There’s more to building strong, powerful legs than just traditional barbell squats and deadlifts.
Note From TG (cue Southern Belle drawl):I do say kind sir, I have never heard such blasphemous shenanigans uttered in all my life. I feel a bit of faint coming on.
Someone.
Catch me.
CATCH ME!
While those movements certainly have their place, you know by now not to skimp on single leg work.
Single leg exercises are going to help you work out imbalances between sides, improve coordination, balance, stability, and athleticism, while helping to make you more resistant to injury.
Single leg work can be divided into two categories:
Supported – As in a lunge or rear foot elevated split squat
Unsupported – As in a single leg deadlift or skater squat
Both categories are sagittal plane dominant, meaning the body moves from front to back.
But when you do unsupported single leg exercises, the need to resist motion in the frontal and transverse plane increases significantly. You need to call in your adductors, glute medius, minimus, the intrinsic muscles of the foot, and your core musculature, to a larger degree.
The best single leg exercise is the skater squat.
Why?
Because just like with every other exercise in the world, progressive overload is the name of the game. Of all the unsupported single leg exercises, skater squats allow the greatest range of motion and the most loading potential.
Not quite a single leg squat and not quite a single leg deadlift, skater squats are the ultimate hybrid. They build lower body strength and add size to your quads and glutes, without beating up your back, hips, or knees.
The only problem with them is most people don’t want to do skater squats because:
They take a little bit to get the hang of the technique, and
They are really hard and humbling.
Here’s How to Master Them
1. Use a Counterbalance
Use 2.5 or 5 pound weights in your hands as a counterbalance, and squeeze a tennis ball between your hamstring and calf on the non working leg. This will help keep the back leg in a better, tighter, position and keep you from turning it into a reverse lunge.
2. The Rest
Reach with your hands slightly across an imaginary line coming out of your middle toe of the working leg and towards the wall in front of you as you lower your back knee down to a pad without letting your back foot touch the ground.
Then, use your hands like ski poles and drive them down as you push through your front foot to return to the starting position.
Start by stacking a few airex pads for your back knee and lower them as you get stronger to increase the range of motion.
I mentioned before that they have the greatest overload potential. After you start knocking out 8+ skaters to the floor, you need to continue upping the ante to keep building muscle and strength.
Here Are 5 ways to Take Them to the Next Level
1. Torso Weighted
Use a vest or chains to increase the load.
2. Front Loaded
Using a sandbag or weight plate increases the core challenge and emphasis the quads more.
3. Angled
Full disclosure: I picked this up from performance coach Vernon Griffith. The angled loading places more stress on the muscles involved with stabilizing you in the frontal plane: your adductor and glute complexes, QL, and obliques.
4. From a Deficit
Elevate the working leg on a 45 pound plate or two to increase the range of motion.
5. Eccentric Emphasis
Use anywhere from a 3-8 second lowering phase to increase the time under tension.
Whichever variation you’re using, try these for 2-4 sets of 5-8 as either your main lower body exercise or after your heavier bilateral exercises to balance out the spinal loading.
About the Author
Scott Hansen is a Bostonian transplanted in Southern California, a strength/fitness/wrestling coach, educator, sub par surfer, and die hard New England sports fan.
He works with adult athletes, as well as an assistance wrestling coach and strength and conditioning coach for La Costa Canyon high school wrestling in Carlsbad, CA.
Another fantastic guest post today from Shane McLean. This time he tackles the importance of unilateral strength training and offers some neat ideas as to the best accessory movements to compliment the “big 3.”
Don’t you love “that” guy who always stands between you and the dumbbells while doing single arm curls and making faces only his mother could love? What if I told you that he’s actually on to something, minus the faces and grunting?
Bilateral exercises (not biceps curls) should form the foundation of your strength program because this is where you’ll get most of your gains. However, unilateral training often gets neglected in the quest to get bigger and stronger because it’s just not as sexy (or cool) as a big squat, deadlift or overhead press.
However, unilateral training will help you get stronger, improve the big lifts (by shoring up weakness) and provide the following benefits.
Reduce Muscle Imbalances
Due to activities of daily living almost everybody has a dominant and non-dominant side. For instance, carrying more groceries on one side over the other over time may get one arm stronger.
During bilateral exercises such as a press or squat variation, your dominant side can pick up the slack for the weaker side.
Have you ever seen a lifter struggle to lock out one side over the other during a barbell bench press? I rest my case. Improving your “weaker” side will reduce your injury risk and help increase overall lifting numbers.
Improved Muscle Recruitment
Unilateral training makes you work harder and recruit more muscle fibers to perform the exact same movement, such as a split squat.
