One leg exercises

[PT1983]

Recently seen alot of press and also been on courses with instructors that are promoting one leg exercises.

Just thought i would throw this open as some people on here are very interesting and have their own ideas which i like.

Anyway i'll ask the question, why do one leg exercises. E.g something like dumbbell bicep curls on one leg.

Why??????

My thoughts are any extra/different exercise is a bonus, more variety etc.

However if for instance someone comes in looking for weightloss and tone up, which lets face it is more than 50% of what people are after, why would i get them doing something like that.

Is these types of exercises maybe more suited to athletes or very advanced trainers?????

What do you's think???

 

[Karky]

upper body exercises on one leg? wtf? I thought this would be about stuff like lunges, step ups, bulgarian squats, etc, which are awesome exercises.
Doing curls and stuff on one leg, bosu balls, etc, is just crap.

 

[limestix]

Sorry karky, but it's not crap.
Doing exercises on 1 leg/halfbosu/bosu etc increases your balance and strengthens your stabilizing muscles. It is definitely not required, but true body strength requires having very strong stabilizers.

 

[Typhon]

Doing curls and stuff on one leg, bosu balls, etc, is just crap.

+Rep

I wish I could pop all those Bosu balls. The only thing I like about them is seeing the smug look on peoples faces slowly fade as they realize about 6 months later that they haven’t made any gains and looked like a right tit in the process

I also thought from the title that you were talking about unilateral leg work – now that I love

 

[Typhon]

Sorry karky, but it's not crap.
Doing exercises on 1 leg/halfbosu/bosu etc increases your balance and strengthens your stabilizing muscles. It is definitely not required, but true body strength requires having very strong stabilizers.

Why would standing on one leg while doing a bicep curl help stability any more than just standing on one leg?

The instability would impede the effectiveness of the curl and do little for stability. Why not just do the curl and then do some single leg squats for stability?

 

[limestix]

Why would standing on one leg while doing a bicep curl help stability any more than just standing on one leg?

The instability would impede the effectiveness of the curl and do little for stability. Why not just do the curl and then do some single leg squats for stability?

I don't see how the instability would impede the effectiveness of the curl as the instability of your body does not effect your arms doing an isolated exercise. The instability is exactly what you want, as instability means there is room for improvement on stabilizers; feeling that instability means you are increasing your stability.

But I also agree that doing single leg exercises are more effective. And if using a bosu or standing on one leg does effect form or hinders performance, than it should not be done.

That being said, there is no reason not to do it if you can do it right. Personally, I've never done a 1 leg bicep curl or anything, but I do a few exercises with the ball like incline/elevated/decline push ups, along with ball squats etc, and it has proven to be very effective.

 

[evolution]

Stability training has gotten way carried away. I'm seeing a rash of overweight and unconditioned people and their PTs are having them do cable tricep extensions while standing on one leg on a wobble ball and other meaningless movements.

Lifting free weights itself promotes the usage of stabilizer muscles. Let's not kid ourselves and act like we're promoting functional training. Unless you're a waitress in an earthquake laden restaurant, then unstable surface is really not at all functional.

Now...wobble surface training is useful for athletes in sports that have a perchance for sprained ankles (volleyball, basketball, etc). But for the average person...get them doing a plethora of good old compound movements, change their food intake habits and that will make all the difference in the world.