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Silvia Mittermuller

@silviamitfit

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Fitness Account @silviamittermul - Sharing strength,coordination,rehab advice. 20yrs pro🏂 12surgeries/12comebacks, A&B-licensed💪trainer, Team🇦🇹 coach🏂

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Pistol squat progression add-on :

If you don’t have too much leg strength to start with, or have a severe strength disbalance between right and left leg - this one can be another good one on the way to pistol squats. Move down toward the bench slow and controlled (clip is sped up to not take too much of your time 😂) , barely touch the bench, get back up. If you feel close to your limit, do a few additional ones where you do the eccentric (down-) movement on one leg and push back up with two legs (end of the clip). The only thing to watch out for is to not let your knee collapse toward the inside. You want to build the strength to be able to control the movement the entire time and have your knee move up and down in a straight line. If you got one - use a mirror to control your knee. taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

How to progress into free flat ground pistols:

1) use the smith rack. Put the bar slightly below hip height, hold on as much as necessary and use the support to get comfortable with the full range of motion. I always do a set of smith-rack-supported pistols before doing free ones. I use it to check in with my body and feel if everything is good or if I have any tight or sore spots in the movement. If you’re new to pistols, this is also a good way to check if you have the mandatory flixibility for the movement. If your heel lifts or the knee hurts that’s your potential alarm signal to take care of ankle flexibility or knee health first.

2) start your first free attempts on a bench
That way the second leg doesn’t need to be actively lifted the entire time, you can let it hang to the front or side, whatever is easiest. On the bench you can fully focus on your single leg squat and work your way lower and lower down. In the clip I do different ways of what this could look like on the bench.

3)less height
Work your way down, from the bench to smaller heights like this 10cm step. It means you have to hold the second leg up higher and in front of your body. Work with heights where the second leg just doesnt drop to the ground. You’ll get stronger at holding the leg up over the course of time.

4) added weight
Even though the 5kg disc is 5kg of additional weight, that weight in the front of the body can tremendously help with the balance for the full movement. Many people can do flat ground added weight pistols before they can do them without the weight. Especially if your ankles aren’t perfectly flexible, the added weight really helps.

5) flat ground free pistols
If you use points 1-4 to work on your flexibility and strength you should eventually get to the point of being capable of free flat ground pistol squats. Free flat ground pistols are a very good indicator of great leg strength and flexibility. They can also test your right versus left leg in a brutally honest way. If you manage to do them on both sides you should be proud of yourself.

all stages : if you have a mirror, use it to check that your knee moves in a straight line! (Doesn’t bend in) taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

Out of all versions of added-weight-squats, this is my most favourite one ❤️ Some call it zombie-squat (because of the outstretched arms). It’s a type of front squat that forces you into good form - because otherwise you just couldn’t do it, you’d drop the weight. On regular front squats, bad form can be counterbalanced to some extent by using your arms to keep the bar in place. On the zombie squat version, that’s impossible.

If you want to try this out, I recommend starting with a light bar or even plastic stick, just to get a feel for it. If that first test works well, you try it with a full weight (20kg) barbell. It’s normal to initially have some discomfort where the bar lays, you get used to it over the course of time. Don’t use a barbell cushion cover, it will create more distance between the bar and your body and that will make it harder to have an ideal bar path on the movement. Just play with the positioning of the bar until you find the best way to use your muscles to cushion it.

Since you most likely start this without much weight on the bar, you can develop the perfect (minimum discomfort) bar position together with your general technique and strength for the exercise.

Zombie squats can be very humbling. Front squats are generally harder for most people than back squats (I can back squat 90kg, but front squat no more than 65 🥵). Especially the zombie squat version demands a lot from your core. But that’s why I love it so much. Because you get so much core strengthening at the same time as heavy leg strengthening and a coordination challenge. In my eyes this is the most powerful added-weight squat version.

For no-added-weight squats, my absolute favourite are pistol squats. I recently did a pistol squat post, but I think I’ll add a progression tutorial soon. How to learn pistol squats safely. They’re a complex movement with maximum range of motion. Most people can’t just do them out of nowhere. But that’s why I think I’ll do a tutorial? 😉

#fitness taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

🚀 Another one to maintain your speed - start without weight. If you can do 5reps easily - add weight. As all speed exercises - make sure to be well rested and well warmed up. To have the best results , you need to be fresh for speed exercises. Speed always comes before strength in workouts. So the order is : Warmup - speed - strength - cool down/ stretch. Being fresh also means a decent break between sets (1-2minutes) aswell as not too many reps. Quality over quantity. 3-5 reps is sufficient per set. But do those as good as you can. Powerful, fast, knees stay perfectly aligned. Enjoy 😉 taken in Alpenpark Resort by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

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2 years ago

Playing with different speeds/cadences in your workouts changes the stimulus the workout has on your body. Lighter weight+(explosively)fast execution helps build speed/power, whereas slow execution demands perfect coordination during a long time under tension.