Taking one leg out of the equation forces your abductors and core to stabilize your pelvis while the working leg performs a split squat. Working more muscle with less weight will help correct strength imbalances between sides, also.
Core Work Without Crunches
When training unilaterally, you automatically throw your body off balance, forcing your core muscles to engage in order to keep yourself upright.
Trust me when I say that’s a good thing.
And we can double-down on the core training ante by utilizing offset loading:
Programming Guidelines
Unilateral exercises are best performed as an accessory movement after your big lift for the day.
Choose one or two single limb movements per session and perform three to four sets on both sides. The repetitions performed will depend on your goal.
For example:
Strength: 4 – 6 reps
Hypertrophy/Fat Loss: 8 – 15 reps
If you have a strength or muscle size imbalance always start with the weaker/smaller side first and let the weaker side determine the weight/reps you do on the stronger side.
Without further ado, here are my top two accessory exercises you should be doing to improve your squat, dead lift and press numbers. Sorry, this is a biceps curl free zone.
1) Deadlift
Suitcase Carries
Not only will carries change your life in three weeks, according to Dan ‘the man’ John, they can strengthen grip imbalances between hands which can be a limiting factor when pulling heavy from the floor or opening the pickle jar.
When you’re doing carries (you do, right?), pair them with a movement that doesn’t demand a lot of grip strength, so you can get more out of it. For example:
1A. Goblet squat/press variation.
1B. Suitcase carry- (25-50% of your bodyweight) 30 steps one hand then 30 steps with the opposite hand.
Form considerations – cues “shoulders down and back” or “chest up” work well here. Checking your form in a mirror will help if you having trouble knowing if you’re overcompensating or not.
Front Racked Kettlebell Bulgarian Split Squat
These were first introduced to me by Anthony Dexmier to improve my pulling ability from the floor. Let’s just say after doing them, we weren’t the best of friends.
Hardcore dead lifters knows that hip mobility, upper back strength and leg drive are essential elements for pulling heavy, and this exercise covers all those bases, if somewhat brutally.
Pairing this exercise with a single arm row variation is a real upper back whammy that you’re sure to enjoy. For example
1A. Front racked kettle bell elevated split squat – 12 reps on each leg
1B. 3 point dumbbell row – 12 reps on each arm
Form considerations – Perform a bodyweight elevated split squat and notice where your big toe is, and then place weight plate in front of it. This will give you a reference point and shorten your set up time between sets. This is courtesy of the one and only Jordan Syatt.
Keep a nice tall chest and your wrists in neutral during this entire movement and smile through the pain.
2) Bench Press
Landmine Press
The single arm landmine press is a mix between a vertical and horizontal movement which makes this great for individuals who lack the shoulder mobility for overhead pressing and for those looking to improve their press numbers.
Note From TG (to Shane): How could you not include a link to THIS article I wrote discussing how to assess overhead mobility and drills to help improve it?
Why Shane…….WHY?!?!?
The beginning of this exercise (initial push of the shoulders) is the hardest part of the movement. This will assist you with pushing the bar off your chest during the bench press or pushing the barbell overhead from a dead stop. The extra core work doesn’t go astray either.
This press can be done from a variety of positions. For example, it can be done standing, tall kneeling and this half kneeling variation courtesy of Eric Cressey:
Pairing this landmine variation with a hip flexor stretch works well and provides an active rest between sides and sets. For example
Form considerations- Make sure the barbell is close to the front of your shoulder and actively squeeze the barbell. This provides Irradiation, allowing you to produce more force and lift more weight. This also turns on the rotator cuff, which helps with shoulder stability.
Single Arm Dumbbell Floor Press
The reduced range of motion of the floor press makes this a great triceps builder (when the elbows are close to your side) and will assist you in getting stronger with the lockout part of any press variation.
The single arm variation will turn on your core and shoulder stabilizers due to the offset load that can get neglected during bench/overhead pressing. It’s a shoulder saver because it eliminates the lower half of the press where the shoulder is externally rotated and nasty things like shoulder impingements can happen.
Pairing this with a side plank or a suitcase carry gives your shoulders and core the extra work they deserve. For example
1A. Floor press
1B. Side plank variation 30 sec/ Suitcase carry – (25-50% of your bodyweight) 30 steps one hand then 30 steps in the opposite hand.
Form considerations- Grip the dumbbell tight or strangle the handle and keep the elbow close to your side but not touching. Touch the entire upper arm to the ground at the start of each rep.
3) Squat
Single Leg Negative Calf Raise
It’s a common issue to lack ankle mobility as we wear shoes that inhibit the movement of the ankles, like wearing high heels, for example. The ability to dorsiflex the ankle (how far the knees can go over the toes without raising the heel) can get compromised and this can show up in the squat.
