Single Leg Squats

Single leg squats are a great exercise for keeping your knees healthy.   In a future post I will give further explanation on why this is a good exercise and even show some research.

Be Well,
Mike Reid

ps Even though there are many coaches who advocate single leg exercises, below I found one who has an interesting argument against them.

from: Charliefrancis.com

Single Leg Squats (SLS) 

“Compete on one leg; train on one leg.” “Train the sport specific way.” It’s hard to miss the promotion of this training method or the self-promotion of its Gurus. You can deep squat over 200kg, yet, when tested, you can’t do one unloaded single leg squat without starting to fall over. Amazed by your newly discovered ‘inadequacy’, you’re easily convinced that you must overcome it. But that argument can be turned on its head. Since the formula for power output is weight times distance divided by time, it is precisely this same test that proves there will be training losses if SLS work is substituted. Let’s get this straight from the outset. You will be hard pressed to ever lift one sixth as much with a single leg squat as you could with both legs, no matter how long you work at it, so there better be a convincing argument for its inclusion. Supporters claim that you must be able to stabilize at least your own bodyweight to be optimally stabilized in motions specific to your sport. But, like the gyroscopic effect of a bicycle in motion, the stabilization requirements for a body in motion are far less than when stationary, regardless of the direction of that motion. Supporters argue that the single leg squat is more specific to the motion of the sport itself. While that might sound reasonable at first, it doesn’t stand up to closer examination. A study by Loren Chiu, a PHD candidate at USC, Dr John Garhammer of Cal. State Long Beach, and Dr. Brian Schilling of the Univ. of Memphis compared the movements of the single leg squat and other movements. They found that the magnitude and direction of forces in a SLS were significantly different when compared to running to cut, backpedal and cutting to the left for both the hip and the ankle. In fact a bilateral squat was much closer to these movements than a SLS. (The Science of Specificity).