Okay, a bit of an update here. As I mentioned in the first post, I planned on trying dumbbell squats with a slow rep speed. I've done it for a few weeks now, and I like it. But here's the thing. My grip on the dumbbells gives out before my legs are done. I used 65-pound dumbbells today, so the combined 130 pounds approximates my body weight. That in itself is not meaningful, since I did barbell squats with a bit more than double that when I did them years ago. But what I didn't do, either with the barbell squats in the more distant past, and with the weighted pistols that I've been doing since 2012 until a few weeks ago, is slow reps with continuous tension.
Today I did either 8 or 9 reps with the dumbbells (I don't know which, since I was more focused on maintaining a slow cadence) over a period of just over 100 seconds. I didn't lock my knees at the top throughout the entire exercise, which didn't end when the dumbbells slipped out of my hands. I then proceeded to do just body weight squats without missing a beat at a 20-second per rep cadence. So about 10 seconds up and 10 seconds down. I did 4 of those reps, after which time I got some of my grip strength back. Without stopping and while maintaining continuous tension, I then did 4 more reps with the dumbbells at the ~10-second per rep speed. When my grip gave out, I then immediately did another 4 reps unweighted but at the slower speed. I really slowed it down at the end to get to full failure. The whole operation took almost 5 minutes.
I'm surprised I was not able to hold on to the dumbbells longer, since just hanging on a bar with a pronated grip I can hold on for a good 2 minutes or so. I suppose getting tired from the exercise itself contributed to the weakening of the grip. I'm also surprised that I pretty much gave up doing pistol squats at the drop of a hat. I had expected to continue doing them until they wheeled me away some day, but I've recently grown partial to the slower rep speed and the continuous tension throughout the set.
And now for an update on the update.
Since my last post, I continued with this leg workout for a time, but started getting annoyed with my grip giving out too soon on the dumbbells. The last time I did them in this manner, a few weeks ago, I did about 10-11 reps until my grip gave out, immediately followed by four 20-second-rep unweighted squats, immediately followed by 4-5 dumbbell squats, immediately followed by another 4 unweighted squats, immediately followed by another 3-4 dumbbell squats and then finally 4 more unweighted, slower squats. Never locking legs at the top, and holding for a couple of seconds at the bottom, maintaining continuous tension.
Here's what I found. The 20-second-rep unweighted squats seemed tougher on my legs than the ~8-second-rep dumbbell (2x65lbs) squats. So, for a few workouts, I did a full set of 20-second-rep bodyweight squats, rested about 10-15 seconds and then did a set of 8-10 pistol squats at "regular" speed for each leg with a couple of 15lb dumbbells, with almost no rest between legs. I rested for at least a minute and then did the whole thing again, but with fewer reps in each instance, obviously. It seemed more satisfying than having my grip give out too soon on heavier dumbbells. However, I just wasn't sure if 20-second-reps were the way to go.
And then I came across this article last weekend:
https://www.advancedhumanperformance.com/blog/a-better-alternative-to-pistol-squats-skater-squats
I was put off that the author was so critical of pistol squats, but some of his rationale made sense and gave me some pause. I then came across this link:
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19524102/pistol-squat-to-skater-squat/
And so, on Monday I tried the alternating pistol/skater squat with two 15-pound dumbbells. (I prefer holding the dumbbells at my sides and then moving them forward at the bottom of the movement as a counterbalance rather than the "goblet" approach in the 2 videos.) Maintaining continuous tension throughout, I was barely able to do 12 reps (6 of each) before reaching failure. And that was at about 5 or 6 seconds per rep. I went as deep as possible for the skater, with the knee of my non-working leg almost touching the ground near the heel of my working leg, and holding for a couple of seconds. The non-working leg never touches the ground.
What I found is that the skater squats targeted the legs better than the pistols! Quads, hams and glutes. On Thursday, I did only skater squats with the dumbbells and it felt right. I did a set of 12 (to failure), rested for a couple of seconds and then did a few more reps to failure. Rested for something over a minute and then did the other leg in the same way. Rested somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes and repeated the process. Done.
Admittedly, it was not as fancy as the pistol squats (and I'm all about the fancy!), but it felt harder on my legs. In comparing the two, when doing weighted pistols, they really took the stuffing out of me, but I realized in the direct comparison that pistols were harder on my "core" than the skaters, whereas the skaters were almost all about the leg. And so, I decided to focus on legs when doing...legs. This will be my new upper leg routine.
