Unilateral movements help lessen strength imbalance

Q: No matter how much I work out, I always seem to have one weak arm and leg that have trouble lifting the same amount of weight as the other side of my body. I’m naturally right-handed, so it’s obviously my left side that I have trouble with. Is there any way to strengthen the weak side of my body that seems to always lag behind?

A: When I was young I was always focused on how much weight I could lift with traditional exercises that used either arms or both legs to move the weight. I constantly did leg presses, squats, dead lifts, military presses, bicep curls and yep, you guessed it, good old bench presses.

But what I never realized was that weaknesses always have a way of compensating for themselves and that one limb or side of the body would carry the brunt of the load. Even though my body progressively got stronger, the weakness still existed and eventually caused an injury.

You see, we all have weaknesses. In fact, most of us have a stronger right or left arm that we prefer to use for everything. It starts when you’re young and you get used to using your right or left arm to do everything from picking up your pacifier to writing your first sentence.

But what if you made a conscious effort to use both arms equally? Would the strength in both your arms be the same? Why can a right-handed baseball player throw with his right arm but catch with his left? The answer is simple, practice. The more you focus on a particular skill with one side of the body or the other, the better you get at performing that task.

As the old saying goes, “You are only as strong as your weakest link,” and I don’t care how big or strong you are; if you don’t practice lifting unilaterally - separately with your arms, legs, and right and left sides of your body - you will never reach full potential.
Here are four great ways to ensure that both the right and left sides of your body are equally strong and ready for just about anything in the gym or life in general.

Standing dumbbell clean and press
This exercise is excellent for strengthening the body equally because it requires a combination of several muscles working together, but the true beauty of the exercise is that you must lift the weight with both arms separately.

To perform a standing dumbbell clean and press, start in the squat position with a dumbbell in one hand hanging between your legs in the middle of the body and the other arm at your side. Explode upward as if you were going to jump off the ground propelling the dumbbell upward until it reaches 90 degrees above your shoulder and then press it overhead. Control the weight back to the starting position and repeat the movement for an equal number of reps with both arms.

One-arm dumbbell row
Most people are used to kneeling on a bench for this particular exercise, but try doing it without support and you’ll get a much better workout. To perform a one-arm dumbbell row, hold a dumbbell in one hand, bend over to a 90-degree angle with your butt out, your chest up and your knees slightly bent. Stretch the arm holding the dumbbell toward the floor and then point the elbow toward the ceiling and row the dumbbell up until it touches your rib cage. Repeat with both arms.

Bulgarian split squats
This exercise will test your balance as well as strengthen both legs equally, so be sure to be careful and start light until you master the movement. Start by holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging straight down to your sides. Take a large step forward with one leg and place the other on the side of a bench behind you; bending both legs equally, squat down until your front leg reaches 90 degrees and then return to the starting position by pushing upward with your front leg.

Side planks
To perform side planks, get in the push-up position with your palms on the floor and your hips parallel to the ground. Lift one arm off the ground and rotate your entire body sideways until your hips, arm and head all face the ceiling.

Hold the position for a split second and then return back to the push-up position. Repeat the exercises for the desired number of reps and then repeat the movement on the opposite side of the body.

Remember, if you want to truly be fit, you have to work on your weaknesses, and including unilateral movements in your workout plan is a great place to start.