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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. I

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Speaker 1: have spent the better part of thirty plus years working

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Speaker 1: out and working in gyms, and I often see people

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Speaker 1: doing interesting things, interesting things. We'll leave it at that.

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Speaker 1: And one of these interesting things are unilateral upper body exercises. So,

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Speaker 1: so what I'm gonna talk about today quick fit tip

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Speaker 1: that is one of those simple yet super powerful tips.

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Speaker 1: It's going to save you time and get you results

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Speaker 1: if you are making this mistake. But I start by

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Speaker 1: talking talking about seeing people do interesting things. And I

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Speaker 1: titled this the way I did for a reason, because

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Speaker 1: you may have a reason for doing unilateral upper body exercises.

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Speaker 1: And you know, people often say to me, Tom, why

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Speaker 1: don't you help people correct people in the Gym's not

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Speaker 1: my job? Help my job anymore. And as much as

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Speaker 1: I would like to, most people don't want help. They're

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Speaker 1: doing it because they think they're doing something right. And

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Speaker 1: if I were to ask why are you doing unilateral

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Speaker 1: upper body exercises to the people I see doing them,

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Speaker 1: I would argue maybe five have a valid reason. Maybe,

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Speaker 1: and that number is probably high. So what are unilateral

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Speaker 1: upper body exercises. That's when you do one arm at

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Speaker 1: a time. It is that's simple. So when we're talking

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Speaker 1: about upper body unilateral exercises, we're talking to about single

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Speaker 1: arm exercises. So you can't really do it with a barbell. Right,

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Speaker 1: if you're doing a barbell curl, a barbell military press,

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Speaker 1: both hands are hopefully on that barbell at the same time,

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Speaker 1: so that's not unilateral. That is bilateral, both limbs same time.

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Speaker 1: So when we're talking about unilateral exercises, were generally talking

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Speaker 1: about dumbbells, cables, bands, machines as well. You can sit

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Speaker 1: in a bicep curl machine and depending on how it

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Speaker 1: is designed, if it has a straight bar across, you

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Speaker 1: could still do it with one arm right. Bodybuilders often

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Speaker 1: do that. I'm getting ahead of myself, so let me

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Speaker 1: just go through either five basic upper body muscles that

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Speaker 1: you would do unilateral exercises with or four. So if

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Speaker 1: it's your chest, one arm, dumbbell chest press, you see

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Speaker 1: people lying on a bench with a dumbell and doing

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Speaker 1: one arm at a time, or you see them standing

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Speaker 1: in a cable machine, cable crossover machine, whatever you want

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Speaker 1: to call it. Standing and doing a chess press one

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Speaker 1: arm at a time, one cable, one handle at a time.

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Speaker 1: Then when we're talking shoulders, now you're talking single arm

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Speaker 1: overhead military press or shoulder press, or you're taking a dumbbell,

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Speaker 1: either seated or standing, doing one arm at a time.

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Speaker 1: And when I say one arm at a time, you

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Speaker 1: can be doing one set with your right arm ten reps,

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Speaker 1: fifteen reps, whatever it is, eight reps and then switching,

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Speaker 1: or you can be holding both and just alternating right,

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Speaker 1: just alternating, so that goes for another shoulder exercise. By

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Speaker 1: the way, like an alternating front raise. You're standing with

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Speaker 1: dumbbells in front of you. You raise your right hand

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Speaker 1: with a dumbbell in it right out straight in front

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Speaker 1: of you up to your shoulders. You lower it back

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Speaker 1: down and you either alternate or do one at a time.

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Speaker 1: Biceps obvious alternating dumbbell bicep curls or one at a time.

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Speaker 1: Concentration curls are a common one. Uh And again you

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Speaker 1: could do this in a seated bicep machine as well. Triceps.

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Speaker 1: Now we're talking about single arm dumbbell tricep kickbacks one

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Speaker 1: at a time, and then you could be lying on

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Speaker 1: your back and having one dumbbell in your hand and

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Speaker 1: doing single arm dumbbell skull crushers, and finally you're back.

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Speaker 1: Now you're talking like seated cable rose one arm at

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Speaker 1: a time, so you're sitting, you've got one handle in

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Speaker 1: one hand, and you're doing one side of your back

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Speaker 1: at a time. I finished with back for a reason.

