[r-man]

Cheers jwi, I'm not sure what all of those are but will get googling!

I would have thought a 1 legged squat would be similar to the front lever, the limiting factor is your quad not your core. I can do 4 squats and have a realtively poor core.

Yes - but unlike the FL 1 legged squats are a useful climbing exercise...
I can't do one - and I really really struggle on high leg rockovers as a result.. Long levers excuse part II

Hmm. Which part of high leg rockovers do you struggle with? For most people it's shifting bodyweight from down low to over the top of the foot. The actual standing up is rarely the hardest bit, probably why the move is called a rockover, not a standup!

On a difficult rockover you have to pull hard with your toe, which seems to engage the bum, back of thigh and calf muscle more than anything. I think.

[tomtom]

Cheers jwi, I'm not sure what all of those are but will get googling!

I would have thought a 1 legged squat would be similar to the front lever, the limiting factor is your quad not your core. I can do 4 squats and have a realtively poor core.

Yes - but unlike the FL 1 legged squats are a useful climbing exercise...
I can't do one - and I really really struggle on high leg rockovers as a result.. Long levers excuse part II

Hmm. Which part of high leg rockovers do you struggle with? For most people it's shifting bodyweight from down low to over the top of the foot. The actual standing up is rarely the hardest bit, probably why the move is called a rockover, not a standup!

On a difficult rockover you have to pull hard with your toe, which seems to engage the bum, back of thigh and calf muscle more than anything. I think.

Its the standing up bit. as I said above, I can't stand up on one leg from squatting..
I've very skinny legs so getting weight over the foot is not usually the problem, its just standing up... it dont work!

[r-man]

Fair enough!

[SA Chris]

Levers shmevers. I'm 6ft 2 with legs like beanpoles and can do them, but I don't because my knees make a worrying grinding sound when i do. It's easier to practice them standing on a pole or edge of a bench so you can flap your other leg about a bit to balance rather than having to do them on the ground.

[r-man]

I'm not tall, but my knees hurt if I do one leg squats. They don't hurt when I do rockovers/standing up moves, so it seems like the one leg squat is working the wrong things.

What SA Chris said sounds more sensible, much more likely to work the relevant muscles.

[a dense loner]

When you do rockovers your other leg is pretty much always straight below you, you can't do this in a one-legged squat unless as someone said by standing on something. So a one legged squat should feel harder

[Muenchener]

It's sometimes surprising what people don't know. I was climbing at the weekend with a reasonably fit young lad who had only been climbing for a couple of years, and we were working a route with a rockover crux. He kept falling off, until I noticed that he was putting his foot on the hold and trying to stand up on it immediately, completely missing out the "rockover" part. When I pointed out to him that the first thing he needed to do was bring his butt down to his heel and get sat in balance on one leg, *then* stand up, it was a revelation to him and he did the move immediately.

Then he fell off the next move, then it rained.

[tomtom]

I started practicing 'pistols' as I believe they are known in a doorframe - where you can sidepull on the frame, mimicing the standing up on a hold quite well (apart from the leg underneath thing Dense is rightly talking about).. but like Chris my knees didnt seem to like it, and like most forms of training it bored the shit out of me so I stopped.

Nice tale Meunchner!

[tomtom]

sorry, One day Menunchener I will spell your username correctly!

[tomtom]

Oh bollocks I did it again.

[SEDur]

Deadlifts
Stiff leg DL (careful!)
Good mornings
Supermans
Leg raise
Single leg squat
Push Sit-up
Bird dog (starting on toes)

Lots of these can be made more unbalanced on a swiss ball

What are push sit-ups and Bird Dogs?

[jwi]

push sit ups are sit ups with a bar or two dumbbells pressed overhead.
Bird Dog Exercise #4 here: http://www.builtlean.com/2012/02/27/bird-dog-exercise/ (make them harder by start further out, or put hands or feet on balance ball)

[SEDur]

Cheers

[John Boy]

It's so bad that it resembles some of my old training plans.

Worse. It's so bad it resembles some of my new plans!