build that booty.

So what I like to cue is to imagine you’re trying to break the bar over your legs, like you’re snapping a twig. This will cause you to externally rotate your shoulders (the front of your elbow will face forward) and in turn your lats will fire up to keep that bar tight to your body. Snap the bar like a twig.

Romanian Deadlift Variations & Progressions

Use Straps to Load Up!

Hear me out: what do you think is stronger, your grip or your glutes/hamstrings? Glutes can take a whole heap more load when your grip can’t keep up, which means you don’t get to load your posterior chain to its maximum. Grab a pair of straps to take your grip limitations out of the question so you can pull more weight!

Try the B-stance RDL

Training gets boring and we need variety! This is where the B-stance RDL comes into play. To drive growth we need to keep our output high, so unilateral work is useful. The B-stance is staggered, so you target the one glute more, but use the stability of the other leg to help.

To execute, everything is the same as the RDL, except you take one foot and move it back so the toe is in line with the heel of your other leg, some people like to imagine this like a kickstand for your bike. From here perform your RDL like normal, then swap legs and repeat.

Single Leg RDL

Time to get your balance in check. With this unilateral variation, we place all the load onto one glute. This is ideal for working on your balance and any asymmetry you might feel between left and right.

To complete this you can hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in the opposite hand to the leg you are working. Lift the other leg off the floor as you hinge forward like a regular RDL. Let that weight stay straight down to ‘replace’ the leg that is pushing backward and keep you balanced.

Be sure to give single leg landmine RDLs a try if you want a little more stabilization with all the same peach pump.

Final Thoughts

Start including more RDLs into your program and see the difference it can make on those booty gains. Hip thrusts are great, but don’t miss out on the mega glute gains to be made from RDLs.

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Struggle with weak hamstrings? Hips? Glutes? Your entire posterior chain? Join the club. In this blog, Coach Kyle gives his top advice on how to master the Romanian deadlift to fix your imbalances, reduce risk of injury, and strengthen your other big lifts.

Hone in on Your Glute-Ham Workouts

Whether you’re just getting started in the weight room or if you’ve been involved in the strength training world for a while, you’ve probably heard this buzz word thrown around by strength coaches talking about athletes being “knee-dominant.” Knee dominant? What does that even mean?

Basically, being knee-dominant means that your quads are much stronger than your hamstrings. A mentor of mine, Louie Simmons, always chuckled and said, “You mean hamstring weak?”

Now isn’t that the truth? Maybe strength coaches are training the posterior chain wrong, or perhaps they are just not prioritizing the right volume in the right areas of program design. A big point of emphasis in the Westside Conjugate Method is weak point training. Because, like Louie said, “Weak things break!”

If you’re just working on your general physical preparedness (GPP), then consider training the weak links in your kinetic chain. Training economy is critical, and if you are going to spend the time and energy to do certain exercises, then they better be paying dividends in your development and giving you a solid return on investment.

Romanian Deadlift Muscles Worked

Your hamstrings are made up of three muscles behind the thigh: the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus, and the semitendinosus. Together, these muscles work to bend the knee, rotate the hip, and extend the hip.

The RDL is a great way to incorporate a stretch reflex into the deadlift. There is no dead stop or bounce on the floor or contact between reps.

RDLs increase lumbar strength and the development of your posterior chain muscles in one swift move.

It’s also one of the best ways to strengthen your hips. Many people (especially those that are new to the weight room) have weak hips and poor technique because their posterior chain and lumbar strength is lacking. Weak hamstrings can lead to other postural problems in your spine and pulling movements.

The RDL is also a great tool to build grip strength and can be done with a fat bar or fat gripz. You can also perform RDL variations with a barbell, dumbbell, or kettlebell.

Romanian Deadlift vs. Conventional Deadlift

The RDL triggers a stretch reflex that occurs between the concentric (muscles shortening) and eccentric (muscles lengthening) contraction. The movement begins with an eccentric contraction – the muscle lengthens under tension, then a bounce occurs toward the end of a range of motion against tight muscles.

This works the signaling of the central nervous system and the elastic properties of the muscle (like rubber bands).

The traditional deadlift or sumo deadlift lack the eccentric emphasis of the movement. Unlike the Romanian deadlift, conventional deadlifts are primarily concentric movements that start from a dead stop with the weight on the floor (hence “deadlift”).

Because it doesn’t start concentrically, it’s not a variation of the deadlift. The RDL is its own movement.

