Deadlifts and squats.

According to most coaches, these are the foundation of any effective leg routine. While I agree with the fact that these are fantastic exercises, I believe they should come second to unilateral leg movements.

Unfortunately, most women don't utilize unilateral exercises at all. It's really a shame because regardless of your training goals, if you've omitted incorporating this training technique into your program, you're seriously neglecting the potential of your legs.

The Problem with Bilateral Leg Training

If your lower body training routine consists of exclusively bilateral movements, you're likely to run into problems. Let's go over some of these and the effect they may have on various individuals.  

• Figure Athletes spend weeks, months, and even years perfecting their physiques — and we all know the importance of symmetry in an aesthetically pleasing, balanced figure.

Here lies the issue for the Figure Athlete: Due to the fact that we're all naturally imbalanced and have a strong or dominant side, bilateral training will never result in the best possible symmetry.

Your stronger leg will always compensate for your weaker side. It'll work harder, leaving you with further imbalances in strength and of course, physique.

• Athletes, on the other hand, need to capitalize on performance over aesthetic appearance. If you're an athlete, you spend the majority of your time in sports, actually performing on one leg at a time. Our bodies must learn to function on one leg when it comes to agility, speed, strength, power, and balance.

Another huge area of concern for athletes lies in injury prevention. Many injuries are caused by weak muscles which are simply not ready to handle the specific demands of your sport. Training through bilateral movements is likely to leave imbalances undetected due to stronger muscles compensating for the weaker ones.

• Fitness Enthusiasts aren't quite Figure Athletes or high level sports athletes, but their appearance and health are still important to them. Once again, bilateral training will limit their capabilities in the gym due to possible imbalances and subsequent injuries.

Certain compound movements may also place unnecessary stress on one's weaker areas, resulting in sub par performance or even pain.

The Solution: Unilateral Leg Training

Now that we've gone over the possible problems we may encounter when utilizing nothing but bilateral training in our routines, let's examine how unilateral training methods may provide the solution.

Figure Athletes: Unilateral training will help build the most aesthetically pleasing physique possible through creating symmetry by zeroing in on each leg individually. This will give both legs equal opportunity in training, preventing either side from taking the path of least resistance.

Now, they stand alone. This will not only enable you to work on imbalances and symmetry, but you'll also find many of the unilateral exercises more challenging than the bilateral movements as, since one leg does all the work, other muscles must be recruited for stability.

Athletes: Regardless of whether you're running, jumping, cutting, or decelerating, it's absolutely imperative to incorporate unilateral strength training techniques and movements into your program.

Not only will they teach your body to be comfortable and strong with action on a single leg, but they'll also serve to prevent injuries through helping you detect and correct any imbalances before injury has occurred.

General Fitness: This group will be especially happy to know that unilateral training adds some much-needed variety to a stale program. Step away from the machines and hooray for something new!

You'll find an increase in not only your exercise repertoire, but your functional ability as well. It may take a bit longer to do sets for each leg versus one set using both, but I can assure you that you'll get more bang for your buck using unilateral training due to its recruitment of many of your stabilizer muscles.

Furthermore, if you're functioning with a bad back or troubled knees, these exercises will allow you to work your muscles with the same intensity while avoiding putting any unnecessary strain on your spine or joints — as would occur with higher risk exercises.

Lastly, as my personal experience with female trainees has shown, not all women prefer to lift truly heavy weights, and some just don't have the grip strength to hold heavy dumbbells. Once again, unilateral training allows heavy training of the leg muscles without necessarily loading up on the weight.

Getting Down to Business: The Exercises

Provided below are five of the most effective unilateral lower body movements. I've found that each of these exercises will benefit anyone looking to build a strong, balanced, and aesthetically pleasing, functional physique — regardless of your training purposes or experience levels.

Each exercise includes progressions and regressions. The sets, reps, and rest periods implemented will need to be tailored according to your specific goals.

Single Leg Squat with Knee Tap

This is my favorite single leg squat variation because it allows you to keep optimal spinal alignment while giving you the freedom to experiment with squat depth.

Set Up: Stand toward the front of an object on the ground (i.e. an Airex pads, yoga block, or a stack of weights) with good alignment balancing on one leg. Non-weight bearing leg is at a right angle. Hold a medicine ball at your chest.

How To: Drop into a single leg squat driving your rear leg backward in an attempt to gently touch your knee to the object on the floor. While squatting, extend the medicine ball out at shoulder level. This will give you a counter balance, helping to maintain optimal alignment. 

