Create Muscle Balance with Unilateral Training
You can build beautiful muscle balance by incorporating unilateral training at times in your fitness program. It’s not uncommon to stumble into a training plateau. It’s inevitable for the hardcore trainer. One element that can cause plateaus is having imbalanced muscle groups, such as the right biceps being stronger than the left biceps.
Barbell curls are the primary mass builder for the biceps. However, if your left biceps is lacking strength due to the right one continually over powering it, you will never reach your full potential and stay stuck in your training rut.
Unilateral Training
Unilateral training is a great way to create muscle balance and boost your training. MuscleandFitness.com tells us, “Unilateral training is actually an excellent way to quickly boost strength.” This training tactic is done by working one arm or leg at a time so it get’s 100% full focus. The idea is to use a heavier poundage for your weaker side so you can bring it up to speed with your stronger side. For unilateral training, dumbbells, machines, and even cables are preferred.
Repetitions
One way to use unilateral training for bringing up lagging body parts is by adding a few extra reps at the end of each set. For example, if you can curl a 20-pound dumbbell in each hand for 8 repetitions on your right arm, but can only get 5 reps with your left arm, drop the dumbbell in your left hand when you reach your maximum of 5 repetitions and grab a lighter dumbbell in which you can handle 3 more repetitions to keep up with the stronger arm. Do this type of unilateral training until you can equally perform the same number of repetitions on each arm with a 20-pound dumbbell. When you return to your mass building curls, you will see your strength will have increased.
Sets
Another way of implementing unilateral training is to add extra sets for your lagging muscle groups. Give your weaker side two extra sets of moderate weight so it can catch up to your stronger side. Once your weaker side has caught up you will be amazed at the progression that will follow.
