How to do the Smith Machine Pistol Squat

Steps

1. To begin, first set the bar to a position that best matches your height. Step under it and position the bar across the back of your shoulders.
2. Take the bar with your hands facing forward, unlock it and lift it off the rack by extending your legs. 3
3. Move one foot forward about 12 inches in front of the bar. Extend the other leg out in front of you, holding it off the ground. Look forward at all times and maintain a neutral or slightly arched spine. This will be your starting position.
4. Maintaining good posture, lower yourself by flexing the knee and hip, going down as far as flexibility allows.
5. Pause briefly at the bottom and then return to the starting position by driving through the heel of your foot, extending the knee and hip.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the smith machine pistol squat to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.