Bodybuilding Forums

Thanks for reply krs are Unilateral movements better than Bilateral?

Unilateral movements can be beneficial and absolutely have its place in bodybuilding. Just make sure your training routine is not base on these movements entirely e.g I would not do Unilateral movement for all you thigh routine or arm routine you need to mix it with Bilateral movements. Here’s an example of a 5 day split.

Leg
Bilateral 2x Squats
Bilateral 1x Vertical Leg Press
Unilateral 1x Vertical Single Leg Press
Unilateral 1x Dumbbell Split Squat
Bilateral 1x Leg Curl
Bilateral 1x Stiff Legged Deadlift
Unilateral 1x Standing Single Leg Curl
Unilateral 1x Single Leg Calf Press on a Vertical Leg Press
Bilateral 1x Seated Calf Raise

Chest & Triceps
Bilateral 2x Incline Barbell Press
Bilateral 2x Seated Hammer Chest Press
Unilateral 1x Lying One Arm Cable Files
Unilateral 1x One Arm Cable Crossover
Bilateral 2x Decline E-Z Bar Tricep Extensions
Bilateral 2x Tricep Pushdowns
Unilateral 1x Dumbbell One Arm Extensions
Unilateral 1x One Arm Tricep Pushdowns (underhand grip - stirrup handle)

Bicep & Wrist
Unilateral 2x Standing One Arm Cable curls (stirrup handle)
Bilateral 3x Standing Cable Curls
Unilateral 2x One Arm Cable Preacher Curls (stirrup handle)
Unilateral 1x Reverse Dumbbell Writs Curls
Bilateral 1x Cable Writs Curls

Shoulders & Traps
Bilateral 2x Seated Barbell Overhead Press
Alternate 2x Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press
Bilateral 1x Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Unilateral 1x One Arm Cable Lateral Raise (stirrup handle)
Bilateral 2x Barbell Shrugs
Unilateral 1x One Arm Cable Shrugs (stirrup handle)

Back
Bilateral 2x Deadlifts
Bilateral 1x Pullover Machine
Unilateral 1x One Arm Lat Pulldowns (elbows in - stirrup handle)
Bilateral 1x Barbell Rows (underhand grip)
Unilateral 1x Bent Over One Arm Cable Rows (stirrup handle)

Thanks a lot krs can you give a more specific reason why not to do an entire workout consisting of single limb movements???

Well there are advantages and disadvantage using bilateral and unilateral exercises.

Bilateral exercises have a better transfer of performance and power to unilateral exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Chest Press, and Overhead Presses which can be awkward and clumsy using a single limb movement that’s why you need to think what exercise I will benefit from by doing a single limb movement. Also say you did an entire leg day or any body combination using only single limb movements your workouts would take more time to complete even surpass 60 minutes, so from keeping workouts short and intense you should throw just a few single limb exercises to help isolate any weak body parts.

Unilateral exercises to isolate any weak body parts will keep workload equal e.g. a good exercise for legs would be single leg press say after normal squats. Now if you were doing a normal leg press one leg will work a bit harder taking more workload, so to shock the body into new growth by doing a single leg press each leg will have worked an equal workload giving each leg the same amount of intensity, well that’s the theory so use both bilateral and unilateral exercises in your routine.

Great help cheers krs. One more question would you consider dumbbell chest press a Bilateral or Unilateral???

I would say dumbbell chest press is a bilateral movement even thou each arm are working individually, each shoulder and triceps are creating the same force and energy at the same time of the start of the movement so each stabilizers on each sides are being used to create balance.

A true unilateral movement would be one dumbbell being used at one time say left arm first then right arm. If you did the traditional dumbbell bench press and hit failure at 10 reps using each arm throughout movement each arm will have gone to failure at ten reps, but if you did 10 reps to failure on your weakest arm mine is left, then used your right arm which is my strongest I bet I would have hit more than 10 reps to failure, reason being only that arm was using that workload and creating the work force without any help of thrust and momentum from the opposite arm. This is only my opinion and I am not a specialized strength trainer but this is what I have experienced.

Also very important that when using unilateral exercises to isolate and correct a weaker side use that weaker side first, so if it took 10 reps to failure on your weakest side say left side only hit 10 reps on your strongest side, this method will after time bring your weakest side up to par with your strongest side, I do remember one of the musclehack members wrote a topic on this but can’t find it?

Been a great help thanks