Unilateral and Bilateral Training

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One of the most challenging obstacles that new health and fitness professionals have when entrusted with establishing a resistance training program for the first time is knowing all of the numerous elements that may be combined into a resistance training program. This effort may seem daunting at times, but for a good reason: it has been estimated that there are 10 to the 67th power of distinct exercise combinations that can be modified when all of the acute program design elements are considered! While some of the more apparent components that must be addressed include variables like frequency, intensity, rest intervals, and volume, deciding which exercises to do may lead to a myriad of options. Exercises with one or more joints? Machines or free weights? Exercises using open or closed chains? Without a doubt, all of the workouts as mentioned above have a time and place and may be readily justified or ignored, depending on a client's individual requirements analysis.

Another aspect of exercise selection that has recently been investigated is whether to do bilateral or unilateral workouts. Bilateral, multiple-joint barbell exercises like the back squat, bench press, and deadlift have been cornerstones of resistance training regimens for many years, and for a good reason: they are well-proven in their usefulness for building muscular strength, size, and power. However, emphasizing unilateral exercises over bilateral exercises has grown increasingly common in many strength and conditioning circles, with the premise that bilateral workouts lead to a phenomenon known as the bilateral deficit. As a result, unilateral workouts are more functional and conform to the idea of specificity better than bilateral exercise options. Is it a real worry that is warranted and well supported by research to exclude bilateral activities in favor of unilateral workouts? This article aims to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of bilateral and unilateral exercise choices, with the ultimate goal of assisting health and fitness professionals in designing evidence-based programs that will benefit their respective clients.

There will always be workouts that do not fit cleanly into a categorization system, as with any effort to categorize exercise-based movement patterns. Consider doing upper-body workouts that make use of dumbbells. While few would argue that pressing and pulling dumbbell motions done with one arm or alternately are unilateral workouts, what if the right and left limbs move at the same time? For example, if a person executes a dumbbell shoulder press and simultaneously presses the dumbbells aloft with the right and left limbs, both limbs are visibly contracting in tandem, yet due to the dumbbell, each hand is independent of the other. Is this a bilateral or unilateral training session? Furthermore, lower-body workouts done in a split-stance posture, such as lunges and step-ups, might be difficult to categorize. For example, although the lead leg has been demonstrated to carry 75% to 85% of the total weight during a lunge, the trail leg is still required to correctly complete the exercise. Is this an exercise that should be labeled as bilateral or unilateral? The classification of the aforementioned exercises as bilateral or unilateral is essentially a question of semantics, since logical and convincing arguments may be made on either side. A more moderate approach may be to simply urge health and fitness professionals to use a consistent technique of dumbbell and lower body exercise categorization while noting that there are shades of grey and that exercise classification is much more art than science.