Eric, I see some of the bigger guys at my gym doing a lot of exercises using one arm or leg at a time. Is there any advantage to doing this? How often should I incorporate this type of training? Aside from the obvious, what are some good movements to do one side at a time?

Answer:

One of the most important points I try to get across in many of my articles is just how incredibly adaptive the human organism is. When one’s body is provided with a new physical challenge, a plethora of physiological reactions will take place in order to help better deal with it should it have face this challenge again in the future. This adaptive system is what has allowed the human race to survive for millions of years, but is also what makes us capable of radically altering our physiques. Muscular hypertrophy and increased strength are nothing more than our body’s attempt to adapt to the physical stress we place upon it when we punish the iron in the gym day after day. However, the body’s ability to adapt in this manner is actually a double-edged sword, as this system can often be too efficient for our purposes. You see, if you continually provide the same types of stimulation/stress when you train (i.e., exercises, sets, reps, angles, tempos, etc), your body will soon become immune to the effects of your workouts – the result being complete stagnation. Adding muscle mass is very low on your body’s “list of priorities,” and if it can figure out a way to forego this process, it will. Thus, you must continually seek out ways to provide novel stressors to your muscles and CNS in order to force “overcompensation,” the result of which is increased levels of hypertrophy and strength.

Although there are a myriad of techniques that can be utilized to help shock your muscles out of a state of complacency, “unilateral training,” or working one limb/side of the body at a time, is actually one of the most effective and dynamic. This method of training makes it very difficult for your body to adapt because the stress is very unique, and forces the body to work in quite a different manner than it does with two-limbed movements. The following are some of the important advantages that unilateral training has over standard exercises:

1. Focus will not be split between both sides of the body. Thus, you will be able to concentrate more intensely on the target muscle, and in turn, get an improved response (harder contractions, better pump, deeper burn, etc.)
2. Because of the increased nerve force, you will recruit more muscle fibers and exhaust more motor unit pools with each rep and set.
3. You will more effectively work stabilizer muscles.
4. You will take vital steps toward overcoming strength imbalances between your right and left sides, which can in turn also greatly improve muscular “symmetry” over time.

Now, I am not saying that you should completely abandon standard two-limbed training for an entirely unilateral approach. However, I do feel that everyone should incorporate at least one single-limb exercise for each body part, during each workout. I generally recommend that you perform unilateral exercises toward the end of your routine for a particular body part, as it is an excellent way to finish off a workout.

My suggestion is to begin by adding one unilateral exercise to each body part workout and if after a few weeks you find that you are getting excellent results, perhaps try adding a second one. Just be aware that because of the added balance and coordination issues, some unilateral exercises can be difficult to perform at first. Thus, until you have it mastered you might not receive the full benefit from the movement right away. It certainly takes a few workouts to get used to movements like single-leg squats, DB presses and dead lifts... but once you do, you can rest assured that you will experience new gains in muscle and strength rather rapidly. Stick to each new unilateral exercise for about 4-6 weeks before you switch to another, and don’t be afraid to “tweak” the movement and experiment with form a bit until you find what “groove” feels best to you.

I am sure that you are quite familiar with basic unilateral exercises like concentration curls, one-arm rows, and dumbbell kickbacks... but if you have not utilized such “muscle-fiber-fryers” as unilateral leg presses, split-squats, stiff-leg dead lifts, lat pull downs, upright rows, cable crossovers, DB bench presses, etc, then you are more than likely missing out on “a heck-of-a lot of hypertrophy”!

The following is a list of unilateral exercises that you might wish to incorporate into your training in order to spur on some new growth. This is only a partial list of exercises as there are literally dozens of variations of each movement that you can readily employ. For those of you that wish to increase the use of stabilizing muscles in order to enhance balance and coordination for sporting activities, the use of a Swiss ball and/or balance board can add an entirely new dynamic to all unilateral movements.

• Chest: single arm lying dumbbell press, dumbbell flye, machine chest press, cable flye, cable crossover, pec deck flye.
• Lats: single arm dumbbell row, seated cable row, pull down, T-Bar row, stiff-arm pull down, pull-up.
• Delts: single arm dumbbell press, seated machine press, dumbbell/cable lateral, dumbbell upright row.
• Biceps: single arm low cable curl, dumbbell preacher curl, standing dumbbell curl, machine curl.
• Triceps: singe arm dumbbell kickbacks, lying/seated extensions, pushdowns, machine dips, Smith reverse grip press.
• Legs: single leg squats, leg press, leg extensions, step-ups, leg lying/seated/standing leg curls, stiff leg dead lifts, split squats.
• Calves: single leg seated calf raise, standing calf raise, calf press.
• Traps: single arm dumbbell/machine shrugs, dumbbell cleans, dumbbell upright row.
• Low back: single arm dumbbell dead lifts.
• Forearms: single arm dumbbell wrist and reverse wrist curl, dumbbell reverse curl, hammer curl.

Always keep in mind that as drug free bodybuilders we must take advantage of any and every edge we possibly can get in order to keep our muscles growing. I have found unilateral training to be an invaluable tool in my continued success, and hope that all of my natty (and not necessarily natty) brethren will also find it helpful in the pursuit of their physique goals!