There are times in every workout program where you either become bored or are failing to make progress. During these times you need to change something up in your routine in order to start seeing results once again. Unilateral training is often one of the best things to look into.

One of the nice things about unilateral training is that you can effectively use it to target a weaker side of your body if deficiencies exist. Many times those who participate in sports where you are predominately using one side of your body will have one stronger side than the other. This can create a host of problems down the road if they do not take measures to strengthen the other side of the body to bring it to a more equal level.

Another nice thing about unilateral training is that it will ensure that you are targeting the muscle you are trying to work. When you are performing the bench press for example, if your left pectoral muscle is a lot stronger than your right, your left may start to overcompensate, therefore you are not really working the right one as hard as you could be. If you are only using a dumbbell and lifting with your right hand, you will without a doubt be forced to use the right pectoral and only the right pectoral.

Do note that when performing any unilateral exercise it will be critical that you reduce the weight, likely by more than half at first. You may think that since you are working half the body, you should just cut your weight in half. This is not the case. There will be added demands being placed on your body during the lift, such as balancing for example, and will therefore be more demanding of your energy. Your nervous system will also be put to the test as coordinating the body movements will also need to be at a more advanced level.

Here are some exercises you should consider adding to your routine.

Chest

Single arm cable cross over

Single arm bench press (done on a single arm machine press)

Single arm chest fly

One handed push-up

Back

Single arm lat pull-down

Single arm seated row

Single arm reverse fly

Shoulders

Single arm upright row

Single arm shoulder press

Single arm frontal raise

Single arm side raise

Quads

Single leg extension

Single-leg press

One legged squat

Hamstrings

Single leg stiff legged deadlift

Single leg hamstring curl

Bicep

Single arm curl

Single arm hammer curl

Triceps

Single overhead tricep extension

Single arm kickback

You definitely do not want to be performing all unilateral movements at every workout because that will just become too much for the body to handle and you will start suffering from overtraining. Additionally your workouts would become increasingly long, therefore increasing the chances you cut it short and skip over certain body parts entirely.

It would be best to choose one body part to focus on at a time, perform one to two exercises as unilateral movements and then move on to another in a few weeks. This will ensure you keep seeing results without causing you to suffer any negative consequences from incorporating unilateral training into your lifting program.