By Steve Bechtel
When we think about strength training in the weight room, most of us go to the “big” lifts: squats, bench press, pull-ups, and deadlifts. This isn’t wrong. A program built around these exercises can help you build tremendous strength and durability, but it’s easy to see that these aren’t exactly climbing-like movements. Although I prescribe big bilateral lifts like this for almost all of my athletes, doing exercises with both arms or legs at the same time can have its limitations.
It’s not hard to see that using one leg at a time or pulling with one arm at a time might be beneficial for sport performance, since that is what we do ALL THE TIME in sports. In fact, it’s really hard to think of an instance where we get to have both feet or hands on the same plane doing the same thing at the same load. So, we could do single limb, or unilateral, exercise for this reason alone.
What’s really interesting is that there is abundant research around a greater strength gain potential when using one limb at a time. This effect is called the bilateral strength deficit. If you’re one of those people who likes to employ the delaying tactic of “doing your research” for several months before trying something, that’s the term you should search on PubMed. For those of you that want to get better starting today, read on.
The general gist is this: when we do an exercise with one limb at a time, such as a single leg squat instead of a two-leg squat, the muscles display greater force capabilities. We can actually lift more weight, which leads to higher stimulus for strength gain, which gets us stronger faster. The main limitations here end up being skilled enough to do these exercises, and having the time to train both limbs separately.
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There’s every chance you already do some lifts unilaterally already. I do think, though, that most of us don’t really make the effort to load these up the same way we do a big barbell lift.
Going back to movement patterns, we can implement exercises as follows:
- Squat: Split Squat, Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat, Lunge, Drive Sled, Step-Up, Single Leg Squat, Pistol Squat
- Deadlift: Single Leg Deadlift, Single Leg Romanian Deadlift, Single Leg Glute Bridge
- Bench Press: One-Arm Bench Press, One-Arm Push-Up, One-Arm Overhead Press, One-ARm Cable Press
- Pull-Up: DB Row, Single Arm Cable Pull-Down, Landmine Row, Rope Drag, One-Arm Ring/TRX Row, KB Clean
This is not to say that you need to toss out all of the big lifts. In fact, I really like thinking back to the continuum of general to specific to performance in our seasons, and look at single joint exercise as just a bit more specific than the big bilateral lifts.
Integrating Unilateral Exercises
Instead of simply jumping in and switching all of your lifts to unilateral exercises, I suggest you start playing with one or two in your next session and add more slowly as you learn them.
In many of the strength programs I’ve built, we’ll start the strength phase with really high intensity, and move to single, unstable exercise as we close in on the performance season. Here’s an example:
| Weeks 1-3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 |
| Bench Press | Dumbbell Bench Press | Dumbbell Bench Press | Dumbbell Bench Press | Dumbbell Bench Press | Single Arm Push-Up | Single Arm Push-Up | Single Arm Push-Up |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | Trap Bar Deadlift | Single Leg Deadlift | Single Leg Deadlift | Single Leg Deadlift | Single Leg Deadlift | Single Leg RDL | Single Leg RDL |
| Pull-Ups | Pull-Ups | Pull-Ups | Dumbbell Row | Dumbbell Row | Dumbbell Row | Dumbbell Row | Single Arm Pull-Up |
| Front Squat | Front Squat | Front Squat | Front Squat | Split Squat | Split Squat | Split Squat | Split Squat |
| Core Flexion / Extension | Core Flexion / Extension | Core Anti-Lateral Flexion | Core Anti-Lateral Flexion | Core Anti-Lateral Flexion | Core Anti-Rotation / Integrated Core | Core Anti-Rotation / Integrated Core | Core Anti-Rotation / Integrated Core |
One of the fringe benefits of training single limbs is that the load on the back and hips is less. For example, a lifter that normally can do 5 reps at 300 in the Romanian Deadlift will likely be able to handle 175 on each side in the single leg version. This is a small increase in load on the hamstring and glute, but represents a reduction in load in the back by almost half. This is a consideration if you get shoulder pain with heavy weighted pull-ups, knee pain with squatting, or shoulder issues with benching. It’s not always a cure-all for overuse, but over time, the sparing of the skeleton pays off.
Offset Positions
Although the standard exercises listed above are where most of us should start, it’s of note that we can use offset stances to force a unilateral effect. Perhaps the most obvious to climbers is the offset pull-up where one hand is on the bar and the other gripping a hand towel draped over the bar. The upper arm takes 60 or more percent of the load and the lower limb is forced into a different range of motion. We can also do this with a push-up movement where one hand is placed on a block or medicine ball, In a squat where one foot is placed on a short block, etc.
Naturally, you wouldn’t pursue your heaviest-ever sets in these positions, but they are instructive and keep the movements front-of-mind.
Cycle Length
One of the first questions we get about programming is, “How long do I have to do these exercises?” It’s a good question, and it’s important to understand that the easiest way to get stronger is to avoid getting weaker. This means that for any given training, you should build the ability over a focused period of time, usually 8-12 sessions done over the course of maybe a month to six weeks. Once you’ve seen an uptick in strength, you can then back off to a lower volume and frequency of training, and maintain it for a long performance period.
Many of my athletes now do an 8-week block of strength development in the mid-winter, a long season of climbing-focus in the spring and early summer, an additional 4-week block of strength development in midsummer, and then a long block of sending in the fall. The key? They maintain great strength in-season. It looks easy on paper, but when you’re tired from redpoint attempts all weekend, it’s damn hard to motivate yourself to go lift weights on Monday.
So, Where to Start?
Look at the exercises you’re doing right now. I like to look at whether the exercises are bilateral, what the stability component is, and whether I can easily figure out a unilateral version. Most climbers are fairly adept at learning movements, and the small investment of asking a strength coach to run you through 3-5 exercises is almost always a good investment. Take your squats, and put them in storage, and try out a split stance. You might find this exercise not only interesting but it’s one that will help you advance far beyond where the current set of exercises has brought you.
I suggest sticking with any single variation of an exercise for 8-12 sessions. If I do an A and B version of a workout, this might mean a couple of months of training the same few movements.
An example:
Session A
- Rear Foot Elevated (Bulgarian) Split Squat 3x5+5
- Offset Pull-Up 3x5
- Alternating DB Bench Press 3x5+5
- Single Leg RDL 3x5+5
- Copenhagen Plank 3x20sec each side
Session B
- Single Leg Squat 4x4+4
- DB Row 4x4+4
- Single Arm Overhead Press 4x4+4
- Single Leg Glute Bridge 4x15sec slowly each side
- Side Plank / Pull 4x10+10
Each session is planned for 1-2x per week. So week one might be A-B-A and then week 2 is B-A-B. You simply alternate between them 2-3 sessions per week until you’ve done each session a dozen times.
Once you’re done with this build, you can start moving back into bilateral lifts, or even move to a different set of unilaterals. It’s not that these are the “way and the light,” but if you neglect single limb training, you’re definitely not getting all you can out of your training.
ABOUT STEVE BECHTEL
Steve is the founder of Climb Strong, and is proud to be the worst coach on the Climb Strong team. A climber for nearly 40 years, he has traveled the globe bouldering, sport climbing, and doing first ascents of some of the world's biggest walls.
He lives in Lander, Wyoming, with his wife Ellen, and children Sam and Anabel.
Tags: Motivation, Planning, Steve Bechtel, Training