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Author:
Gregg Gillies

Whether you are feeling stale on your current routine or just looking for a way to improve your workouts and start making progress again, unilateral training is a perfect way to increase the results of your training time and help you build muscle.

What is unilateral training? It is simply working one side of your body at a time. This is not the same as, say, alternate dumbbell curls where you do a rep with the left arm, then a rep with the right, etc. You do a complete set for one side before moving to the other.

For example, do a set of 10 reps on the leg press with your right leg only and then do a set of 10 reps with your left leg only.

Unilateral training allows you to increase your focus on the muscle you are working by doing a better job of isolating the working muscle.

Your intensity increases because you increase the muscle involvement due to the bilateral deficit. The bilateral deficit means the total weight you can lift by working one limb at a time is more than the total weight you can lift when working both limbs together.

This increase in focus and intensity will help your muscle building efforts while boosting your strength.

Here are a number of exercises that are well suited to unilateral training that can help you build muscle mass -

Smith Marchine Squats

Leg Press

Leg Curls

Leg Extension

Calf Raises

Cable Crossovers

Pec Deck

Pullups or Pulldowns

Seated Cable Rows

All types of lateral raises for the shoulders

Dumbbell Press

Seated overhead dumbbell extensions

Tricep Pressdown

Dumbbell Preacher Curl

Cable Curl

If you are looking for something different to help you break out of a rut and build muscle or you just want to increase the intensity and productivity of your current workout, you should definitely give unilateral training a try. Give it a fair shake and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

In order to take advantage of these tips to build muscle, muscle building diets and nutrition plans and design an effective weight training program it's important to understand the fundamentals of weight training - http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/weight-lifting-programs.html

About the author:

Gregg Gillies is the founder of Build Lean Muscle.com His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books and writes for Body Talk Magazine. He publishes a free newsletter available at his site http://www.buildleanmuscle.com/ezine.html and see how you can get a customized nutrition plan at http://www.mynutritionjournal.com

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Fat Burning... How Creatine Helps To Build Muscle Creatine monohydrate can help you build muscle, make you stronger, and get you leaner. A number of studies have proven that when creatine supplements are used, together with exercise, significant gains can be made in muscle, strength and endurance. It has also been shown to improve muscle strength and decrease recovery time following a work out. Creatine monohydrate works best for activities that require rapid or intense effort. Activities such as weight lifting to build muscle and sprinting are examples of this type of activity. If you're a marathon runner, you may not see the same type of results. About 93% of all the creatine in your body is stored in the muscles. The reason it is stored in your muscles is that it plays a key role in providing your body with a boost of energy needed to perform work. The normal energy cycle of the muscle requires a substance called Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP to fuel it. The muscle usually has enough ATP on board to fuel a burst of work lasting about 6 seconds. Creatine restores the ATP to a state where it can act as fuel for the muscle and continue the burst of activity for about another 6-12 seconds. This is how it helps to build muscle. A good analogy is to think of the muscle as if it were a high performance engine. ATP is the gas for your engine and creatine is an octane booster that allows you to get better performance from your engine. The most common effects of creatine include bigger muscles and increased production of muscle tissue. This translates into more repetitions, more weight lifted and/or the ability to sprint faster. More work equals more muscle and more muscle equals increased strength and endurance. In addition to helping to build...