Bi-Lateral Movements And Unilateral Movements For Strength
When working out what do you do? Do you use both limbs in every movement or focus on one at a time? There are benefits to both and sometimes I take the middle and utilize a movement where although both limbs are moving, the majority of my weight has shifted to one or the other. These I call semi-unilateral exercises or, “Archers.” They are a great step in getting towards a full unilateral movement.
Semi to Full Unilateral Perks
For training at home, in order to better gain strength I believe it appropriate to take the path towards unilateral exercises. Everything is done in nature unilaterally; marching, climbing, swimming, striking, etc. Therefore, train so that your individual limbs over time can generate more and more force. This principle can be applied even at the early stages of one’s fitness journey.
One-arm push-ups, one-arm pull-ups, pistol squats, one-legged bridging
With the added stimulus that comes with unilateral exercises as well as a full range of motion stretching the working muscles, you provide your joints with nourishment and the stress to become stronger.
Tangent
I’m in my 30s and I often see memes from folks my age having joint issues which outside an injury/prior medical condition might be due to other factors. I don’t have any lower back issues even though I’m a stomach sleeper which the “experts” act like is a death knell. My joints feel fine as well. The only conclusions I can come away with are…
Progressive calisthenics work in terms of building up my connective tissues leading to reduced injury and pain. The lack of this brings about the opposite.
or the foods that most folks my age are eating are highly inflammatory.
Maybe both…
Back on Track
In addition to this, unilateral training requires a higher proficiency with balance working the core to a greater degree. With feats like the perfect one-arm push-up your core will take a beating in an effort to keep your torso straight.
But there are drawbacks.
Semi to Full Unilateral Drawbacks
The main drawbacks of unilateral training are time. You do one limb and then the other for however many sets you are using. This will double the time it’ll take you to do your workout but if you have the time then this is not an issue. Each person is different but I usually do some type of upper-body push, upper-body pull, and lower-body squat. Employing a couple of unilateral exercises I believe could overburden you and your training progress. But if you believe you have the recovery capabilities then at most I would use an A and B day. What this will look like is that you use different unilateral movements on each day and space them apart for proper recovery.
Workout A
Lever Push-Ups
Archer Pull-ups
Pistol Squats
Workout B
Lever Pike-Pushups
One armed Rope Row
One-Legged Straight Bridges.
Whether it's for strength or muscle, modify it how you see fit.
Balance in certain cases depending on your short-term goals can be a drawback. For example, pistol squats when you first start them can be a mostly balancing exercise with some strength benefits. But, after diligent practice over the months and years, the balance won’t be as big of a factor. When you first start a unilateral exercise balance may to 70% focus of the exercise with 30% being all strength. Over time that 70% will drop to 60, 50, 45, and so on enabling you to use the movement for pure strength or muscle building.
Bi-lateral Perks
Two-limbed movements aren’t all bad. Given enough stimulus you can develop the same level of strength as unilateral movements but this is mainly accomplished through weights. If you don’t have some there are always plyometrics/ explosive movements. Plyometrics can train your force production forces to a high degree.
“He has but a limited time in which to exercise and so had to concentrate. He made his squatting more vigorous by the simple expedient of jumping directly upward… He claimed that 30 such jumps gave one as much work as ten times as many ordinary squats, and produced much bigger muscles. Certainly he has developed splendid thighs in that way.” (p 99 Liederman Secrets of Strength)
In addition to this, they take less time to complete.
Bi-lateral Drawbacks
The main drawbacks two limb training are mainly the stimulus. In the beginning, you can improve your strength and build whatever exercise you choose but after some adaptation, you will need higher and higher rep numbers to get the same effect extending your workout time. Explosive movements are great but have a high potential to cause injury compared to overcoming isometric exercise. I tried relying on explosive push-ups for a while at low reps/ low sets and my joints were like…
Story
I started my fitness journey with both a pull-up bar for my doorway in middle school and the gym in my high school. In high school, our lifts were the bench press, squat, and power clean. This was awesome at the time that my school had this and joined the weightlifting classes with some of my other band peers. Yes, I was a band nerd…
But although I had access to a great number of weights and barbells what I’ve learned about calisthenics and overcoming isometric exercise has been more beneficial. It was my journey into non-gym-reliant workouts that led me to the importance of unilateral exercises. With unilateral exercises, you’re not reliant on much equipment and you pursue strength and muscle growth almost anywhere. But with bi-lateral the effectiveness of the workout is limited by the amount of extra weight our resistance bands you have lying around. In this case, you’ll be reliant on explosive movements which can damage your joints vice build them up.
Sometimes when folks talk about minimalist training they are only referring to the three big lifts which are bench press, heavy squats, and deadlifts similar to the lifts in my high school days. But by minimalist fitness what I mean is the pursuit of strength, muscle, and coordination with very little equipment. Unilaterals will get you there.
Thank you for making it to the end and if you have any questions let me know.