Quick quiz!
What’s the one thing missing from most fitness programs that translates into extraordinary progress?
- Ice Cream
- More Posterior Chain Work
- Single-Sided Bodyweight Exercises
- Chipotle
- A Good Workout Partner
While a case could probably be made for any of these choices, the
answer that has the greatest return on your time investment is C.
Single-Sided Bodyweight Exercises.
Behold, The Domino Effect: One Side Fits All
Also known as unilateral movements, focusing on one side at a time
with the upper or lower extremities has been shown to play a key role in
promoting equilibrium, transforming mental and physical ideals into
reality, overcoming current health setbacks, and preventing future
issues from happening. These positive changes are especially noticeable
when you consider the value of starting your workout on a high note with
such moves—which is arguably the most important habit you can develop
to increase workout productivity.
If there is such a promising range of benefits from their
application, why don’t we see more single-sided exercises being
performed by others on a regular basis?
Well, there are three understandable reasons why some fitness gurus
still don’t prescribe one-sided exercises in their training programs.
The total number of repetitions take more overall time to perform (which
can lead to impatience), they don’t allow the practitioner to add a
sexy amount of external load (which can influence ego), and they’re
significantly more challenging on both the mind and body to perform
(which can make poor form inevitable). This puts many well-informed
coaches in a tough position when it comes to attracting new business and
ultimately selling their training philosophy.
The good news is, no matter where you’re at right now in your fitness
journey, you can have the best of both worlds—catering to both your
wants AND your needs—by including unilateral calisthenics
movements in the first half of every workout. The following list
vivifies the healthy domino effect of this “one side fits all” training
strategy—meaning that, once one of these motives is set in place, you
will set off a chain reaction for the rest. Hopefully after going
through this list, you too will find new motivation or be able to put
previous advice into healthier perspective by balancing movement from
both sides of the body more effectively.
- Train and Recover Smarter
The cool thing about training one side of the body at a time is that
it encourages you to do more work without exceeding your capacity to
recover. More specifically, once you become aware of which side is less
strong, you have a few options for splitting up the total volume (i.e.
reps) more evenly. For example, you could begin working your
non-dominant side while you are more energetic, and finish on your
stronger side to elicit a healthier adaptation response. You might also
find alternating between sides throughout a given “set” to be
beneficial—particularly when performed with a “flow” mindset. Finally,
you could split up the work into halves, thirds or quarters depending on
your target number of reps. As long as you sustain a quality over
quantity mindset, you can really use one-sided movements to your
advantage.
- Improve Core Strength
Having visible abs is
considered the holy grail in the field of “bro science.” However, don’t
neglect your glutes, back muscles and psoas muscle group when training
your entire core. Fortunately, unilateral calisthenics moves take all
the guesswork out of the equation, allowing you to turn on these key
muscle areas when they matter most: when you’re OUTSIDE of the gym and
NOT in a workout state of mind. The best set of cues I’ve used as an
instructor to help others work their core more effectively is to turn on
their glutes (an internal cue) and then pretend like they’re about to
get punched in the stomach (an external cue)—before doing anything.
Being able to do this without thinking about it (i.e. create a habit out
of applying core strength) will ultimately contribute to further
longevity.
- Cultivate Mobility, Joint Health & Overall Movement Quality
Mobility is defined as the ability to move a joint or a series of
joints actively through a range of motion that encourages a healthy
interaction between muscles, joints and the central nervous system. So
you are not just passively increasing the range-of-motion for muscles
that lack full flexibility, but you are using exercise as a tool to move
your joints actively while simultaneously improving strength. If these
words are a bit too complex to digest, just take any lunge variation—a
unilateral lower body move—as a simple example. Holding the bottom of
that lunge position will obviously increase hip flexibility, but when
performed dynamically (i.e. for reps), you will also give the hips an
opportunity to make the position “stick” for next time you practice the
move, allowing strength & stability to settle in better. Ideally,
you’ll want to include both isometric and dynamic style reps as part of
any sustainable training program—always ending your practice on a high
note for medicinal-like effects. By using unilateral calisthenics moves
as mobility insurance, you’ll unlock new gains in movement quality and
correct left & right muscle asymmetries because you’ll truly be
moving your joints in every way, every day. Just remember this equation
the next time your progress seems to have stalled: Strength + Flexibility = Mobility.
