You can also lift the barbell and do biceps curls followed by dumbbell hammer curls, but that doesn’t mean skipping the single-arm concentration curls. It will take twice as long as choosing the third two-handed bicep exercise, but it’s well worth the extra time.
The first overall benefit of all unilateral exercises is that your core becomes more stable. If you use only one side, the body will automatically engage the core and stabilize the other side. So instead of just working one arm, one shoulder, or one side of your back, your core is always engaged.
Another big advantage is limb control. When you do a unilateral exercise, in this case using your upper body to move weights around the gym, you’re doing it on one side of your body, which helps your mind-muscle connection work more efficiently.
With all that in mind, here are four unilateral upper body exercises you can add to your routine. It not only increases strength and muscle growth in a balanced way, it also prevents your training routine from getting stuck in a rut.
Archer push-ups: The first push-up isn’t even a weighted workout. If you’ve mastered traditional push-ups, this is a great starting point and has so many benefits that it’s an essential exercise to add to your list.
The first thing to know is that this movement is also performed with a little help from your other arm. That is, only one side of the body does most of the work, and the other arm does the work, although it may not be completely unilateral. Shift your weight to your work side and it will straighten.
“If the pushing arm is very close to the body, at an angle of about 10 to 20 degrees, the targeted muscles are the anterior deltoids and triceps. If the angle is 30 to 70 degrees, the targeted muscles are It’s the pectoralis major muscle. Be careful to stay in the safe zone if your elbows are at 80 to 100 degrees from your torso, which can cause acute and chronic damage to your joints and tissues.” in the article titled Archer Push-ups: Advanced Push-up Variations. Fitness expert Michael Vasquez has a great 2-minute video on how to do Archer push-ups.
One-Arm Lateral Pulldown: I first learned about this on legendary trainer Charles Glass’s Instagram page and have been trying it out on my back and biceps for the past two days. It’s much more fun than the traditional (and honestly boring) lateral pulldown, and feels safer in terms of form.
I was doing another variation of the pulldown where I put the weight in front of me, but the variation in the video below is done by pulling the weight down from the side to match the angle of the back muscles.
Performed on a lat pulldown machine by attaching a single-arm grip and resting on the thigh pad with a slight bend on the opposite side, you can stretch longer at the top of the exercise to work the lats more intensively . This cannot be achieved with traditional pull-down movements. We also know that using both hands for basic movements can result in using one hand more than the other. This variation uses the same weight on both arms, allowing you to train both sides equally.
Single-Arm Cable Crossover: Performed with a resistance band or cable machine, this movement forces your biceps into your pecs far beyond the point that a typical crossover move would. “The single-arm cable crossover is an isolation movement that uses cable stacks to build bigger and stronger pecs.
By working one side of your chest at a time, you can focus on balancing both sides of your chest and actually feel your chest muscles contracting. ” in the bodybuilding.com exercise guide. This is very easy to learn and effective. This is the ultimate chest crunch at the gym. If you want to challenge this further, try rotating as shown below.
Single Arm Shoulder Raise: I can’t remember the last time I used both hands for a shoulder press. Using both hands is safer, allows you to lift heavier, requires fewer reps to achieve hypertrophy, and is easier on your back. The first big advantage, and this becomes more noticeable as you get older, is that it allows you to stack your shoulder joints in a safe position. Follow the video below to learn more about this.
I wrote about this in a previous Lounge article, “4 Shoulder Exercises to Build Strength and Avoid Injuries.” Colossus Fitness’ video for this exercise also states that your body is “unencumbered by the bar, allowing you to focus on every movement.” This allows you to stack the dumbbells safely over your shoulders with your elbows pointing slightly forward. You may not be able to do a few reps of 15-20kg on each side without causing too many problems to this joint, but it’s also a very good number for this particular exercise.
Pulasta Dhar is a soccer commentator, podcaster, and writer.