Perfecting Your RDL Form & Technique 

The RDL is typically performed backed out of a rack with smaller steps, but you could also use proper deadlift technique by simply lifting the barbell from the floor.

Grasp the barbell about shoulder-width apart with your palms facing down and pick it up to your hips. Start the movement by “setting your core.” Pull your shoulders back, take a big inhale to brace your core and lats, and soften your knees. Keep your knees unlocked or slightly bent throughout the movement.

Push your hips back and lengthen your posterior chain (you should feel a stretch in your hamstrings) to initiate the eccentric range of motion. Keep your hips high and above the knees with a vertical shin angle.

Ride the bar down your thighs (keeping it tight to your leg) by pushing the hips and hands back.
Keep your eyes out and slightly down to maintain a neutral spine.

When the bar reaches about mid-shin (if you’re flexible, you can go lower) your stretch reflex will reverse the movement of the weight and initiate the concentric portion of the movement (standing back up and bringing the bar to your hips). Cut the range of motion before your low back loses extension or starts to round.

If Grip is a Limiting Factor

Let’s be honest: we could all use a little more grip strength. If your grip is limiting the amount of weight you’re trying to pull, consider using a grip variation.

1. Double Overhand Grip

This is your standard grip. Simply lift the barbell with both hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing down. This is a great way to improve forearm strength, but it can limit how much weight you are able to lift.

2. Use Chalk

Gym chalk gives you a more secure grip while protecting your hands against skin tears. A thin dusting of chalk will keep your hands dry and prevent the bar from slipping.

3. Double Overhand Hook Grip

This grip starts off like the double overhand position with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing down. Instead of simply lifting up from here, you’ll wrap your thumb underneath the bar like a hook and place your other four fingers on top of your thumb. This creates a natural lifting strap that allows you to lift more weight.

4. Double Overhand With Straps

Straps wrap around your wrists and essentially hold the weight for you. Straps will allow you to pull more weight, but won’t help improve your grip strength.

Coach’s Tip: I would not recommend using a flip or mixed grip due to the potential risk of injury from this movement – especially from chronic use.

Cues for the RDL

Using mental cues can ensure you’re activating proper technique throughout a movement.

For the Romanian Deadlift, I recommend using:

• Set your core: “gut tight, butt tight”
• Chest up, shoulders back
• Neutral spine
• Shave your legs with the bar
• Dig your feet into the ground and squeeze your hips into the bar to stand tall
• Stack your ankle, hip, and knee in the top of the movement

RDL Progressions & Variations

No matter how comfortable you feel with the RDL, there are always progressions and variations that can take you to the next level. Incorporating RDL variations into your program will keep your body fresh and prevent plateaus.

RDLS for Beginners

Use a PVC pipe for balance when first learning how to properly do the movement. Start by setting the pipe vertically in front of you and hinging your butt back to touch the wall.

You can progress this by placing one foot on the wall behind you and performing a wall-assisted single-leg RDL with the PVC pipe.

When You Feel Confident with RDLs

Once you get the hang of the RDL technique and motion, you can progress by varying your stance and grip into close/medium/wide. You can also vary the point at which you stop the movement: thigh, top of knee, below the knee, mid-shin, ankles.

Here are some more intermediate RDL progressions:

• Kettlebell RDL
• Double DB RDL
• BB RDL Rack Pull

For More Glute Activation

Want a little more emphasis on the glutes? Add a horizontal band around your knees to add tension and increase resistance in hip extension. This creates both vertical resistance of the barbell and horizontal resistance of the band.

Squeeze your glutes as hard as possible starting at the top of the movement and focus on the horizontal hip movement of pushing back while squeezing tall.

For More Hamstring Activation

If you find yourself a little more “knee-dominant,” you might want to put more emphasis on your hammies. Try using dumbbells instead of a barbell and use a neutral hand position. Think trap-bar deadlift.

Wrap a loop band behind the knees or mid-calf to increase tension. A very vertical shin angle that is slightly obtuse at the ankle will also increase hamstring activation.

You can also target your hamstrings by elevating your toes. Stand on a wedge or the edge of a plate to increase dorsi-flexion (raising foot upward toward the shin).

Overall, the RDL is a very versatile movement and at some point (or in some variation) should be a key tool in your programming. Every school and facility where I’ve coached has utilized this movement to develop their athletes. Its versatility is also friendly to the annual periodization model, where it can be kept in different capacities in terms of in-season, pre-season, and off-season training.

