Fall Training – Single Sided Workouts

Posted: September 9, 2013 at 11:30 am

FWyc8Mc

 

There are  many benefits to training your body unilaterally or one side at a time. The first and most obvious benefit would be the improvement of any weaknesses or imbalances between our right and left halves which can be disguised by always doing barbell exercises. Because each arm and leg works independently, dumbbell work prevents your dominant side from bearing most of the load during a lift and allowing your weaker side to stay weak. Dumbbell work also requires the smaller stabilizer muscles of a joint to get involved during each repetition which over time increases joint stability and can help in injury prevention. Another added benefit of unilateral exercise is the additional core training that it provides. By having to stabilize and balance your body with a weight on one side, your deep trunk muscles remain activated throughout all of the exercises rather than only during a specific set of core exercises. Some unilateral exercises to try include:

1)      Single Arm Dumbbell Chest Press

2)      Single Arm Dumbbell Bent Over Row

3)      Single Arm Dumbbell Deadlift

4)      Single Arm Dumbbell Shoulder Press

5)      Single Arm Dumbbell Lunge

 

These exercises can be performed as circuit by performing one exercise on both the right and left side directly after the other with as little rest as possible in between. That’s one circuit. Rest for 60 to 90 seconds before completing the circuit one or two more times depending on your fitness level.