The Road To My First Pistol - Day 1

I did my first day of pistol training at my company gym by performing 3 sets of ten on each leg of the eccentric portion of the pistol (squatting to the floor) and then doing a deck roll back on to both of my feet.  My second set for each leg I used a 15 pound dumbbell in my hands.  This added some stability but I am nowhere close to controlling the movement all the way down.  I can lower myself without crashing hard on my back and butt, but I do not have the balance, stability, flexibility or strength to get more than halfway down as I slowly fall backward on my butt and back.

Tomorrow will be the same workout.  We'll see how my legs adapt.  One of the positives from this workout is that I am losing the fear of falling backward while lowering myself on one leg.  It is a tiny victory but a victory nevertheless.  It would have been completely disappointing to not have been able to perform the movement.

I will be ecstatic when I could do just one pistol after 15-20 days but will give myself as much time as I need to achieve my goal.  It looks like I am not as young as John Sifferman whose blog post I am using to accomplish this goal so I will give myself more time than he needed which was only 11-12 days.  Less than two weeks does not seem realistic to me but who knows.  I will follow his plan to a tee and if it takes me longer - so be it.