The Benefits and Reasons for Unilateral Training in Sports
Doing exercises like bilateral squats, chest presses, back rows, lat pulls, etc., fools your mind into thinking that your strength is balanced. You will always have a dominant side, so your left and right will never be 50-50. But training your non-dominate side has many benefits, not just to be more functional, but that improve strength, balance, and coordination. Although your right and left side are different, they are deeply interconnected.
Unilateral vs. Bilateral Training
In the gym, you get stuck doing squats, deadlifts, chest presses, and pull-ups and fail to train each side independently. And practically all athletic movements are done unilaterally. Whether on the field, track, or court, sprinting, running, throwing, or catching, you use a split stance or transference to one foot. In addition, the same goes for lateral movements, skipping, or hopping and pushing off to one side.
Unilateral training creates a distinctive and specific training stimulus. It also produces greater muscular stimulation because you are individually and explicitly training muscles. Training unilaterally progresses toward strength symmetry and neuromuscular coordination by improving and developing the weaker side. In doing this, it improves the neural pathways and movement patterns that also stimulate the same muscles on the other side of the body.
So, when you target your left leg strength with a unilateral exercise, you will also gain strength in the right leg too.
Over time, if you have strength imbalances, compensations, or asymmetries, training bilaterally leads to poor movement mechanics and can further the dysfunction. By addressing your weakness, you can better develop your strength and open the door to boosting your power on the dominant side.
Benefits of Unilateral Training
1. Balances the Dominant Side
The weaker side recruits muscles differently because that is how it has been trained and taught. So you will end up favoring the use of one arm and leg over the other. For example, each will develop independent strength if you change squats to single-leg squats or shoulder presses to single-arm presses. That independent strength will help you be more conscious and use your non-dominate side.
2. Engages Your Core
Unilateral training activates your core more than bilateral exercises. A 2012 study confirms and demonstrates this. For example, your body bases everything on proprioception to activate nerves and muscles. When you pick up a weight with your left arm, the core stabilizes more to create stability and balance. And it must prevent the torso from rotating. When you have a barbell, you just get stability.
So, doing a single arm shoulder press, chest press, or back row, as well as a single leg squat or deadlift, leads to greater core stimulation. Try it with a single arm chest press vs. a double. You must prevent yourself from rolling off the bench with a single-arm chest press.
3. Decreases Risk of Injury
You become the victim of injury from overusing movements, muscular imbalances, or poor movement mechanics from only bilateral training. Unilateral training can save you from strains, pain, and injury. Training specific muscles and joints brings your strength closer to symmetry. As a result, you improve neural and muscular development and movement. And that is what closes the gap of dysfunction and minimizes your chances and risks of injury.
4. Develops Agility
Agility is mainly done from one side. You lose speed and explosiveness if you don’t have the strength to push off one leg. Visualize it like this, you are driving your car fast, and you shift it into 5th gear. The car is cruising. Now, imagine your right leg runs in 5th gear and your left leg in 4th. So, the strength imbalance impacts your speed and agility to explode from the weaker side and be fast.
In the sports world, you’re standing on two legs but constantly moving from and on one leg at a time. And so, if you’re running, sprinting, jumping, or hopping down the field, that weakness in and on one leg will transfer through your movement patterns. And that is going to work negatively against your sports performance.
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The Benefits and Reasons for Unilateral Training in Sports
Doing exercises like bilateral squats, chest presses, back rows, lat pulls, etc., fools your mind into thinking that your strength is balanced. You will always have a dominant side, so your left and right will never be 50-50. But training your non-dominate side has many benefits, not just to be more functional, but that improve strength, balance, and coordination. Although your right and left side are different, they are deeply interconnected.
Unilateral vs. Bilateral Training
In the gym, you get stuck doing squats, deadlifts, chest presses, and pull-ups and fail to train each side independently. And practically all athletic movements are done unilaterally. Whether on the field, track, or court, sprinting, running, throwing, or catching, you use a split stance or transference to one foot. In addition, the same goes for lateral movements, skipping, or hopping and pushing off to one side.
Unilateral training creates a distinctive and specific training stimulus. It also produces greater muscular stimulation because you are individually and explicitly training muscles. Training unilaterally progresses toward strength symmetry and neuromuscular coordination by improving and developing the weaker side. In doing this, it improves the neural pathways and movement patterns that also stimulate the same muscles on the other side of the body.
So, when you target your left leg strength with a unilateral exercise, you will also gain strength in the right leg too.
Over time, if you have strength imbalances, compensations, or asymmetries, training bilaterally leads to poor movement mechanics and can further the dysfunction. By addressing your weakness, you can better develop your strength and open the door to boosting your power on the dominant side.
Benefits of Unilateral Training
1. Balances the Dominant Side
The weaker side recruits muscles differently because that is how it has been trained and taught. So you will end up favoring the use of one arm and leg over the other. For example, each will develop independent strength if you change squats to single-leg squats or shoulder presses to single-arm presses. That independent strength will help you be more conscious and use your non-dominate side.
2. Engages Your Core
Unilateral training activates your core more than bilateral exercises. A 2012 study confirms and demonstrates this. For example, your body bases everything on proprioception to activate nerves and muscles. When you pick up a weight with your left arm, the core stabilizes more to create stability and balance. And it must prevent the torso from rotating. When you have a barbell, you just get stability.
So, doing a single arm shoulder press, chest press, or back row, as well as a single leg squat or deadlift, leads to greater core stimulation. Try it with a single arm chest press vs. a double. You must prevent yourself from rolling off the bench with a single-arm chest press.
3. Decreases Risk of Injury
You become the victim of injury from overusing movements, muscular imbalances, or poor movement mechanics from only bilateral training. Unilateral training can save you from strains, pain, and injury. Training specific muscles and joints brings your strength closer to symmetry. As a result, you improve neural and muscular development and movement. And that is what closes the gap of dysfunction and minimizes your chances and risks of injury.
4. Develops Agility
Agility is mainly done from one side. You lose speed and explosiveness if you don’t have the strength to push off one leg. Visualize it like this, you are driving your car fast, and you shift it into 5th gear. The car is cruising. Now, imagine your right leg runs in 5th gear and your left leg in 4th. So, the strength imbalance impacts your speed and agility to explode from the weaker side and be fast.
In the sports world, you’re standing on two legs but constantly moving from and on one leg at a time. And so, if you’re running, sprinting, jumping, or hopping down the field, that weakness in and on one leg will transfer through your movement patterns. And that is going to work negatively against your sports performance.