During the course of the previous phases of the Maximize Your Muscle program, we will have worked mainly on strength and size through high-intensity training, pre-exhaustion training, five-day full body training and other specialized techniques. All of these will help you to see serious gains in size, strength and definition, as well as improved training of your neuromus- cular system.
By the sixth phase, though, it's safe to assume that you will begin to see some structural imbalances and lagging body parts. We all tend to favor the left or the right and our muscle pairs are never l00% identical in strength, size, function or form. Phase Six is the point at which we ad- dress those differences and focus on structural balance. Consider this an automobile tune up after a long road trip. We're going to do that through single-limb or unilateral training.
You might not even realize where your imbalances are until you start doing some unilateral exercises. Very often, unless there's a really noticeable difference in the size and shape of the two muscles in a pair, you might not be aware of the difference in strength. Doing a phase of unilateral work is a great way to "take inventory" of individual muscles and target the ones that need the most work.
Targeting your weaker sides with unilateral training isn't just about having equal strength between the left and right muscles. It's about achieving symmetry and balance in your phy- sique, which is just as important as size and definition.
There are several benefits to unilateral training. Here are the key points:
Focus on Form
One of the most important benefits of uni- lateral training is that working one muscle at a time, for instance, the left and then right biceps, means you are completely focused on that specific muscle. That means you can really pay attention to form and concentrate on perfecting it. This can be hard to do when you're working with a barbell or doing bilateral moves on cables or machines. This is really going to pay of later on when doing bilateral moves, as im- proper form with one muscle is one of the causes of imbalance.
Strengthening of Your Joints
Unilateral work also trains your joints much better than bilateral moves do. When you are working with a dumbbell instead of a barbell on your bicep curls, your shoulder, wrist and el- bow joints have to work much harder to keep that weight steady. The cartilage in these joints is really going to benefit as much as the muscles will.
Incredible Core Work - Particularly of Underworked Core Muscles
Most people don't think about core training when they think about unilateral or single-limb exercises, but unilateral work does require a lot more from your abs if you are focusing on form and posture (as you should be). Specifically, you have to really work on the stabilizing and rotational muscles in your abs to keep your body from twisting or leaning to one side as you work the specific muscle.
Believe me, this will be as much of a workout for your abs as if you were actually targeting them, and in some ways, it may be even better. This is because we tend to focus on up and down movements when we work our core muscles, leaving the deeper rotational and stabi- lizing muscles almost untouched. Unilateral exercises force those muscles into action, giving you not only improved core strength but bet