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Speaker 1: Normally I would go chess, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, but

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Speaker 1: the final one leads me into the discussion about when

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Speaker 1: you could do it and should do it, so bent

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Speaker 1: over dumbell rose. I still generally do bilateral because I

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Speaker 1: want to save time getting ahead of myself. But if

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Speaker 1: you're going heavy, there are many people men and and

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Speaker 1: men who like to go heavier. Your back is a

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Speaker 1: bigger muscle group and it's hard to keep proper. For

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Speaker 1: if you're doing nine pound dumbbell bent over rows still

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Speaker 1: can be done, it's harder. So that's one example of

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Speaker 1: a time where you may say, Okay, I'm gonna do

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Speaker 1: one arm at a time. So why do people do it?

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Speaker 1: Why do people do alternating bicep curls? Well, they see

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Speaker 1: others doing it, They see others doing it, some people

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Speaker 1: do it for variation. They want to mix it up.

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Speaker 1: There are those who work out six seven times a week,

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Speaker 1: maybe twice a day. These are generally body builders, so

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Speaker 1: they are doing many exercises per body part, and so

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Speaker 1: again it goes to variation. But that is not the norm.

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Speaker 1: That is not the vast majority people who are listening

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Speaker 1: to me right now. Okay. Then there are people who

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Speaker 1: want to focus on a specific body part and times

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Speaker 1: that is, to target a specific region can't be done.

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Speaker 1: You can't spot reduce. People who do you know, hip

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Speaker 1: exercises unilateral, one side at a time, trying to target,

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Speaker 1: trying to spot reduce. Then there are those who want

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Speaker 1: an element of instability. Okay, now we're getting into the science.

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Speaker 1: Want a little bit of core instability. They'll say, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm lying on a bench and doing one arm at

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Speaker 1: a time of a dumbbell chess press because I want

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Speaker 1: to add in some core instability. Point taken. But you're

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Speaker 1: better off if that's your goal. Do it on a

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Speaker 1: stability ball. Then truly make your base unstable. But now

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Speaker 1: we get into what happens the exercise science behind it.

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Speaker 1: If you do something like that a chess press, single

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Speaker 1: arm dumbbell on a stability ball. When you go unstable,

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Speaker 1: you take the focus off of the muscle you are

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Speaker 1: trying to work. So so many people who are doing

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Speaker 1: a chest best are doing it for a chest right,

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Speaker 1: and then they go, I want to be fancy or

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Speaker 1: I want to add in some chord in stability. Okay,

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Speaker 1: there's a reason you have to go a lot lighter,

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Speaker 1: or you should to keep good form because now you

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Speaker 1: have to balance and stabilize, and that takes energy and

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Speaker 1: mental uh, mental and physical energy, and so you take

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Speaker 1: the focus off of the muscle you are trying to

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Speaker 1: strengthen and maybe hypertrophe, tone up, make bigger, whatever term

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Speaker 1: you want to use. But that is one example, the

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Speaker 1: bent over dumbo row where I go, Okay, point taken.

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Speaker 1: But here's why you should do it sparingly, bring it

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Speaker 1: all together. This is it your results. The vast majority

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Speaker 1: of those who are listening to me right now who

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Speaker 1: want to look better, feel better, live longer, you know,

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Speaker 1: get through their daily activities, better enjoy their sports, maybe

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Speaker 1: perform a little better at your recreational sports. All of

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Speaker 1: those things. Your results come from primarily training volume. So

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Speaker 1: what is that It's a very simple formula the number

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Speaker 1: of sets you do times the number of reps you

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Speaker 1: do repetitions times your weight the weight you lift. So

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Speaker 1: when you here we go this. This is so simple.

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Speaker 1: When you do one arm at a time, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing? You are I'm gonna say literal because it

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Speaker 1: works here people, you are literally doubling your workout time. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you're someone who loves to go to the gym,

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Speaker 1: were loves to work out at home, and you have

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Speaker 1: ninety minutes two hours every day that you're devoting totally

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Speaker 1: different you can dismiss what I'm saying. You have more time,

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Speaker 1: you are doing so many more exercise you have different goals.

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Speaker 1: But the vast majority of people who say I want

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Speaker 1: to work out, give me the shortest workout that's the

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Speaker 1: most effective and the least likelihood of injury. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I want to do both arms at the same time.

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Speaker 1: This is such common sense, but I see it all

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Speaker 1: the time. And because now you see these fitness instructors

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Speaker 1: on social media who are trying to be creative, as

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Speaker 1: I say frequently literally like making stuff up as they go,

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Speaker 1: I think many of them, Okay, I'm gonna stand on

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Speaker 1: this postue I saw I saw one yesterday. I cringed.

