WOD - 2/6 - 1-leg Squats

One of the best exercises for the strength of the legs, and balance in general, is the single-leg squat.  Let’s focus on that in our workout today, since leg-strength, speed, and power (not to mention balance) are critical to our Bagua practice.

If you don’t have a lot of leg strength, start by doing these off of and onto a chair.  Sit in a regular dining-room chair, pick one foot up off the ground, and push up with the other.  You’ll have to lean forward a bit.  Sitting down, stick your butt back as far as you can without falling into the chair.

If you can handle that, advance to the door.  Grab the door handle of an open door on each side.  One foot stays planted at the edge of the door, the other leg is straight.  Sit back and lower yourself as far as you can control.  Come back up trying to help with your arms as little as possible.

Once you can do 10 of those, move to free-standing single-leg squats.  At first it helps to have a table or chair nearby that you can use to help you balance.  But soon, you won’t even need that.

Here’s the workout:

1-leg Squats - 10 each leg

Mountain Climbers - 1 minute

Abdominal Hold - 30 seconds

Side-to-Side Pushups - 10 each arm

1-Leg Romanian Deadlift - 10 each leg - (you can use weight if you have it….good description of this move here - http://www.ptonthenet.com/capview.aspx?P=NTMxMzcgSlBIMjBCR0paVGUyeUVteU5XM1A5Zz09&m=439)  that’s actually a good workout/warmup…try it out

Pullups or Flexed Arm Hang - stop 2 shy of failure

Superman - 30 seconds - lay on your stomach, lift your feet and head off the ground and hold

Repeat, at least twice, but go for 5 rounds!

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