A couple of the first exercises you’ll typically encounter in your first sessions at SSP are a dumbbell single arm bench press and a split squat. These are both unilateral movements that primarily focus on and load one side of your body. But why do we do this? What is the purpose? Here are a few reasons why we emphasize unilateral training at SSP:
Better Balance and Stability: Working one side of your body at a time helps improve your balance and stability. When you have a dumbbell on one side in a bench press and nothing on the other side, it creates an “offset” situation where the side with the weight is going to naturally throw you off balance and challenge your stability. You have to fight to create tension on the other side of your body to prevent this. That’s a great example of creating and training for stability.
Core Strength: To the above point regarding balance and stability, in situations where you are having to control your body, you are developing greater core strength. Think about doing things like a single leg deadlift, a half kneeling overhead press, or even a suitcase carry. All of these movements require a greater amount of core stability and body control in order to execute them effectively and with good form.
Everyday Strength: Unilateral training mimics real-life movements. Whether it’s carrying your suitcase through the airport, playing sports where you’re changing direction quickly, or going up a staircase one foot at a time, all of these movements are supported and improved through unilateral training.
Greater Overall Strength: Sometimes when we are doing bilateral exercises (think regular squats, barbell bench press, etc.), it’s easier to compensate for muscle imbalances or weakness on any given side of your body. While there’s certainly a great case for doing bilateral exercises (and we do a lot of them at SSP!), with unilateral movements, it’s really hard to compensate when you’re training a single side. This ultimately allows you to identify and work on potential areas of compensation while also building greater strength that will translate better bilaterally.
Trust me when I say, all of us coaches are also doing a TON of unilateral training in our own programs because, well, it works. 🙂
Check out our recent Instagram post where you can see examples of various unilateral movements we do here at SSP.
See you in the gym!
Coach Chris
P.S. Are you ready to feel the difference of training at SSP? Sign up for our free introductory assessment here.