You want to improve your running…
You know that outside of running getting stronger can help…a lot.
You take the time to have a look at what exercises are the best ones to help improve your running…
Put together a little programme for yourself full of single leg exercises and head off to the gym.
Full of enthusiasm to get going.
A few weeks is you notice some of them are starting to get pretty tough to perform.
They were fine when they were light but you struggle for balance as the weight has gotten heavy.
And that’s the problem with the…
“Unilateral training is better for athletes” way of thinking.
They are great for athletes but they do come at a cost…
A lack of stability.
Once you get above a certain weight the need to stabilise your body goes through the roof.
Which kinda takes away from the sole reason you’re in the gym is to get stronger.
And to make significant strength gains we need stability.
Without the stability of two feet on the gym floor…to maximise force and therefore strength.
One way of getting aorund this is to use the safety squat bar.
This frees your hands and allows you to hold onto the rack.
This can be a total gamechanger brining the stability of a bilateral stance to the movement.
It really does let you load it up a lot.
But not everyone has a safety squat bar.
You can get around this by using dumbbells.
Dumbbells lower your centre of gravity, which helps massively but you can be limited by your grip strength.
Which brings us back to good ole squats and deadlifts.
Unilateral training is great and there are a host of benefits to doing it but bilateral work is still needed…
Even if you do spend all your time on one leg when you’re running.