- Activate Your Nervous System
How many high-threshold muscular units does it take to stimulate
muscle growth? Ideally, you’ll want to fire up as many as possible. In
order to make this happen, though, you must first activate the neural
pathways to your fast-twitch muscle fibers. Two-sided
explosive strength
and power training (with and/or without load) is an extremely effective
way to do this. But what if you’re not ready for that style of training
yet? Well, you have a few options. Your first option is to do
absolutely nothing about it, and continue being weak and lame. Your
second option is to start familiarizing your body with exercise through
cardiovascular and weighted machines at a commercial gym. Your third and
final option is to explore progressions and regressions for unilateral
calisthenics moves. I don’t know about you, but that last option sounds
the most fun and rewarding to me.
Just imagine for a moment what it would be like as a gymnast—being
able to turn on an extremely high percentage of the muscles in your
body. At that level of body tension, your muscles really have no choice
but to display superhuman strength and build lean body mass. Back to
reality, you can create similar opportunities for physiological gains by
working one arm or one leg at a time because the nervous system has no
choice but to send electrical pulses from head to toe to close any
energy leaks. In this context, energy leaks are the same as
leverage—which dictates how much effort you’ll be able to apply before
form starts to break down. For beginners and taller/long-limbed
individuals, unilateral calisthenics training will offer an even more
distinguished neural activation effect—due to their experience level and
anatomy, respectively.
- Increase Energy Expenditure
It’s kind of hard not to burn a ton of calories while being more
athletic. More specifically, while training for strength, speed or power
on one side at a time, the demand for hormonal adaptations is quite
high. This heightened hormonal response leads to some favorable changes
in energy expenditure and body composition that are commonly associated
with active people in general—such as elevated insulin sensitivity,
lower cortisol, optimized growth hormone and thyroid secretion, along
with a healthy balance between testosterone and estrogen output.
However, what separates unilateral resistance training from most other
forms of exercise is the additional amount of time, space and force
that’s required to execute such moves. This basically means that more
range of motion is covered for every rep—which significantly reflects
your mobility.
- Look Cool, Have More Fun!
At the end of the day, being able to have fun while working out is
what it’s all about. ‘Cause if you’re not having fun, you won’t do it.
Period. While everyone’s definition of fun may be slightly different, I
think we can all agree that looking cool can play a healthy role in
having fun. So, even if you currently suck at unilateral training or
it’s not your favorite training strategy, keep in mind that we all need
to start somewhere. Just because these benefits exist does not mean you
have to totally ditch your bilateral movements, either. Besides, there’s
a strong chance that you can already do something pretty cool that even
Olympic-medal athletes or your favorite celebrity cannot do—whether
fitness related or not. Start facing your weaknesses today before they
turn into tomorrow’s health problems.
Summary of Unilateral Training Recommendations – To Infinity And Beyond!
Now that you have the motives behind the
Who,
What,
Where,
When and
Why of unilateral calisthenics training, let’s recap with the three most practical ways for
How you can get started today.
- Perform unilateral calisthenics along with your 10-15 minute full-body warm-up.
- Perform one 45-minute workout per week exclusively dedicated to unilateral calisthenics movements.
- Perform unilateral calisthenics movements for preventative
maintenance–once or twice a month for tune-up purposes or year-round for
complimenting your other bilateral workout programs and rebuilding your
body all together.
http://pccblog.dragondoor.com/six-reasons-to-start-your-workouts-with-unilateral-calisthenics/
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