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The ultimate bodyweight movement that even good athletes struggle with: pull ups. Getting your first strict pull up as a beginner is a huge accomplishment, but stringing multiple reps together is arguably just as huge. It can take time and some dedicated progressions to get there.

Pull ups are at the crux of human evolution. Our arboreal primate relatives build nests in trees to keep away from predators and scavenge for fruit—how do you think they get up there? Any regular rock gym member will agree, climbing is in our nature. The most basic and effective climbing movement is the pull up.

Why Are Pull Ups So Hard??

Your lower trunk holds the largest muscles in your body, your glutes and legs. The muscles of your upper trunk, your arms and back, have less mass. It takes a ton of effort to generate enough power against gravity to move all that posterior chain weight through space using only your upper body. Basically, you’re heavy.

One of the great things about practicing pull ups is that you don’t need a ton of equipment, just a pull up bar. And barely that. A low-hanging branch in your nearby park could work, just make sure it’s sturdy enough to hold your literally heavy ass.

Check out our tips to improve your pull up strength and technique so you can start repping them out like a true monkey/gymnast. The goal for most of these movements is to spend more time under tension in the challenging parts of the pull up. The stronger you get at each progression, the more efficient your pull ups will be.

5 Tips for Better Strict Pull Ups

A Note on Pull Up Grip

For all of these pull up exercises, you should be using a double overhand grip positioned just outside shoulder width with your thumbs wrapped around the bar, not on top. There’s a time and place for thumbs on top, but it’s not for strict pull ups.

1. Dead Hang for 1:00

Also known as a passive hang, the dead hang from a pullup bar may look like nothing is really happening, but set a timer for just one minute and see how long you can make it. When your forearms and shoulders are screaming, you’ll know for sure there’s more to it.

Hanging from the bar for as long as you can challenges your grip strength, stamina, and overhead mobility. Relax your shoulders and start with :20-:30 seconds at a time. Don’t underestimate the dead hang. Take your time to build up to one minute.

2. Work on Scap Pull Ups

From the dead hang, activate your scapula by pulling down on the bar, squeezing your shoulder blades, and moving your shoulders away from your ears. Don’t let your legs and back get loosey-goosey. Keep your core tight and maintain a hollow body so your feet are slightly in front of you

Holding this tensed position is called an active hang and it’s the very first part of a strict pull up.

You don’t just use your arms when doing pull ups. Your “chicken wings” or scapula muscles in your upper back are some of the primary movers. Being able to control them on their own is necessary for effective pull ups.

Move between passive hang and active hang by relaxing your shoulders, then pinching them together again. Now you’re doing scap pull ups.

3. Do Holds & Negatives

Use a box or bench to jump up into the top position of a pull up with your chin over the bar and your elbows bent. Again, keep your core tight and don’t let your back arch or your legs swing. Point your toes for extra credit. Hold this position at the top of the pullup for as long as you can, then lower down into the negative.

For the negative, slowly lower down from the hold position with a 3-5 second count. (This is considered the eccentric part of the movement.) Keep the negative slow and controlled through the entire movement all the way to the bottom of a dead hang—straight elbows and relaxed shoulders.

If you can master holds and slow eccentric negatives, you can master strict pull ups.

4. Use Bands to Lighten the Load

If you have access to a thick or wide band, you can lighten the load on your upper trunk (“the load” being the rest of your body). Loop the band around your pull up bar and pull it through itself, then tighten. You’ll be left with one loop hanging securely from the bar that you can slip your foot or knee into for extra support.

Step into the free-hanging part of the band, then work on getting in a ton of volume on your strict pull ups. The band will let you do more pull ups than you can manage unassisted, which feels great and gets you in the mental headspace of stringing together more reps.

Bands are good tools, but use them sparingly and don’t rely on them forever. Ultimately, you’ll get stronger without it.

5. Segmented (Partial) Pull Ups

If you can do one or two strict pull ups, segmenting them is an excellent way to work on the weakest parts. Remember, your weak points are what prevent you from stringing more pull ups together.

Chunk the pull up into three segments:

1. To work the end of the pull up, jump to the top with your chin over the bar. Lower just a few inches until your eyes pass the bar, then come back up. Repeat for reps.
2. For the middle of the movement, jump to the top of the pull up again, but this time lower down until you’re about halfway. Come back up to about eye-level with the bar, then repeat. This is probably the trickiest spot for most people, since it’s the most mechanically disadvantaged.
3. Work the very bottom of the pull up starting with a scap pull. Pull yourself a little higher, then lower back down into a full dead hang.