This is what my slowest version (clip is real speed) of single rep pistol squat looks like (after a full leg workout🥵).

I go as slow as possible while constantly controlling my knee in the mirror, so it doesn’t move inward. I like doing this stuff at the very end of a leg workout, to challenge the legs to maintain perfectly coordinated execution despite being exhausted. To be able to compare right and left leg, feel/see where the weakest moments in the movement are, to compare how hard it is to get back up on each side after resting a moment at the bottom. It gives you good feedback if your legs are comparably coordinated and strong.

As a snowboarder, most times you back leg is WAY stronger than the front leg. I’m a goofy-footed snowboarder, and out of my 8 knee surgeries 7 were on the right (front) leg and only one on my left (back) leg. It’s very hard to make up at the gym for the strength difference you gain by doing thousands more goofy footed landings than regular footed landings (jumps & rails). Yes, you can do twice the gym sets on your weaker leg, but you’ll still accumulate more than double the goofy foot vs regular footed landings on snow… it’s very hard to catch up with similar leg strength between right and left side after many years of intense snowboarding 😅.

The ultra-slow-pistol squat test can show you very well how bad the difference between your right/left leg really is. If one leg is significantly worse, you need to get stronger for injury prevention. Do double the sets on the weak leg until it gets a bit better. If one side can do a better pistol squat then the other, do twice the pistol squats on the weak leg. If you can only do 1, do 3 times one on the strong leg and 6 times one on the weak. :) with breaks.

If anyone is very much struggling with pistols, comment below and I’ll do a tutorial for total beginners. How to work your way up 😉 by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

As long as you push yourself hard enough, high and low rep ranges can both lead to increased strength. „Pushing yourself“ means ending your set close to failure (= you could maybe do 1 more sloppy repetition, but no more rep with perfect form.)

In my case with pushups: I can easily do 20 pushups without extra weight, so it’s hard to get stronger without adding weight. To not just work on strength endurance, (but actual maximum strength), I could do sets of 10-12reps with 10kg, 5-8reps with 20kg or (in this clip) 3 reps with 25kg (Btw it’s harder for me than it looks!! I sped up the clip a bit so it doesn’t take as much of your time 😂) It’s a matter of personal preference, which way of training you enjoy most , but also if you aim at increased strength mainly through hypertrophy (more muscle mass) or better inter-&intra-muscular coordination (how nerves and muscles work together). Hypertrophy goes along with the higher reps, optimization of nerve-muscle-teamwork (=inter-/intra-muscular coordination) is said to happen more in the small rep ranges.

So for pushups, I choose a warmup set without extra weight, and then gradually add weight for the other sets. Enough gradual warm-up sets are crucial if you want to try this. You don’t need to max out on the repetitions during your warmup sets, just use them to prepare your body to really be ready for the high intensity of your work sets. I love diving into that intensity where mind and body really need to work together to succeed. To play with heavy weight/low rep ranges safely, you need to have decent form first though. So for beginners, start with the higher rep ranges (10-15) and slowly work your way down to less reps/more weight as your strength increases and form stabilizes 😉

This low/high rep stuff doesn’t only count for pushups, but for all strength exercises - squats, deadlifts, benchpress etc, but also for core exercises. I’m a big fan of adding weight to core exercises!

If you really read my long caption all the way to the end - thank you, you seem to really care about this workout theory stuff!! But how about ditching your phone in a bit and doing 10 pushups? If you do 20 with ease - add weight! 💪 taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

✅ Comp winter season is done, from now on I’ll be back here with training advice more frequently again 😅

This clip (from this morning) is one of my fav combo exercises, challenging full-body coordination and strength equally. If you wanna try it out - start with the beginner tutorial I made a while ago. Just click the newest story highlight called „flying“ and go to the reel from there. Maybe it turns into a new, fun addition to your workout routine ☺️ enjoy 💝 #fitness

Add-on info : once you got the basic balance, you can add weights. Put equal amounts of weight in your hands and between your feet. In this clip it’s 12kg (26,5 pounds) between my feet and 2x6kg (2x13,25 pounds) in my hands. Start small, work your way up 😉 taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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2 years ago

Most injuries aren’t a reason to „not go to the gym“. They are just a challenge to train around them/differently. Sure, some acute rest makes sense first (depending on the type/grade of injury), but after that, physical activity can help to heal faster (better circulation etc) and maintain strength in the uninjured body parts (which otherwise weaken while you do nothing). Fast comebacks also happen through maintaining what’s not injured the best you can.

