What do you think about doing one-legged squats? I don’t have room enough in my new apartment to fit the stand and the bench for my barbell. So I’m forced to use lighter weights than I’m used to When doing squats (I like them, yes). So my idea was to do them on one leg instead and thereby gain some balance related strenght as well. Is there anything I should think of or do you think it’s a good idea at all? I started out with 10 reps at 30 kg (65 pounds) and they feel pretty efficient to me, so I will slowly add weights…
I’m also doing some strenght training on the trainer as well.
What do other people (that actually find squats useful) think?
For whatever it’s worth, I luv’em. I do them without weights, but I do one-legged leg presses with a 45 lb weight on the sled. They have been helping me get over a knee injury incurred in ultimate frisbee. I also experiment with leaning my body this way and that to engage the core.
Do you rest your back leg on a bench or ball when you do this and use dumbbells (you said 65 pounds, so maybe a 45lb bar with 10lbs per side)?
This may seem out of the blue but my Dad was a Navy diver and used to show me how to do a 1-legged squat" or “deep knee bend” where you keep one leg out to the front and go all the way to the bottom - I would think that would be tough to do with weights, but you never know these days. (He also told about where you hold one foot with one hand and jump the other foot through the “hoop” both ways - not a bad workout either!).
I have done a workout for skiiing before where I hold a doorjamb with, say, my right hand and hold my right foot behind my body with my left hand and done a one-legged squat or deep-knee bend going down until the knee touched the ground. Anyone think that is any good?
In general though, per your post, there seem to be lots of skepics on these boards about squats but a number of other posters seem to like one-legged squats.
i’ve been doing them for a few years, mostly during the off-season. i LOVE them! i use 2 10-20lb dumbbells, do 2x12-15 reps. it stresses my glutes, but i definitely feel it in my core, as well as in lateral stability muscles that are rarely trained by riding or running.
it stands to reason that one-legged squats strongly contribute to injury prevention.
I started working with a running coach this year. One of the first things she identified was an imbalance between overly strong quads and under-developed hammy/glutes. The goal for the first 12 weeks was to build the hammy/glutes. She has me doing a ton of 1-legged squats to achieve this goal. In her view, it helps to ensure equal work is done by each leg and helps develop balance. After about 6 weeks, it seems to be working well.
I do them with a barbell on my shoulders - the bar 10kg and one 10kg weight on each side.
I simply lift one leg and squat to about a 90 degrees knee angle, and then up.
I will add (as someone above mentioned) that the drills involve a stability ball and a bench. In one set, I have one leg behind me on a stability ball, while I do 1-leg squats holding dumbells in each hand. In the other set, I have one leg behind me on a bench press bench while I do 1-leg squats holding dumbells in each hand. Both are surprisingly difficult.
I would think that the you would be much more prone to injury doing one-legged squats or presses. Not saying that you will get injured, but the margin for error would seem smaller.
If you already have very good squatting form, you might want to try pistol squats, wherein you point the non-weight bearing leg straight out in front of you (close to 90 deg. to the floor) and squat with the other leg.
Form is important here, as it’s pretty easy to put too much weight forward and put your knees in some danger. All that said, it’s an excellent strength builder. I usually do them standing on a bench with no weights.
Would it be wrong, or counter productive then, to do them with weights? My main reason is to mimic the pedalling motion for bike strenght…
No, I think you need to do them with weights. As I stated, I hold a dumbell in each hand, but, you could also do it with a bench press bar or other weights.