You can also do segmented negatives if you have some extra sticky spots. Drill the segments for long enough and get ready to PR your max strict pull ups!

Happy Pulling, Heroes!

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Your hamstrings are not just for decoration or making yoga feel impossible. They’re essential for basically any athletic movement involving your legs—jumping, running, lunging, squatting, and picking up weight.

Add these eight killer hamstring exercises into your training rotation and watch your posterior chain strength soar.

Get Stronger Pulls & Shapely Gams With These Hamstring Exercises

 Usually when you think of well-developed legs, you imagine thick quads with a sculpted teardrop shape above the knees. The front-facing quad muscles get a lot of attention as primary movers of your posterior chain. But think of how ridiculous bodybuilders would look from the side with those massive quads and itty bitty hamstring muscles.

Your hamstrings team up with your glutes to drive you forward during sled pushes or launch you upward when dunking on the court. Not only do they provide raw power for your squats and deadlifts, but full hamstrings widen the overall shape of your legs and test the stretch in the leg holes of your workout shorts.

If you want to improve the landscape of your legs, especially how they look from the side, adding focused hamstring work into your training is non-negotiable. Building strength in your hamstrings comes with loading functional, compound movements, but it pays to isolate and really fry them once in a while.

Take a tour of hamstring anatomy and work some of our favorite hamstring exercises into your training.

Hamstring Anatomy

Your hamstrings are a group of three cable-like muscles at the back of your thigh running from your hip to your knee. They’re largely responsible for flexion of the knee joint and extension of the hip joint, along with some rotation of your lower leg and glute stability.

The semitendinosus and semimembranosus (what a mouthful) flex/bend your knee and work with your glutes to extend your hip, like at the top of a hip thrust

The biceps femoris has two heads, long and short, that help flex your knee and externally rotate your lower leg. They also support your hip when you walk, run, or jump.

These three muscles are crucial antagonists for your quads and are commonly injured in sports that involve a lot of explosive sprinting.

Fun Fact: Lombard’s paradox refers to the paradoxical contraction of both the hamstrings and quads when you rise from squatting or sitting to standing. The two muscle groups are antagonists, which means they usually work in opposition to one another. Apparently this is just efficient human adaptation for being bipedal. Nice.

Which Hamstring Exercises Build Big Legs?

1. Conventional deadlifts

Easily the most popular posterior chain movement across strength and conditioning sports, the deadlift is a hard-charging, heavy-loading grinding hamstring exercise. Thinking back to our anatomy, the deadlift adds resistance to a primary function for the hamstrings: hip extension. Deadlifts are a compound movement that also require strength and stability in your core, hips, and back.

2. Romanian deadlifts

Also known as stiff-leg deadlifts, RDLs act even more on the posterior chain by excluding the knees from the equation. Some consider them the pinnacle of hamstring exercises. Instead of bending the knees for a conventional deadlift, keep the knees straighter and maintain only a soft bend. This results in both a deep stretch and a strong contraction for the hamstrings.

Single-leg RDLs are a killer way to train each leg unilaterally and work on balance.

3. Nordic hamstring curls

One of the hamstrings’ primary functions is to flex the knee. A hamstring curl does just that while isolating and adding resistance for muscle hypertrophy. There are a number of different ways to do hamstring curls: seated, standing, or lying on your belly. If you don’t have access to a leg curl machine, try using bands or dumbbells instead. Nordic curls can be done with a partner to anchor your feet or any equipment stable enough to hold your legs down.

4. Good mornings

Good mornings function exactly like an RDL, but with the load on your back instead of pulling from the floor. With a barbell on your back, the same rules apply as for the RDL: keep your back flat and a soft bend in your knees as you hinge forward. Squeeze the glutes to drive through your hips and come back up to standing. This killer hip hinging movement works your hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors.

5. Hip thrusts

Commonly used for glute work, hip thrusts (aka glute bridges) also act on the hamstrings to drive weight up using hip extension. To further isolate your hamstrings and turn this into more of a hamstring exercise, place your feet out in front of you at a wider angle than the traditional 90 degrees. You can also try this method using a bench to squeeze your hamstrings, drive your heels down and hips up.

