Want to level up your workout without adding weight? Unilateral movements (unilateral movements) are a great way to make your exercise more difficult, and you don’t need any additional equipment to perform them.
These exercises have many benefits. Targeting one side of your body at a time isolates muscles and helps correct muscle imbalances. Also, practicing single-leg movements can help develop core stability and balance.
If you want to try it for yourself, we recommend this 6-move weighted unilateral workout from a certified trainer. stacey roberts. She does these using a yoga block to increase her range of motion. Scroll down to see the entire routine.
How to train
Complete each exercise 12 times for a total of 3 sets. Remember to warm up first and then cool down for at least 5-10 minutes.
The workout requires heavy dumbbells or kettlebells and an optional yoga block. Roberts uses a 25-pound kettlebell, but advises adjusting the weight as needed. If you don’t have a yoga block, you can use a thick book or weight plate instead.
The movements are as follows.
- offset squat side lift
- Single Romanian deadlift with rotation
- calf raise
- high reverse lunge
- elevated single bridge
- Seated leg liftover
Why range of motion is important
Roberts uses yoga blocks to increase her range of motion (ROM). Elevating one side of your body allows you to go deeper into unilateral exercises like offset squats and reverse lunges.
Working with greater ROM helps build muscle strength, increases the amount of muscle fibers recruited during a workout, and improves muscle activation.
A systematic review published in Strength and Conditioning Journal supports this. This review suggests that exercising at full ROM (as opposed to partial ROM) is beneficial for improving everything from strength and muscle size to speed and power. Masu.
Benefits of unilateral exercise
Most of us are naturally stronger on one side of our bodies than the other. The dominant side tends to overcompensate the weaker side, which can cause a strength difference between the two sides. Isolating the muscles on one side of your body will help you avoid overtraining your dominant side. That’s why I’m a big fan of unilateral exercises.
According to the research of European Journal of Applied Physiologyit’s also a good way to improve core strength. This study found that single-leg exercises activate the core more effectively than bilateral exercises because the core has to work harder to maintain balance when only one side of the body is used. I found out that it does.