Asymetrical And Unilateral Exercises

Our blog today focuses on asymmetrical and unilateral exercises and how a personal trainer or other fitness professional might incorporate them into a gym environment.

Traditionally, when personal trainers work with clients, they assign balanced exercises to ensure that the clients maintain symmetry. An example might be lifting a barbell with an equal amount of weight on either end or using a dumbbell of equal weight in each hand.

ASYMMETRICAL EXERCISES

Asymmetrical loading is a training method where the fitness instructor asks a client to lift an unequal force, for example, lifting a dumbbell or kettlebell on one side only.

The idea is that the client will have to use their core strength and muscles to keep their body, which is unevenly loaded, stable while simultaneously carrying out the exercise.

It will mainly test the trunk muscles, as it will cause rotation or lateral flexion when you lean to one side.

UNILATERAL EXERCISES

If a personal trainer sets an exercise where the client is only working one part of their body, for example, working one leg at a time, this is known as a unilateral exercise.

A squat or a deadlift would typically be performed as a bilateral exercise, where the client has both feet on the floor and transfers weight through both legs. A unilateral exercise would be a single-leg squat.

JOINT ASYMMETRICAL AND UNILATERAL EXERCISES

To further challenge a client, a personal trainer might set exercises that incorporate both asymmetrical and unilateral movements. For example, the client might perform a unilateral squat while lifting a dumbbell on only one side.

These exercises aim to challenge a client’s balance and proprioception, thereby engaging their core musculature, while also working their prime movers, such as the quadriceps or pectoralis muscles.

THE BENEFITS OF ASYMMETRICAL AND UNILATERAL EXERCISES

One benefit of this kind of exercise is injury prevention; however, it also helps teach clients good body awareness in the early stages of their program. This means that as the personal trainer progresses them on to heavier weights or more complex exercises, the endurance work they do will be underpinned by this training in balance and proprioception around their major muscles and joints.

THE DOWNSIDE TO ASYMMETRICAL AND UNILATERAL TRAINING

Because of the nature of these exercises, a client will not be able to lift as much weight as they would following more traditional bilateral or symmetrical training. For this reason, a personal trainer will use these exercises as a way to train endurance, rather than strength or hypertrophy.

TEMPO TRAINING

One way to circumvent this is for the fitness professional to introduce tempo training.

If a client is performing an asymmetrical dumbbell bench press (see video), they risk rotating their body if they use too heavy a weight. By using a lighter weight and introducing tempo training – where the exercise is slowed down and the dumbbell is held in position – the personal trainer will put the client’s pecs under stress for a longer period, fatiguing them and ensuring that the muscles aren’t overtrained.

Related articles: Functional Training- a new tool for personal trainers and Neuromotor exercise training