Friday Exercise: Single Leg Squat

Today the amazing Stickie is demonstrating a single leg squat.  She starts standing on one foot with her other leg bent.  She is tucking her lifted leg’s toes behind her other calf, but she could also extend the lifted leg out to the front.  She is gazing forward and choosing to focus on something on the wall opposite her (like perhaps the drawing of Wolverine on my studio wall); this helps her to maintain her balance.  Her engaged abdominals also help her to balance.  She has chosen to put her hands on her hips, but she could also clasp her hands in front of her, extend her arms out to the side, or even pretend to grab an imaginary pole (that last technique can work wonders on her balance on wobbly days).

After inhaling to lengthen her spine, Stickie bends the knee of her standing leg.  Note that we employed amazing Post-It technology to pan around to a side view of Stickie.  She is choosing to focus on keeping her back upright as if she were sliding down a wall.  She could also hinge a bit at the hips as if she were sitting back in a chair.  Both options are good; they just work the body slightly differently.

Stickie exhales to return to her starting position.

At first, sets of five reps on each leg are appropriately challenging.  Stickie has worked up to sets of ten and will complete three sets.