This is your quick training tip, a chance to learn in a few moments how to work smarter so you can get right to your workout.
If you are serious about weightlifting, you already understand the benefits of one-sided training. Working one side of your body at a time with movements such as the Bulgarian split squat and single-arm dumbbell can help strengthen muscle recruitment and reduce muscle imbalances. But if you’ve ever decided to challenge yourself in the lungs, Romanian deadlift, or any other one-sided lower body exercise by holding a single weight in one hand, you may have found yourself wondering which hand is actually the right one is to use for most profits.
You obviously have two options. The first is to hold the weight in the same hand as the working leg — a technique that strength trainers call ipsilateral training. If you hold the weight in the opposite hand, it is called contralateral training.
Both one-sided picking strategies target the same muscles, but some research show that they result in slightly different activation patterns. If you have ever experimented with ipsilateral and contralateral training, you also know that it is more difficult to maintain stability with ipsilateral training.
In practice, this means that ipsilateral training has the advantage in terms of muscle recruitment, as your body will need to recruit more stabilizers to keep yourself steady. But it also means that you will probably have to use a lighter weight, which gives contralateral training the edge when it comes to maximizing your load.
Your move: Incorporate both ipsilateral and contralateral training into your exercise program. You can do this by alternating hands halfway through each set, alternating your loaded side in successive sets for the same leg, or shifting between ipsilateral and contralateral exercise each week.
But no matter how you go about it, the result will be greater stability and kind of dynamic, real power that will improve your performance both in the gym and beyond.
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