One Leg or Two?

Unilateral vs bilateral training is a hot topic amongst those that find such things compelling. Mike Boyle certainly added fuel to the fire recently with his post regarding the value of traditional squats. You can count me in as one of the fitness geeks that finds this topic interesting as it pertains to our clients at NPPT.

Opinions are just that and as they say, "Every body's got one". My opinion on unilateral vs bilateral training is based strictly on the risk to benefit ratio. Most of our clients have a primary goal of fat loss. While I think it is wrong to universally eliminate heavy bilateral (both legs for those of you who...) squats and dead lifts for all populations, I feel confident removing them from the programs of my fat loss clients. The risk of spinal injury is just too great with heavy bilateral moves vs similar unilateral movements. I know there are coaches who would argue that if we coach perfect form that we will not have any problem with injury. I agree, but once again, 20 years of working with a 30-60 year old population on fat loss has taught me a few things.

1. It doesn't matter what my exercise preferences happen to be for myself (I love to dead lift), I am paid to produce results quickly and safely. Spending the better part of a month having a new client perfect squats and dead lifts doesn't make sense when I can substitute lunges and single leg box squats and get faster results with waaay less risk involved.

2. Alwyn Cosgrove said to me, "20,000 people purchased a drill at Home Depot last year. They didn't want a drill, they wanted a hole." Exactly. My clients don't care which exercises get them to their goals. As long as they get there effectively and without injury it's all good in the hood.

3. You can get damn strong doing single leg movements. Just watch Mike's video of his hockey payers doing Bulgarian Split Squats with 225 lbs. We have ladies that weigh 115 lbs performing split squats with a 100 lb load for sets of 8-10. That same bilateral load (200 lbs) would not work for these ladies as the spine now becomes the limiting factor.

Once again, I understand all populations are different. For the busy fat loss folks with a normal lifestyle (excessive sitting, etc), unilateral movements prevail in 9 out of 10 cases.

RM