Bilateral or Unilateral? Why You Need Both in Your Training Program
With more scientific data coming out and a vast amount of fitness influencers saying whatever worked for them should work for you, there’s a lot of information on what kind of exercises you should be doing.
As a strength coach, bilateral movements like back squats cleans, deadlifts, and bench press were used as benchmarks for progress in the weight room. To be honest, there was probably a better metric to be used, given the situation of explaining information to sports coaches it was the easiest way to show what we did work. Bilateral are exercises that people love showing how much weight they can lift. They’re exercises used in competitions of strength ranging all the way back to when the Olympics started. From the meathead perspective, they are the king of lifts.
Why you should program Bilateral exercises in your training program
- Low Stability Requirement
This isn’t to be confused as “zero stability requirement” but just less than unilateral or single-limb movements. Have someone do a bodyweight squat then have them attempt a single leg squat if you disagree with this statement.
Since the stability requirement is lesser, bilateral movements are great for beginners. They are also the…
