You’ve probably heard the saying that you’re only as strong as your weakest link.
In the fitness world, this couldn’t be more true.
While traditional bilateral exercises like barbell squats, deadlifts and bench presses get most of the glory, unilateral training (working one limb at a time) might be the missing piece in your fitness puzzle.
Unilateral training isn’t just for rehab or athletes – it’s a game-changer for anyone looking to improve their overall fitness and functionality.
Let’s dive into the benefits and give unilateral training the attention it deserves.
Improve Balance
Think about how much of your day is spent on one leg – walking, climbing stairs, or stepping over your kid’s toys that should have been put away three days ago.
Balance isn’t just for yoga and tightrope walkers; it’s a fundamental skill that deteriorates as we age.
Unilateral training forces your body to stabilize itself with less support, improving proprioception (your awareness of where your body is in space).
When you perform a single-leg Romanian deadlift or a Bulgarian split squat, your body quickly learns that it needs to recruit additional stabilizing muscles to keep you from face-planting on the gym floor.
The improved balance from unilateral training translates directly to better performance in daily activities and reduces your risk of falls as you age.
If you struggle to put on pants without holding onto something, you may find added benefits from unilateral training.
Address Muscle Imbalances
Let’s be honest – we all have a dominant side.
You might favor your right arm for carrying groceries or your left leg for kicking.
If you’ve never noticed, you likely take the first step up a flight of stairs with the same leg every time.
Over time, these preferences create muscle imbalances that can lead to compensatory movement patterns and eventually injury.
Bilateral exercises can mask these imbalances because your stronger side can compensate for your weaker side.
This is known as the Bilateral Deficit Phenomenon.
In terms of muscle recruitment, the sum of unilaterally training both limbs exceeds that of its bilateral equivalent.
With unilateral training, there’s nowhere to hide. Each side has to do its fair share of work.
Studies have found that unilateral training recruits
Unilateral training promotes greater muscle growth and greater muscle strength because it works more muscles.
Single limb strength is specific and cannot be trained with bilateral exercises.
Core Stabilization and Activation
Want to know a secret?
Unilateral training is fantastic core work.
When you perform exercises like a single-arm overhead press or a single-leg deadlift, your core has to work overtime to prevent your body from rotating or tipping over.
This anti-rotation and anti-lateral flexion challenge is something that traditional bilateral exercises simply don’t provide to the same degree.
Your core isn’t just about getting six-pack abs; it’s about creating a stable foundation for all movement.
Unilateral training requires core stabilization to support offset and imbalanced loads.
The increased core activation during unilateral training helps improve posture, reduce lower back pain, and increase power transfer through your body.
Cross Education Phenomenon
Here’s something mind-blowing: training one limb can actually strengthen the opposite, untrained limb.
This neurological phenomenon, known as cross education or the contralateral strength training effect, occurs because your nervous system adapts to unilateral exercises in ways that benefit both sides of your body.
Research shows that when you train one arm, for example, you can experience a 7.6% strength increase in the opposite arm.
This neural adaptation makes unilateral training particularly valuable during injury recovery (more on that next) and for maximizing training efficiency.
When it comes to improving physical performance, unilateral training can be more impactful for sport specific skills.
Injury Recovery
If you’ve ever been injured (and who hasn’t?), you know the frustration of losing strength and muscle mass during recovery.
Unilateral training combined with the cross education effect offers a brilliant solution.
When one limb is injured, you can continue training the healthy limb, which helps maintain some strength in the injured limb through neural adaptations.
This approach significantly reduces the rehabilitation time and makes the transition back to full training much smoother.
This strategy is highly effective when recovering from knee surgery to shoulder injuries, and the results speak for themselves.
Top Unilateral Exercises
Ready to incorporate unilateral training into your routine?
Here are some of our favorite exercises you may want to incorporate:
- Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift: Great for posterior chain development and balance.
- Bulgarian Split Squat: The exercise everyone loves to hate, but it delivers incredible results for lower body strength.
- Single-Arm Dumbbell Row: Targets the upper back while challenging core stability.
- Single-Arm Overhead Press: Builds shoulder strength with the added benefit of core stabilization.
- Suitcase Carry: Simply carrying a heavy weight in one hand strengthens your core and grip while improving posture.
- Turkish Get Ups: The ultimate full body exercise requiring strength, balance, mobility and core stabilization.
Start by incorporating 1-2 unilateral exercises into each workout, focusing on proper form before increasing weight.
And remember, train your non-dominant side first!
This mitigates fatigue and ensures higher quality reps for the side needing it most.
Unilateral training might not be as flashy as maxing out on your bench press, but the benefits for overall functional fitness are undeniable.
After all, life doesn’t happen with perfect bilateral balance – why should your training?
