Guru Santiago Dobles demonstrates close quarter applications.

"The one legged squat is employed more often as a feat of strength than it is as a training exercise."

John Grimek, on the pistol

The pistol squat is more of a stunt than an exercise. The Dragon Door folks are completely out to lunch on this one.

For one thing it is a weird and unnatural movement, not "functional" at all, yet a lot of the people that praise the pistol will tell you how important functional exercise is. This exercise is proof that bodyweight exercises are not necessarily functional. A squat with a barbell is far more functional.

The book "Naked Warrior" truthfully, misses a simple mechanical point: your center of gravity

1) is determined by individual proportions
2) has to be over your foot at all times

So depending on your individual proportions, getting into that bottom position is going to take some severe compensations. Making these twists and torques with the knee fully flexed and fully loaded is a disaster.

Some of the proportions problems that will knuckle your efforts to do pistols:

• having a gut
• having an ass
• having hamstrings big enough that your knee opens when your heel touches your ass*
• not having short stumpy legs
• not having narrow hips

The book goes through this whole focacta explanation of how the right way to do this exercise is pushing through your heel, like in a real squat, which is pretty much impossible for average proportions. People stick with it and learn to do it with the heel down, but only by making all kinds of ridiculous compensations.

Holding a good sized weight out in front of you at arms length as a counterbalance will change your center of gravity back to front and overcome some of the issues - but holding a 45 out there is a significant bump in weight for one foot. .

But seriously, it is a stunt. If you want something like a pistol but not goofy, do one legged squats Paul Anderson style, off a high box or table. I couldn’t find a good picture of this. You can do these with the off leg behind the box or to the side of the box. The foot either doesn’t reach the ground or just barely touches it, it doesn’t push off the ground. Pavel mentions them in the book, I think he had Maxwell doing them off a picnic table.
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FROM CCROW ON THE POWER AND BULK FORUM

http://powerandbulk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=36499

Good News for Moderate Drinkers of Red Wine

Yet another beneficial effect of red wine has been reported.1 Researchers have found, in a randomized crossover study of 10 healthy volunteers, that subjects who ate a meal of 250 g of turkey cutlets soaked in red wine after heating, along with 200 ml of red wine, had a 75% reduction (compared to controls*) in the absorption of malondialdehyde (MDA, a lipid peroxidation product) from the turkey meal. Those who ate the turkey cutlets that had been soaked in red wine before heating and who drank 200 ml of red wine with the meal had a 100% reduction in MDA absorption (i.e., it was completely prevented). “. . . in some volunteers, the plasma MDA level was even reduced below baseline.”1

 *Controls ate 250 g of turkey cutlets without soaking in red wine and drank water, not red wine, with the meal.

 The red wine concentrate that was added either before or after heating the turkey cutlets contained 218 mg of polyphenols, while the 200 ml of red wine contained 403 mg of polyphenols.

This is very good to know. It suggests that cooking meats with red wine and drinking red wine along with the meal is a very effective way (at least in healthy subjects) to reduce the absorption of damaging lipid peroxidation products, which were (as shown in this study) accumulated in plasma rapidly, with MDA reaching a maximum level 3 hours after the meal. The large reduction in MDA (and presumably other lipid oxidation endproducts, such as 4-hydroxynonenal and oxycholesterol) could be expected to provide significant protection to the gastrointestinal tract against the development of cancer, especially colon cancer.

Reference

   1. Gorelik et al. A novel function of red wine polyphenols in humans: prevention of absorption of cytotoxic lipid peroxidation products. FASEB J 22:41-6 (2008).

Do yourself a favor and keep fit, keep active, and exercise. Brain health can be robust if you use your body, which uses the brain. Check this article for details.

In a detailed class on position, leverage, footwork, angulation, breathing, natural weapons, and application, Guru Santiago Dobles shows Guru Bruno Cruicchi how specific footwork of PENCAK SILAT CIMANDE GERAK SATRIA SHAKTI can be effective in combat. The law of gravity and cement always applies.

Professor Bruno Cruicchi gave a seminar in the weapon and empty hand arts of Venezuela on Sunday, July 13, 2008. This workshop was organized by Guru Tony Torre of the Miami Arnis Group, ( http://miamiarnisgroup.com/ ) and took place on Miami Beach overlooking Biscayne Bay. It’s nice to train with talented people who are also good friends, surrounded by palm trees, balmy weather, ocean, sail boats, and incredible scenery.

Don’t miss what me the best strength and conditioning workshop of the year! Go HERE and sign up NOW!

When: October 25-26 (Saturday and Sunday)

Where: Las Vegas, NV

Bonus: Free DVD of the workshop, free Lifeline USA Power Pushup 2 and Jungle Gym,  Retail value $259.95! Yours free for attending the workshop. Moreover 10% of your registration fee will go to help kids with cancer.