6. Kettlebell swings

Does this movement look familiar? Hip hinge with a soft knee bend anyone? Kettlebell swings are stellar for loading the hamstrings with higher reps and more explosive hip extension. A great way to work your hamstrings during HIIT training. Be sure to keep your back flat and hinge forward instead of sitting back or squatting into the movement. For Russian style kettlebell swings, your arms can stop parallel to the ground instead of extending fully overhead.

7. Rowing

Another method for frying your hamstrings during HIIT workouts or metcon training is to hop on a rower. Rowing on a machine is like the perfect combination of deadlifts and barbell rows—tons of back and hamstring activation. But you have to row with good form or you’re just wasting your time. The video above delivers entertainment + tips to improve your rowing form.

If you’re skeptical about this one, try rowing a 10k and let us know just how roasted the backs of your thighs feel afterward.

8. Hip extensions & glute-ham raises

For these absolute hamstring burners, you’ll need access to a Glute-Ham Developer (GHD), found in most CrossFit gyms and some commercial gyms. Hip extensions (erroneously called “back extensions” which are a completely different movement) involve fixing your legs straight in the pads and moving through hip flexion and extension. Glute-ham raises (GHRs) are more like a hamstring curl. For both movements, focus on squeezing your glutes and hamstrings to come up.

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After 6 years of coaching at the highest levels across multiple disciplines, the most common issues I see in my sports therapy clinic have to do with the shoulder. Statistics show us that shoulders are the most commonly injured area in many sports including CrossFit, weightlifting and rugby.

What to Do for an Injured Shoulder

I give my athletes, from beginners to Olympians, 6 common exercises to help them prevent nagging injuries around life and training. Most of these exercises look at one of these key principles:

Strengthening the Lower Traps

Often neck and shoulder pain comes from an imbalance between upper and lower trapezius The lower trapezius should be the primary agonist once the arm is raised above 60° but is often neglected in favor of the upper traps.

Building the Infraspinatus

This muscle should be responsible for the first stage of raising the arm, but in athletes with poor mobility it is often trapped, and doesn’t properly generate force when lifting the arm overhead. This is the muscle that is often ‘pinched’ in the shoulders due to being weak and having an overzealous upper trap. Simply strengthening it can help avoid trapped nerves and numbing sensations down the arm.

Working on Functional Redundancy of the Upper Traps

”Overactive” upper traps can cause all sorts of issues, pathologically as well as in terms of performance, even leading to increased concussion risks and migraines. Effective training of deep cervical tissues can help prevent and fix this.

1) Supinated Grip Cable Machine Rows

This is a great exercise for focussing on shoulder blade retraction under constant load and is easier to mitigate for grip strength than a chin up (which are also excellent).

• Palms facing upwards.
• Lean forward to allow for shoulder blades to slide forward, pull them down and back as you row.
• Push your elbows backwards like you’re ‘trying to unhook your bra’, for those of us that know about such things.

Check out this demo video of IRONMAN athlete Kloe Gibson as we incorporated the exercise into her program to help with postural efficiency for her sport.

2) Modified Cobra Pose/Diamond Push Ups

An interesting study looking at the electrical muscular stimulation of the lower trapezius found that these positions were some of the best body weight only movements to do so.

• Focus on a squeeze in between the bottom of your shoulder blades and allowing them to move as you press.
• Holding hands further back on either exercise will help here.
• Try holding a cobra pose with your hands by your side, palms facing upwards for time as well.

3) Dead Hangs

Dead hangs allow for space in joints at the shoulder girdle. There is some reasonable research that links benefits experienced by our monkey ancestors and a relief in pain from modern human lives.

For an extra bit of fun try out a gibbon grip dead hang by turning your wrists out so your palms face backwards.

• Play around with pulling into your lats, mid back and shoulders while you perform these.
• Use straps if you need to hang for longer.

4) Low ROM Lateral Raises

Keeping the range of motion limited on these (around 60°) will help in building the infraspinatus, preventing the levator scapula from pulling against the shoulder blade as much.

• The first 60° of raising the arm should be primarily performed by the infraspinatus
• Turn pinkie fingers up to the ceiling to help and keep tension off traps and in the deltoids and rotator cuff

5) Lu Raises

These are an extension of the lateral raises and the shoulder should be trained through a full ROM in general. If they’re good enough for the Chinese Olympic lifting team they should work wonders for you, provided you start light and focus on good scapula movement.

• Focus on keeping a neutral rib cage by bracing into your core, think about keeping your sternum and pelvis in the same place throughout.