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Speaker 1: There were bands involved in bowsuits and one dumbbelt, and

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Speaker 1: I was just waiting if it were alive. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: live for that person to go crazy. But again, when

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Speaker 1: you add in complexity, when you add in instability, you

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Speaker 1: are now taking the focus off the muscle you are

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Speaker 1: trying to work, which is not what most of you

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Speaker 1: want to do. When you're doing a chess press, you

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Speaker 1: want to focus on your chest, when you're doing triceeps,

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Speaker 1: you want to focus on your triceps, and when you're

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Speaker 1: doing all of those things, you want to do it

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Speaker 1: in the least amount of time. So if you do

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Speaker 1: one arm at a time and do to three exercises

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Speaker 1: like that, you have doubled your workout time and you

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Speaker 1: have cut the number of sets and reps and total

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Speaker 1: training volume. That's where results from. If you want core engagement,

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Speaker 1: do core exercises. Now. If you're a professional try athlete

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Speaker 1: or you're a gymnastics again bodybuilder, different story, But even

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Speaker 1: then you don't. Those people don't spend all of their

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Speaker 1: time or a large chunk of their time doing these

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Speaker 1: type of exercises because they are also doubling their workout time,

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Speaker 1: and if they want to focus on their core, they're

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Speaker 1: gonna focus on their core. Does that mean that they

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Speaker 1: don't add things together and combine occasionally, of course, But

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Speaker 1: you get your base of strength, you focus on certain

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Speaker 1: body parts, and you maximize your training time. And when

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Speaker 1: the number one reason people give for not exercising is

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Speaker 1: lack of time, why the heck are you doing unilateral

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Speaker 1: upper body exercises if that is your issue. If that

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Speaker 1: is your issue, the vast majority of your upper body exercises,

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Speaker 1: people should be bilateral. What about lower body unilateral exercises?

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Speaker 1: Totally different story. I'm glad you asked, and that will

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Speaker 1: be coming up in a future fit tip. There's a

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Speaker 1: real positive correlation between the lower body unilateral exercises and

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Speaker 1: what you want to get out of them, but that's

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Speaker 1: another podcast. Thank you so much for listening. Again. My

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Speaker 1: goal is to get you the greatest result, shortest amount

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Speaker 1: of time, least likelihood of injury. This tip right now.

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Speaker 1: If you're sitting around doing unilateral upper body exercises for

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Speaker 1: the vast majority of your exercises and you switch to bilateral,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna see crazy results in a short amount of time.

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Speaker 1: If you are lifting correctly, using good form, and challenging

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Speaker 1: your muscles. Cutting your workout time in half or more.

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Speaker 1: If you are spending time doing multiple upper body exercises

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Speaker 1: one limb at a time. All right enough short fit tip,

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Speaker 1: thank you for listening. Fit tip. Why are you doing

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Speaker 1: unilateral upper body exercises? There you go, take all my

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Speaker 1: fit tips, take all the stuff you're learning, put it

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Speaker 1: all into play gradually, and I guarantee you the results

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Speaker 1: are going to astound you. It's the little changes done

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Speaker 1: consistently over time, excessive moderation. You want to reach out

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Speaker 1: tom h Fit is Instagram and Twitter, tom h Fit.

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Speaker 1: I'm hearing from more and more of you. Love it,

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Speaker 1: love it, love it, questions, comments, reach out tom h Fit.

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Speaker 1: My website fitness Disruptive dot com. By the way, it

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Speaker 1: is old, I know I'm working on redoing it and

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Speaker 1: brand new website that many of you are joining. I

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Speaker 1: love it. This is my one of my you know

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Speaker 1: I do many things, but huge focus going forward is

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Speaker 1: my virtual gym. Taking all my content from decades, training plans,

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Speaker 1: exercises videos. You've got ninety day workout videos. You've got

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Speaker 1: everything you need there. But it's a soft launch. And

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Speaker 1: I'm adding to it constantly. The next couple of months,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna see so much content go out there for him,

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Speaker 1: all of that stuff where I can coach you virtually.

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Speaker 1: That is Tom Holland Fitness dot Com. Tom Holland Fitness

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Speaker 1: dot Com, thank you for listening. And if you need

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Speaker 1: a book, by the way, my most recent is the

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Speaker 1: Micro Workout Plan. I want you to have your best life,

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Speaker 1: look better, feel better, live longer. I get really frustrated

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Speaker 1: when I see people who have no idea what they're

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Speaker 1: talking about, or are purposely trying to deceive you to

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Speaker 1: make money. I get really angry because I really I'm

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Speaker 1: passionate about what I do, not selling shoes here people.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for listening. I am Tom Holland, Exercise physiologists,

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Speaker 1: certified sports nutritionists. Thank you for listening, and believe in yourself.

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Speaker 1: Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows.