Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio. I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. All right. Quick fit tip Asymmetrical training again one of those terms some of you may have heard of, many of you might not, and those who have heard of it probably still somewhat confused as to what it is. So that is the subject of today's fit tip. Now. I did do a fit tip not too long ago on offset training, very similar kind of part of this, so I will
talk about that. But if you want a little bit more info on this type of training, listen to that podcast. I did quick bit tip on offset loading, but the related and I will talk about that as well. All right, So let me just go back to when I was a trainer. Couple quick stories that relate to this. And one client who when I would ask him to do a dumbell bicep curl standing dumbbell bicep curl, one arm would go up ridiculously faster than the other, so much
stronger on one side than the other. And that is typical, not like that. That was a typical in that like it was so pronounced, but we are not symmetrical. I would have those clients too, that were a little too focused on the aesthetic and would fixate on the fact. They would look in the mirror and say, oh, my gosh, look, I am not symmetrical. Oftentimes I didn't see it, it wasn't visual, but it was to them. They'd say things like, you know, look at my calves. One is bigger than
the other. Oftentimes no one else noticed, right, but we're not symmetrical. We're not symmetrical often visually, not to a large degree as this and and many other clients perceived, but definitely from a strength perspective, and that can cause problems. And so we want to employ so many different kinds of training. And that is a big part of this short discussion is that this is not the one way.
This is something you will add into your training to help balance out those asymmetries as well as potentially do a couple other things. Okay, so asymmetrical training is against similar to that offset loading, or it is one type of offset loading. And so let me give you four are actually three and then a fourth I'll add in as a combination of the two quick types of asymmetrical training to go, what the heck is it? How do I do it right. Well, it's loading one side of
the body, just one side, okay. So for those of you who know what a farmer's carry is, you may have seen people doing this in the gym or online. You're holding dumbbells or kettle bells something in both hands and you're walking. It's a great way to strengthen the lower body. Right, And one way you make this asymmetrical is just you just hold one dumbbell, a dumbell or a kettle bell something. You load the body on one side and not the other. So that is one type
of asymmetrical training. Again, why would you do this A couple of reasons and shortly, but one is to help with those asymmetries, right, You're gonna hold it on your weaker side to help balance out your body. Then the second is offset loading right where you're gonna use two different weights. So let's go back to the farmers carry.
You're gonna hold maybe a twenty pound dumbbell on one side and a fifteen on the other, So two different weights on either side of the body, and let me go back to the first one if you need one. More example would be doing a dumbbell chess press with just one dumbell. So that's loading one side of the body with just a weight on that side and no weight on the other side. Okay, that was number one.
Just another example. So you got farmers carry and then the dumbbell single arm chest press, but only holding one for that entire set. Okay. Then again number two using two different weights on either side of the body. That goes to offset loading. Okay, So that is another way of doing asymmetrical training. So offset loading is in essence a form of asymmetrical training. Just words, right. And finally, you can perform exercises unilaterally versus bilaterally. I'm a huge,
huge proponent of unilateral exercises. If you've read my books like The Marathon Method and The Twelve Week Triathlete. One of the reasons I am injury free are unilateral exercises. So really quickly, if you're doing a squat with both feet body weight squad normal typical body weight squad, that's bilateral two ft. If you are doing a single leg squad, maybe you put a ball, a big inflataball stability ball against the wall, you lean against it, then you stand
on one leg. I'm doing it as I speak and you go up and down. That's unilateral, so that takes out the dominant side. That allows you to focus on one side at a time, right, Because yes, one side of the body tends to dominate, and when we do bilateral exercises, that strong side, that dominant side tends to take over, and that goes forward. Doing a barbell bicep curl, right, if your right arm is a little stronger, it is most likely going to do more work as you were
trying to curl that bar towards your body. When you use dumbbells, it takes that out to some degree. Right. So then the question is very simple. Many people would have, well, why wouldn't you just do those unilateral exercises because research is showing that there might be more to it. There's
definitely more to it. In willing give you three quick reasons. Okay, your core right, so when you are holding just one, like when you're doing the farmers carry, your core has to stabilize yourself in a totally different way than if you're holding two dumbbells. Right, So you're when the farmers, farmers walk, farmers carry, whatever you wanna call it, you're holding one dumbell and you're walking, You're out of balance. So how does your body resist that rotation and overcome
that asymmetry. You're using more muscles and a huge part of that is from your core. So amazing. Throw the word functional out there. I believe all strength is functional, but I understand why the term is used the way it is. You are going to recruit more core musculature stabilization functional different, right, and then you're going to again strengthen the non dominant side in isolation of the dominant side.
