Yeah, it's a good idea, Stuey. The important thing is to have a goal and work on it, no matter what it is.
Like I say I'm not a counter, so my updates will probably be pretty vague. Pavel's Naked Warrior concept of "grease the groove" stresses that if you want pure strength, think of strength as a skill to practice, rather than going by pure numbers of reps or raw poundage. Both the pistol and the one-armed push-up definitely require more coordination and focus than most pure lifting does, so that idea seems applicable to those exercises. He suggests doing low reps to build strength, and not training to failure, so you can be fresh enough to keep doing sets frequently throughout the week.
After that you can do harder variations of the exercises, like turning the one-armed push-up into a one-armed/one-leg push-up. Or else you can add weight, like wearing a weight vest, or holding a dumbbell or kettlebell when doing pistols. Making the increased challenge not come from more reps, if you're working purely on strength. Adding in more reps can build more muscle mass, which doesn't necessarily coincide with pure power. And endurance, which is a goal I'm putting aside for now. As someone who did martial arts for years and worked myself like mad, it's actually kind of hard to not train to failure and keep going anyway, like I used to do. But I'm not in the shape I was then or anywhere close, so I have to be patient and do something different. When I get the kettlebells and practice swings more and more, I'll gradually be working other things in.
When I did start pistols a couple weeks ago, I did find the balance harder than now. Finding just the right movement path is a little tricky, and it really is refining a skill to learn how to do it without toppling over. That was really my biggest challenge -- not how many I could do, but just doing a single one right! I'm still concentrating on my form a lot because I want to learn how to do this just right. And it's kind of a strain on the knee and lower back if you don't keep the motion really smooth. Pavel doesn't seem to be that crazy about warm-ups from what I can see, but any kind of squat is inherently a big strain on the body, and I'm a big believer in warm-ups. They've always kept me from injury while I've seen almost everyone else screw themselves up at least once in a while by not warming up enough.
Anyway, I haven't pushed my numbers, but whereas a couple weeks ago I was bumbling through the pistols with my right leg and finding normal one-legged squats doable but difficult, now I can crank out five pistols with my right leg without too much trouble, and do it again after a quick rest(while doing my left leg). It was pretty hard for me with my left leg and I still am having some balance issues with it, but now can pump out a couple of sets of 4 or 5 one legged squats on the left leg. They're "sorta" pistols, but I'm holding on to the edge of a table for balance, so I'm not officially calling them that yet. I can do the pure muscle part of it, but I'll need more strength and practice before I'm smoothly doing pistols on my left leg.
Still, I've noticed a real small mass increase already, even though pistols aren't really done for mass and I never work to exhaustion, much less failure. I never do more than five, or more than three sets. Then in a few hours I do it again.
Anyway, interesting program, and I am getting smoother at it. Very strange for an endurance/work to failure and then keep going anyway type like me to artificially limit myself. But it's working. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do once I get the technique really smooth and wired -- like adding the weight of a kettlebell and/or dumbbell!
This dude is pretty godly on one-legged pistols. He does them while holding two 88 pound kettlebells. Great link on how to do the pistols:
http://www.fullkontact.com/a_pistol.html
I'm very tempted to buy his DVD's, especially since he's a long-term martial artist, and that's really where my interests lie in building up strength and fitness anyway. Plus, he concentrates on an internal style, which is really intriguing to me.