Just recently I moved into a new house. Probably the thing that excites me most is the gym setup we’ll soon have.
The garage is being taken over to make music but the back yard is wide open and with a little work it’ll be quite impressive. I’ll be taking before and after shots to share with you, though it may take some time.
Anyway, just because the new gym isn’t ready is not stopping me from training. Just a few kettlebells outside and I’m good to go.
Though I mostly train alone these days, yesterday was an exception when my friend came over.
Now he’s a much bigger guy then I am. Has a lot of natural strength. Hasn’t used kettlebells much but with some coaching he was doing fine. After all we were just doing fairly basic moves like double presses.
My friend had some trouble as his right arm was stronger and more stable then his left. Many times on his last rep the weight in his right arm would go up no problem but his left would struggle.
That’s have the fun about using unusual training tools (and yes to the average gym-goer a kettlebell is highly irregular). They can point out your weak points with ease. Things you wouldn’t notice pressing a barbell become quite apparent.
And when one side is weaker than the other its time to bring it up. Unilateral training is just a fancy word for training a single side at a time. There are hundreds of possible exercises and ways to do it.
Most people are imbalanced in some way. Their dominant side stronger. With proper training this can be evened out. Forcing the weaker side to try to keep up with the stronger and maybe not going all out on the stronger side is all it really takes. Over time this alone will work.
Its funny, my left side has actually surpassed my right when it comes to pressing. But they’re really close.
Even with feats of strength like bending or tearing, its would be best to train both sides evenly. I believe doing so would go a long way in making you not only stronger overall but would make you less prone to injury.
If you’ve been doing exercises that involve both limbs at once try switching to unilateral exercises. If you’ve been doing single limb exercises switch back. Often this is all it takes to get new gains.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Comments
Thanks logan