The Benefits Of Single-Limb Exercises For Building Muscle

If you're currently on a weight lifting program that's geared towards building muscle and developing your strength, you might want to give some consideration to adding in some single-limb execises.

Traditionally, most exercises are performed with both sides of the body, which is good since it will develop a well-balanced level of strength.

At times though, such as when you're plateaued, looking for a way to shake up your workouts, or are feeling like you might be experiencing a bit of a muscular imbalance with your body, single-limb movements can be just what you're looking for.

Extreme Overload

The first reason why single-limb exercises are a good thing is because they will really place a high overload on the body.

If you think about it this way, when you're lifting weight with both sides, you're more likely to call more muscles into play as you'll have better stabilization.

When you switch over to just one side though, you'll really be recruiting the target muscle fibers, which could stimulate more growth and strength gains that you otherwise would.

Add to this that in order to keep the body balanced, you'll really have to tense up the abdominal muscles, and it makes it a great way to get an abdominal workout as well.

Strength Imbalances

As mentioned in the introduction, single-limb exercises are also good for strength imbalances.

If you are feeling as though one side of the body is more developed than another - which is a frequent occurence among some people, particularly those who are in jobs where they are doing physical movements with primarily one side of their body.

By targeting only this one side, you can help to target a weaker area, making your body more balanced and helping to prevent further injuries.

Concentrated Training

Finally, for those who are concerned with bringing out definition better, single-limb movements are also a good option.

When you get to the very last stages of a fat loss diet, it can get hard to really get that definition showing to the max.

Single-limb movements can help with this, zeroing in on those muscle fibers and helping to develop more of a 'pump' - which enhances definition.

So, be sure you give some consideration to single-limb movements from time to time.

While you likely wouldn't want to be just doing these as the core of your program, once in a while they can give you that much needed 'extra' to keep results coming.

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