This exercise can be easily progressed by reducing the height of the object on the floor, or eventually, no object and knee to floor.

Coaching Tips:

• Keep a controlled tempo while dropping into the squat.

• Be sure to only tap the object on the floor, not rest on it.

• Add load by wearing a weight vest or holding a heavier medicine ball or dumbbell.

Bulgarian Split Squat with Contralateral Dumbbell

This exercise offers a lot of bang for your buck. Not only do you get excellent single leg training, but holding the dumbbell on the contralateral (opposite) side will also recruit more muscle groups for stabilization, resulting in additional core work.

Set Up: Stand in front of a flat bench, just far enough so you can rest the top of your foot on it upon bending one of your legs at the knee. Hold a dumbbell or two as shown, or at your sides.

How To: Perform a single leg squat by slowly lowering yourself toward the ground. Keep your weight on the leg squatting and not on the one resting on the bench. 

As you get stronger and more mobile, a great progression is elevating yourself on a platform enabling you to drop deeper into the squat. This is a real leg killer!

Coaching Tips:

• Be sure to keep a straight line between your hips, knees, and toes in the sagital plane.

• Avoid leaning to your side by keeping your torso upright.

• Do not lift the heel of your front foot.

Supine Hip Lift with Plate

This is a fantastic posterior chain exercise that I learned from one of my mentors, Martin Rooney. This exercise is easy to perform while being exceptionally effective, as proven by the incredible progress experienced by many of my clients and athletes of all levels.

Set Up: Lie down on your back, with your legs toward a flat bench. Place one heel on top of a bench, bending that leg's knee to 90 degrees. Pull your other leg towards your chest and rest a plate on your shin.

How To: Drive your heel down into the bench and lift your hips toward the sky without disturbing your other leg.

Another variation here is performing this same exercise with a straight leg. This emphasizes more hamstring recruitment.

Coaching Tips

• Be sure to place your heel on top of the bench and not against the side of the bench.

• Keep your head flat on the floor throughout the exercise.

• Never rest your butt on to the floor until the set is complete.

• Just when you think your hips are high, get them higher!

• As you lift your hips, do not allow your foot to externally rotate. This is a common compensation pattern that displays an overactive lateral hamstring.

Single Leg Deadlift with Barbell

The single leg deadlift with a dumbbell is very popular these days. Although that's a great exercise, I favor the variation utilizing the barbell because it requires more balance and muscle stabilization.

Set Up: Grab a barbell and hold it in front of your quads while standing on one leg. Keep your upper body straight and your shoulders back.

How To: Lower the barbell toward the ground while keeping your upper body completely straight and in line with your "inactive" leg. Keep a slight bend in the knee of your working leg and focus on driving the bar back up by using the hamstring and the glute of your working leg.

Coaching Tip

• A common compensation while performing this exercise is to turn the toe out and rotate the pelvis up. This shows lateral hamstring dominance and places unnecessary torque on the lumbar spine (lower back). A slight external rotation of the foot is normal and okay, but to prevent any dysfunctional patterns, keep your pelvis parallel to the floor and your toe pointed down toward the floor.

Pendulum Step Over

This is a fun and effective unilateral variation to a step-up that I use with advanced clients and athletes. This lateral movement is a great way to really challenge your adductors and abductors, along with the rest of your lower body.

Set Up: Stand to the side of a bench with your outside foot planed on the bench (this foot stays planted on the bench until the set is complete). Keep your toes pointed forward and your knee at the midline of your body.

How To: As your step onto your weight bearing leg, step your other leg behind and over to the opposite side of the bench and onto the floor. Do not rest the moving leg on the bench.

Once your foot's on the floor, step your non-weight bearing leg back over and return to the start position. Continue back and forth over the bench until your set on one leg is complete and then switch legs.

Coaching Tips

• Exercise can be progressed by adding load using a weight vest, medicine ball, or dumbbells.

• Emphasize using the leg on the bench to drive your weight up and over the bench in both directions.

Wrap Up

Unilateral leg exercises will significantly contribute to your strength, symmetry, balance, functionality, injury prevention, and exercise variation. I hope that I've convinced you to not only include them in your program, but to build your routine around these foundational movements — regardless of your specific training goals.

While this article won't provide you with an exhaustive list of single-leg training techniques, implementing the ones within it will get you well on your way to sculpting the perfect pair of shapely, strong legs.