6) Neck Flexion and Extension

Going very light with these has been shown to cause what’s known as functional redundancy of the upper traps. This means that instead of using your traps to turn your head (when they should just be for lifting your shoulder blade and hyper extending your neck) the deeper muscles of your neck will do it, allowing for proper positioning and usage of the other muscles in your neck and shoulder.

• The same focus should be made in keeping the rib cage and shoulders still
• Move through a range of motion that is comfortable to you with a very light weight (see my article about neck training for further details).
• You could also try doing these while biting onto a towel which can help in activating the scalene muscles in the neck. This can cause what is called reciprocal inhibition of the muscles at the back of the neck (like how your triceps relax as you perform a bicep curl).

This list is certainly not exhaustive and you should absolutely seek medical advice if you’re struggling with chronic pain. Feel free to check out my neck training program if you’re having issues around your neck or shoulders. It can be dropped into most training regimes and is an extremely cost effective way of helping your ailments.

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The single leg squat (a.k.a. pistol squat) is a challenging, advanced movement that requires single-leg strength, stability, mobility, balance, and motor control. If you are looking to get your first pistol, or just want to continue getting better at them, here is a series of exercises that will help you progress toward getting that Instagram-worthy, deep pistol squat.

The Ultimate Single-Leg Strength Test

The pistol squat is a multi-joint exercise that involves several different muscle groups, but your quads, glutes, and core are the key ones. This exercise requires not only a great amount of strength, but also a high level of stability, balance, and mobility. Pistols are used by athletes around the world as part of their training and in competitions.

This one-legged squat is a unilateral variation of the regular air squat, in which one leg is held up off the ground in front of you, while the grounded leg performs the squat. Your squatting leg supports all of your body’s weight during both movement phases: the eccentric phase (flexing the joints and going down) and the concentric phase (extending the joints and going back up to its normal position).

Benefits of the Pistol Squat

1. The pistol squat will help identify and correct imbalances. If you have one significantly stronger or more flexible side, this movement will help you identify and address the issue.

2. It’s a great alternative to increase the load or intensity of exercises without increasing weight. If you are working out from home, or don’t have access to weights for whatever reason, simply switching to unilateral movements (such as the pistol squat) will ensure you keep making progress.

3. Core activation. When doing pistol squats or other single-leg movements, you recruit both the larger muscles in your core and the smaller muscle groups, commonly referred to as “stabilizer muscles” (you know what I’m talking about – the ones that start shaking when you stand on one leg or hold a plank for a while).

4. Unilateral exercises require more focus and coordination than bilateral exercises. This generates better mind-muscle connection, which increases contraction potential and control of the involved muscles.

Pistol Squat Pre-reqs

We don’t recommend trying to do a pistol before mastering the deep squat (according to your individual anatomy and flexibility) or if you have knee, ankle, or hip injuries. You should have a solid strength/mobility base with bodyweight or free weight exercises first before attempting your first pistol.

Even if you’ve mastered the deep squat, you might need to assess your mobility in your three main leg joints: hips, knees, and ankles. If one of these joints has any type of restriction, like mobility limitations or a chronic injury flare-up, you’ll need to work on your range of motion (ROM) first. Consider checking with your PT on this one.

Check out these tests if you’re not experiencing pain and want to assess your mobility before working on pistols.

Test Your Ankle and Hip Mobility

Ankle dorsiflexion against wall (both sides): Plant your foot 4-5 inches away from a wall. With the foot planted on the ground, and without lifting your heel, bend the knee and try to touch the wall. If you get there, your ankle mobility is a-ok to practice the pistol squat.

Supine hip flexion test (both sides): Lie on your back with both legs extended. Flex one leg and try to bring your knee as close to your chest as possible. Go as far as you can without using your arms, then grab the back of your knee and pull your thigh to your chest. Ideally, your thigh will make contact with your torso without any pain or discomfort on both sides.

Pistol Squat Progressions & Accessory Exercises

Be sure to assess your strength — your glutes, quads, hamstrings and core should be working hard when doing pistols. If any of these muscles are weaker, or don’t fire properly, consider adding more unilateral movements like single leg RDLs or Bulgarian split squats into your training. If you ignore this, you might develop incorrect movement patterns that can affect your joint health in the long term.

Allowing time for a proper warm-up and doing accessory exercises can help you address weaknesses, work on imbalances and prevent injury before attempting a full pistol squat.