So we talked about that, right, you want it to be in isolation, but when you are doing it with like a farmer's carry, you're adding in that core stability, so you're getting a different effect and added effect as well. But here is the very cool thing, and this is what gets me excited. Oh gets me excited. But what the research is showing and what you would experience when you do this is there's a different mind body connection.
Right when you have to concentrate on using one side of the body that is loaded or loaded differently from the other, there's a neural component. Still learning about it. I don't see a downside to it. You don't want to again do this exclusively, but as part of your exercise arsenal, what an amazing new workout. If you're not doing it, how many times a week should you do it? I would say one for the vast majority of people, one time asymmetrical. I mean, many different ways to program
it in. But we want to get strong first. You gotta build that base of strength. So I would go in this order, bilateral right, you gotta you gotta get good first, then unilateral right, and then the different one or two different methods of asymmetrical training, either loading just one side of the body doing the offset loading as I said, And let me give you just one more option, doing you anilateral and asymmetry at the same time. What is that? Very simple? A one legged dumbbell deadlift. Okay,
so just more options. And one great thing about options and variation, it keeps you interested. Going to the gym can be really boring if you're doing the same thing over and over again. And if you do the same thing over and over again, you know, stop seeing the same type of results. You're gonna plateau as your body gets acclimated to that. So it's just another element to add in to your training. Repertoire based on your goals.
But when one of the major goals for myself and hopefully for you is to stay injury free and to help balance out those asymmetries, because we're only as strong as our weakest link, then asymmetrical training along with that offset loading element is a great way to do it, all right, So you go try it once a week. If you're working out three times a week, do your traditional workout, and you can even do it within Everything
doesn't have to be asymmetrical. But if you're doing three strength workouts, doing two of your normal ones and throwing in some offset loading, some asymmetrical training, gonna mix it up, gonna make it more interesting and gonna challenge your body in a different way. You're adding in the core musculature, you're adding in a neural component which is going to make mind body connections different and better. Potentially, These are
all good things, all right. There you go. Asymmetrical training questions comments reach out Tom h Fit Instagram and Twitter. Tom h Fit can also email me through Fitness disrupted dot com. Please follow the show, subscribe to the show, rate the show, whatever you can do, it's greatly appreciated. Greatly appreciated, and the most recent book is The micro Workout Plan, which is the basics that I just talked about, bilateral, unilateral stuff that keeps me injury free. But it's about variation,
not one way. You know, this was once pitched to me by someone, the offset loading, and it was like, this is the way, it's not unillateral. So they had to denigrate uniateral training to pitch the asymmetrical slash offset loading. No, no, they're all good. And if you do all of these things a little bit, it's the excessive moderation. People. If you do some bilateral training, some uniateral training, some asymmetrical training, holy smokes, are you gonna be in great shape? Holy smokes?
Are you gonna be functionally fit? And at fifty three, my goal is to be able to do everything I want to do, like run across the Grand Canyon, not once, but twice. I think I'd go back now, I think I may go back again and sometimes in the future. So amazing. But my point is to do different things consistently so that you can have your best life, because that's my goal for this show. All right, enough, it's a fit tip. We're done. Thank you for listening. I'm
Tom Holland. This is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.