Hello my AIK Familia and welcome back to another Workout of the Week.
This week we are feeling a bit of March Madness over at AIK and have produced an extremely challenging Kettlebell Workout rightly (and leftly, hehe) named ‘Unilateral Madness‘.
This Kettlebell workout focuses on asymmetrical exercises which believe it or not will achieve a lot of functional symmetry. The benefits of asymmetrical training are immense…
Improving Core Strength
Unlike normal bilateral loading, if you off set the load it puts increased forces on your stability and core strength. This is heightened when your core muscles work to keep and maintain a neutral spine by resisting the rotational forces of the off set load.
Improve Muscular Imbalances
Its only natural that we are muscularly imbalanced on one side. If we are say using barbells our stronger and preferred side will do a lot more of the heavy lifting subconsciously. By off setting the load it causes each side of our body to work independently while forcing that singular side to do all of the work by its self.
Breaking Down Strength Barriers
When trying to progress with our training, we often hit little “blocks“,”barriers“, or “plateaus“. Sometimes it feels like no matter how much train, that we just can’t get over them. By training asymmetrically we are engaging a lot of the smaller muscles which act to stabilise . These are often overlooked and can assist in overcoming those barriers so we can eventually lift more weight. You just don’t activate these muscles the same when bilateral loading.
Specifically Optimise Sporting Performance
Most sports focus on asymmetric based movements and exercises. Say soccer plays kick a ball with one side of the body, while the other side normally acts as a pivot point or to stabilize and support the body. By training asymmetrically we can specifically train one side of the body and optimise its movements for that specific sport, exercise, or movement.
Kettlebell Workout – ‘Unilateral Madness’
10 x Kettlebell One Arm Swings [Each Side]
10 x Kettlebell Lunges [Each Side]
10 x Overhead Press [Each Side]
10 x Pistol Squats [Each Side]
10 x Kettlebell Rows [Each Side]
The beauty of this challenging Kettlebell workout is that it really is going to work that upper and lower body while focusing on that core stabilisation. This is great if you or your client want to improve balance, core strength, stabilising muscles, or functional symmetry.
You can perform this as an AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) or time it and see how many rounds you can do in the allotted time period.
Live Passionately,
Daniel Henderson
Co – Founder
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