t h e - n e v e r - m e

a prison of non change

There is always an underdog. Maybe this is you. Who? That most unlikely person to become a hero. If you were to be that person all the odds will be against you, there will be injustice, struggle, pain, fear, doubt and of course an epic challenge which you will surely fail.

but

You do not fail even when you face your darkest hour, somehow you overcome your weakness, suck in the pain, fight with everything you got, you rise victorious even when all hope is gone and the darkness was about to strike you down.

wait

Yes, I am describing a plot of pretty much all epic stories ever filmed, written or spoken. For the hero to be born, for a person to become better, there is always a demanding journey to be done.

e p i c

Stories like this are as old as we are as a species, they are a blueprint for how to become more than we are. With all the special effects added to the storytelling in movie format of today, our motivation skyrockets so easily, yet when the shit actually hits the fan in real life, when we face even the smallest odds against us we cry foul, we complain, we seek excuses, we call it unjust, undeserved and unfair, forgetting in an instant that this is exactly how and why those epic stories never speak of a billion heroes but just a few if not one. Why?

e a s y

There is your problem right there. You don’t even know what is hard any more yet find everything to be hard all the time.

Have no time for a workout yet follow thousands of people on social media which fake their (digital) life. Watching tv shows every day is not a problem but those annoying commercials ruin all the fun. Then there was that idiot on the road driving like a snail because of a few raindrops, making it a goal (obviously) to make you late for work. You were about to finally go running, when rain (fate) prevented you from reaching your goals. Not to mention that during the summer it was too hot (not healthy), while during the winter is again too cold (not healthy) to do things outside but tropic room temperatures are normal (comfort uber ales). Elevator broke down and you had to take the stairs (like after a decade) which almost earned you a heart attack or at least ruined your t-shirt with sweat stains. The list never ends!

r e m e m b e r

It is not supposed to be easy. For things to change for you, you have to change. There is no other way but for you to change. Its just like in the gym. Everyone had to start climbing their ladder of strength from their lowest level. The only way to get stronger is to pick a weight which is challenging enough to allow you to work with it, then progressively increase “the challenge” as you get stronger. Pick something which is too light (not challenging) and you will never improve. Pick something which is just comfortable (no change needed) and you will remain as you are.

c h a l l e n g e

We are made for the challenge. Easy to achieve goals are not a challenge. We become better when we overcome our limitations on consistent basis. The real challenge is never to reach the end of the line but to forever push it forward. Keep playing the game, finish it never.

Marck Goran Lorencin

elevated pistol standard

A pillar of legs athleticism

If I was allowed to use one single exercise to develop my lower body — sans use of weights or training equipment for additional stimulus — there is nothing better than Elevated Pistol squats. There is no other exercise that gives you such a fundamental way to gain strength, power, balance and flexibility of your lower body.

Note that I am not actually talking about the classic pistol squat which is the original variant. The Classic Pistol squat may be great for show but doesn’t allow you to stress the working leg to its full potential, that, plus it’s totally annoying and non-natural to squat while holding one leg extended in front of you that high.

Later in the article I will go into details, list incredible benefits of pistols and why my preferred variant is superior to original and so on — but for now — let us first take a look at the standard and dissect everything in more detail later.

The Elevated Pistol standard starts with you standing in the elevated position (as high as needed or preferred) so you can focus better on your working leg while being able to easily hold your free leg in the air even while you are in a deep squat position. Here is the catch, you need to test your weaker leg. Full squat depth, full hip extension on top each time, nice and clean execution, maximum reps in 90sec.

> Level 3    Guardian          ~ 33 x
> Level 2    Fit human         ~ 20 x
> Level 1    Homo sapiens      ~  6 x

- - - - -
~ sub:level  demi-sapiens      1 x
… non:level  non-fit creature  none

original definition of the pistol

The single legged squat is a progression of the standard bodyweight squat. If you were to do the squat by standing on just one leg, the outward leg would need to be in front and pointing away from you, there by resembling “the pistol” position if observed from the side. Having such a cool name it was a given that everyone will want to show off with the pistol squat.

It can be done with or without weights, while holding a kettlebell or a dumbbell in front, from the floor or in elevated position, as an explosive one legged pistol jump from the floor onto a plyo box. There are plenty of ways to do both an easier as well as a harder version of the pistol squat but I believe the elevated pistol squat variant to be the most suitable to be used as a standard to train or test for.