As the squat movement has to come from somewhere, lacking dorsiflexion can negatively affect the joints further up the kinetic chain especially the knee, and who hasn’t had sore knees (and everything else) at the end of an intense squat session?
If hammering away at ankle mobility isn’t working for you, try this single leg negative calf raise drill from Dr. Ryan DeBell before your squat session. This will help with ankle dorsiflexion under load.
Form considerations- Having something solid to hold on to is a must. If you have pain bending the knee during this drill, please use a pain free range of motion. Do 5-10 reps on each leg before you squat. Your knees will thank you.
Barbell Reverse Lunge- Front Squat Grip
Most lunge variations are interchangeable because they work on knee stability (knees that go out instead of in) and core (reduced base of support) hip mobility (active stretch of the hip flexors) and help build your quad strength and size. Sounds like everything a good squat needs, right?
This variation does this and more. The front squat grip works on your anterior core upper back strength and thoracic mobility which are also needed for a strong squat.
Pairing this with an upper back or anterior core exercise in a superset works well. For example
1A. Barbell Reverse Lunge – Front Squat Grip – 8-12 reps on both legs
1B. Chin up
Or
1A. Barbell reverse lunge- Front squat grip 8-12 reps on both legs
Form considerations- Start on the light side until you nail the technique and feel confident that you’re not going to bite the floor. Keep the ears away from the shoulders and maintain an upright torso during this exercise.
Wrapping Up
Don’t forget about unilateral training when it comes to getting bigger, stronger and more awesome. Including these exercises into your routine will improve your lifting numbers and overall balance and will help keep you off the lifting DL.
You can throw in some single arm curls (for the girls) to keep Ron happy, if you must. J
Author’s Bio
Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Dallas, Texas.
No, Shane doesn’t wear a cowboy hat or boots. After being told that his posture blows by Eric Cressey, he has made it his mission to rid the world of desk jockeys and have fun while doing so.
After all exercise is fun and never a “work” out.
You can follow Shane on Twitter HERE, and Facebook HERE.
More appropriately this post should be titled: Exercises You Should Be Doing: 1-Arm ANYTHING.
It’s a bit of a conundrum if you ask me, but why is it whenever you come across articles that discuss unilateral (one-limbed) training, more often than not it ONLY discusses the lower body?
Don’t get me wrong, I think 1-legged training is crucial, otherwise why would I go out of my way to write about it all the time? It’s an important component of any well-rounded strength training program, and something that, thankfully, in no small part to the likes of coaches like Mike Boyle, Ben Bruno, and Mike Robertson, a lot more trainees are starting to implement into their weekly repertoire.
Rarer, however, is the person who includes unilateral upper body training into the mix. At least that’s been my experience.
Using a completely unrelated analogy: It’s kinda like Ben Affleck vs. Matt Damon.
Ben, while respected in the movie industry and a lot of people know who he is, has always lived in the shadow of his best friend, Matt, who, as we all know is freakin Jason Bourne.
In much the same way, unilateral upper body training has always taken a back seat while the lower body has taken all the admiration and accolades.
Well, no longer my friend.
1-Arm Flat DB Bench Press
What Does It Do: This is just one example, of course; there are a million and one variations to choose from – 1-arm push presses, 1-arm DB rows, etc. But while it’s stating the obvious, the 1-arm DB bench press is an awesome way to train overall upper body strength, whether you’re looking to build steel plated pecs or triceps the size of Kansas.
In addition, utilizing more unilateral upper body exercises such as this is a great way to weed out any imbalances that may exist between the right or left side.
A little less ubiquitous is the notion that 1-armed (offset) exercises are a fantastic way to hammer the core as well, as you really have to fire the contralateral side so as not to fall off the bench.
Key Coaching Cues: Well for starters, I’m going to call myself out and say that I really wussed out on the weight selection in that demonstration. Really Tony? 40 lbs?
That notwithstanding, I like to coach a slight arch in the lower back and to use more of a semi-pronated/neutral grip whenever someone performs supine pressing exercises as it’s a little more shoulder friendly to do so.
Moreover, one of the key things to be aware of here is to try your best to keep the butt/pelvis flat on the bench the entire time. As I alluded to above, as you lower and press the weight on one side the offset loading is really going challenge your “core” to fire and to keep the body steady on the bench throughout the duration of the set.
Foot positioning is based off of personal preference. I like to tell people to dig their toes – or heels, whatever is more comfortable – into the floor and to make sure they’re placed more underneath the body rather than splayed out.
I’d say anywhere from 2-4 sets for 6-8 repetitions is par for the course.
Scott Hansen is a Bostonian transplanted in Southern California, a strength/fitness/wrestling coach, educator, sub par surfer, and die hard New England sports fan.