In my current case - I can’t lift weight with my sprained AC (right shoulder) , but I can use my muscles to stabilize the shoulder. If I focus well to use all surrounding shoulder strength, the stabilization is strong enough to even handle jump impact. So while doing legs, it keeps my shoulder muscles activated & used, so they don’t disappear as quickly as if I did nothing at all.

I can train legs pretty well despite shoulder injury. Sure, I currently can’t use free weights (barbells🤍) as usual , but in a state of injury, machines come in handy. I mostly only use machines when I’m hurt 😂 To train around injuries. When I’m 100% fit, I don’t like the isolation of machines much, I prefer complex exercises that force my entire body to work together at high efficiency and intensity.

But then, if you think a little, you also always find cool „not-machine“ stuff that still works despite injury. In my current case - pistol squats. I generally love pistol squats. When you can do them full-range pain-free it means your knees and ankles are pretty good and your strength is decent. Pistol squares are a great indicator of where you’re at :) I like ending leg workouts with a stupid long set of alternating left-right pistols. That way, I can use all the remaining energy I have. So this last set of my leg workout is very much strength endurance (almost cardio 😂 - without speeding it up, clip was 2,5minutes of pistols! 😂) while the rest of my previous workout was mostly in the low-rep-high-intensity-max-strength range. I laugh in the pistol clip a few times because I realize I lost count 😂 Was aiming at 20pistols on both sides. No matter how many it was - I won’t loose my leg strength due to shoulder injury 😎 taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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3 years ago

After age ~30 you start loosing strength (~1% per year if you’re inactive) and even more rapidly, speed (up to ~3% per year!!) naturally if you don’t live in a way that you actually use what you got consistently. Since pretty much noone has to flee&fight wild animals anymore, it’s highly unlikely that you get that kinda use through daily life. So this exercise is one of my fav ways to maintain speed and explosive full body contraction while also challenging your coordination. Before doing this, make sure to be warmed up&ready through at least ~10 min of your cardio/full body movement of choice.

For exercise-specific warmup sets you just explosively one-leg-raise your full body and stabilize yourself at the top for a moment. No jump yet. Holding at the top with engaged core and stable ankle/knee is key (watch yourself in a mirror. Is everything straight and balanced? Does your knee or ankle bend in at any part of the movement? - if so correct it meticulously ) Once that works well, you add the jump version for intensified speed work. It’s one of the more gentle ways to include jumps into your routine since you jump one legged from an elevated position. You won’t have to absorb much airtime and work both legs individually (which lets you monitor them in comparison and find weaknesses and problems early on).

If you chose to include speed work into your routine, do it right in the beginning of your workouts after a good warmup. It’s crucial to be fresh and powerful to get the most out of it. Strength work with weights should come after the speed stuff. Also don’t do Speed all the way to exhaustion. Rather only 4-8 reps but those with thw best form you got 💎

Enjoy! #fitness taken in All inclusive Fitness München Haar by @silviamitfit

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3 years ago

😅 Progress update - One-arm-push-up project is still on, but it’s stupidly hard. Bar height is below my hips, it’s a long way to the ground 😅 not sure if I’ll ever reach the ground actually 😂 It would surely be cool, but doesn’t mean that much to me that I would commit to a fully focused training plan just for one arm push-ups 🤪 What I can already say, is that this is a wonderful tool to keep you humble 🥵 #fitness #onearmpushupprogression taken in Aktiv- & Wellnesshotel Bergfried by @silviamitfit

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3 years ago

💝 Advanced version of the last core/obliques exercise. It‘s still the same movement , but add 2 similar-weight dumbbells on top. One of them goes between your feet, the other one goes between your hands. For light weights you can also do this with outstretched arms above the head. Once it’s 5kg+ dumbbells, I prefer to hold the weight on top of my collarbones (as in this clip) though.

At beginner stage (last post), this exercise is more about coordination than strength (to find the right spot to be able to balance it out at all). But once you’ve managed to find a general balance, you can focus on actively engaging your muscles/add the weights and that way the strength component will more and more outweigh the coordinative challenge. So add weights, find your balance without tipping over in any direction, then add little pulsating up and down movements. Start with 1-2kg (3-5pound) dumbbells. Once you easily do 10-20 up-down movements with those, you upgrade to heavier dumbbells. Enjoy! 😉💪 #fitness #core #workout taken in High Country Fitness by @silviamitfit

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3 years ago