An Alternative Approach to Unilateral Training

Unilateral training is a very useful style of training that coaches implement into the programs. Most commonly it’s used in the early stages of training cycles or periodically every quarter or 6 months to even out any imbalances after heavy bilateral phases. Great for structural balance and rehabilitation from injuries.

However, often it can take a lot of time as one has to perform double the number of repetitions and can be quite “rigid” in its nature when often we are clients are in “rigid” state already. Not only these, but as well, many coaches I see think it’s black or white, that you either have to train unilaterally or bilaterally, and that’s it. This is not so.

Here I bring to your attention a very old style of training that was popularly used in the early 20th century of physical culture and give an example of how to gradually move from unilateral to bilateral training with this technique. This technique will not only help you save time and improve the function of your clients, but also add more variation to your program designs and challenge the nervous system in a different way.