Accessory Drills to Get You Ready

Warm-Up

This is essential for pistol squat practice. You should focus on: 1) raising your body temperature with 5-10 minutes of easy cardio and compound movements (jumping jacks, cycling, jogging, etc), 2) activating your posterior chain with banded steps, good mornings, and air squats and 3) ensuring your joints have enough range of motion with dynamic stretching.

Step-Downs

Start on top of a step or a pile of plates. Your foot must be parallel to the edge with the other foot suspended in the air. To practice the eccentric (lowering) phase, start by flexing the foot of your free leg to keep it active. Hinge at your waist and “sit back” into your squat, letting the free leg travel down to the floor. Stand back up to return to the starting position. This movement will help you gain strength, mobility, balance, and get used to the weight of your body on one leg.

Alternating Leg Wall Sits

This exercise is great to increase single-leg strength and stamina. Use this exercise if you feel like one leg is way stronger than the other – it will help you isometrically work your quads and avoid knee collapsing when squatting.

To perform this exercise, lean your back against the wall, place your feet one or two steps away from the wall and bend your knees at a 90-degree angle so your hips are against the wall at knee height. In this position, drive one leg into the ground and extend the other knee. Lift your foot from the ground, supporting all your weight on the standing leg. Alternate legs, and try to hold the position for 3-5 seconds at a time. The exercise can be done either for time (i.e. 1 minute on, 30 seconds off) or for reps.

Intermediate Progressions

Once you have good foundational strength and balance, try using some of these progressions to challenge yourself. These movements will help you develop the coordination needed to perform a full pistol.

Box Step-Downs & Step-Ups

This is a progression of the plate step-downs above and the cues are the same. The only difference is the height of the box or bench. Focus on pushing your butt back and controlling the tempo, especially in the eccentric (lowering) phase. Once you get to the ground try to push yourself up using only the leg that is on top of the step.

Pistols to Box/Chair

For our first pistol progression, start by performing a single-leg squat with a box or chair half a step behind you. The goal is to sit down slowly and push yourself up with one leg in the air the whole time. Remember to push your hips back and lower your body as slowly and controlled as possible. To increase difficulty, try gently grazing the target (not sitting completely), or using a lower box or chair when you feel ready.

Crossed-Leg Pistol

The next progression is to perform a single-leg squat crossing the non-working leg behind the ankle or calf of your standing leg. Remember to always keep your chest up and look forward. Try to go as low as you can without lifting your heel from the ground. It is normal for your knee to go past your toes.

Advanced Progressions

Once you’ve successfully executed the intermediate progressions, you’re well on your way to getting your first pistol. These next progressions are slightly more advanced, but when you’ve got them mastered, you’re ready.

Partial or “Cheating” Reps

Similar to the cross-legged version, you can try doing partial pistol squat reps, lowering to ½ or ¾ of full range of motion. Try to go lower and lower until you get the complete range of motion. You can use the non-working leg as a pendulum and take advantage of the momentum to help you stand back up.

Heel-Supported Pistol Squat

This last variation is useful if you have enough strength and mobility to go down on a pistol, but not enough mobility to keep the elevated leg up without touching the ground.

You can do reps using the heel of the foot that is elevated as support. It is important to try to raise the heel support higher and use it less every time. This will help work your hip mobility. Try adding a towel under your heel to help it slide on the ground if needed.

Coach’s Tip: Use these cues to help you master the full pistol squat:

• Look forward, don’t look down.
• Brace your core before starting the descent: take a deep breath to increase your intra-abdominal pressure.
• Use your toes for balance, spread them out and imagine you are “grabbing” the ground with your toes.
• Extend your arms forward and slightly out to increase balance.

Pistol Squat Variations You Should Use with Caution

You might be wondering, what happened with suspension trainer- (TRX), ring-, or elastic band-assisted pistol squats? Progressions in which you use your arms to help you up are useful, but athletes that use these progressions can become dependent on their upper body and struggle with transfering balance and strength through their legs.

If you’re using assisted progressions, we recommend using only one arm (the same side of the elevated leg).

What about using a plate to elevate your heel? This progression is seen in many Crossfit gyms and can be a good option for people who don’t have enough ankle mobility. If you do have enough ankle mobility though, you shouldn’t need to rely on a plate.

Figure out the most challenging progression for you, and work on that until you’ve got it down. When you’re ready to attempt your first full pistol, it should like this:

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