The Importance of Unilateral Training
Athletic performance is much more than your squat max!
When I tell people what I do for a living I am commonly asked the following:
“What do you bench?”
“What is your squat max?”
While these are fun conversation starters and great indicators of absolute strength, they aren’t exactly the best measures for athleticism as it pertains to sport performance.
For athletes and human performance coaches alike, our number one goal should be to optimize sport performance, slightly edging out the second most important goal, which should be to decrease the likelihood of injury.
Using unilateral movements as a part of a well-designed training program can accomplish both of these imperative training goals along with so much more.
Unilateral movements are defined by using a single limb as opposed to their more popular counterpart movements, bilateral movements, which use both limbs simultaneously. Although they certainly don’t turn as many heads as a 400-pound back squat, these movements are incredibly beneficial for developing attributes that can be transferred and applied to the field or court.
The benefits of these movements are lengthy in number but let’s focus on the Top 5:
1. Muscle Imbalance Improvement and Increased Symmetry
All of us have imbalances and asymmetries within us. Often our dominant side can tend to hoard most of the strength, stability and even mobility due to neurological preference. Over time, this truth begins to erode the opposite side by overcompensating during bilateral exercise and can then bleed over into movement, impacting sport performance and increasing our chances of injury.
Not only can single-limb work help to expose those imbalances, but it can be the remedy to isolating a weaker side and developing it so that those overcompensations are limited and athletes stay away from the associated injuries. A helpful practice is to have athletes perform all repetitions of a unilateral exercise on the weaker side first to limit fatigue and give priority to the imbalance.
2. Application to Human Movement
Unilateral exercises resemble general movement far more than bilateral exercises do. Does walking or running look more like a back squat or single leg split squat? How often are we pushing or pulling things in our day-to-day life with two hands versus one?
In terms of athleticism, unilateral is king. This is how we sprint to the football as a linebacker on defense, how we jump to kiss it off the glass with a defender in our face on the court or how we bring the hammer down on a kill after being set perfectly to win the match. If our sport demands us to be able to perform it, we better prepare for it.
3. Improved Core Strength
Core strength is essential for expression of power. One of my favorite quotes in terms of developing this is: “You can’t shoot a cannon out of a rowboat.” Being able to have stability and strength in your power zone allows the expression of power in all three planes of motion.
When we perform single-leg or single-arm movements we challenge and improve our core by having to use it as a stabilizer in those movements. Since we feel pulled to the side that we are training while the other side may not be loaded, it requires us to draw the balance from our center, thus improving not only our strength but also our transfer of that strength to the field or court. Again, this is the most important part of training. For a previous article detailing how we approach core strength development, click this link!
4. Injury Reduction
Injuries happen because of a multitude of reasons but primarily they occur due to overuse, poor movement quality and muscular asymmetries. Moving unilaterally can help identify these issues and simultaneously develop the properties necessary to begin the process to correct them.
5. Cross Education (Contralateral Strength Training Effect)
When we perform exercises on one side of our body there is actually an increase in strength on the opposite side! Wild, huh? This is great news for athletes who are already injured and are working to return to play as they can expect to see strength developed in the limb that they have to immobilize and also evidence for why injured athletes should continue to train around said injury.
Checkout this article from the Journal of Applied Physiology to geek out even more on the topic!
Honorable Mention
Benefits to unilateral training that didn’t crack the Top 5 are increased motorization and neurological movement patterning. Isolating one side during exercise allows for increased motorization from muscle groups that can “hide” during bilateral movement and thus lends itself to increased muscular strength!
The more we move unilaterally, the easier and more functional our brain will transfer these patterns to sport. Increased movement patterning can not only help us express the strength we are creating but give us a better foundation for movement to help limit the risk of injury.
Now that we fully understand the benefits of unilateral work, let’s look at some of our favorite exercises to incorporate into our training programs.
LOWER BODY UNILATERAL MOVEMENTS
Our first movement that we prioritize in our lower body unilateral work is the split squat progression. This is a great way to isolate one side of the lower body and work on correcting those imbalances by strengthening the weaker side of our athletes in particular.
These movements can start with either the barbell or a dumbbell and progress as the athletes master the movement.
Front Rack Split Squat
Reverse Lunge
Bulgarian Split Squat
Another great way to challenge the lower body unilaterally is to work through our single-leg squat progressions. Not only will this expose imbalances but it will target the quadriceps and hips to promote an increase in motorization and lead to transferable strength.
Advance through these movements only as you have mastered the least difficult.
Single Leg Squat (1–2)
Single Leg Squat (2–1)
Single Leg Squat (1–1)
Pistol Squat Off Box
Some of the honorable mention exercises are our single-leg RDL progressions and hip mobility exercises, all of these and more can be viewed on our YouTube Channel!
UPPER BODY UNILATERAL MOVEMENTS
Among our favorite upper body exercises that we deploy to accomplish the above listed goals are single arm presses and pulls. These movements work to achieve symmetry and reduce the risk of injury.
This is especially important with our overhead sport athletes such as baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball players. The first movement, unilateral blackburns, is a great way to prep for a training day that will include upper body unilateral work.
Unilateral Blackburn
½ Kneeling Landmine Press
Single Arm Dumbbell Incline Press
Single Arm Dumbbell Row
Correcting muscle imbalances, reducing the likelihood of injury all while increasing motorization and strength — what’s not to love?
Unilateral training is only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to writing a training plan that is comprehensive and beneficial for optimizing sport performance. While it may be just one piece, it is a crucial piece that every sport demands!
Always remember, if the sport demands it, we must prepare for it. So the next time someone asks you what you bench press, flip the script and give them the stats on your pistol squat ability!
