Why Single Leg Exercises Are Crucial For Longevity

Also known as unilateral training, single limb exercises are extremely important, especially with lower body strength training. Whether you’re a runner, play a sport or you’re simply keen to feel healthier and move better, single leg strength exercises are key to enabling you to function well!
Almost all sports, dynamic movements and daily activities require you to be able to move from one leg to the other. Although this sounds straight-forward and something we as humans are designed to do, it’s still vital that we build and maintain adequate strength, stability and mobility to ensure we’re able to function properly, safely and pain free long into the future.

With that in mind, let’s delve into the benefits of single leg training and then look at some of the go-to exercises you should be doing!

BENEFITS OF SINGLE LEG TRAINING

Stabilisation - Stability is our ability to withstand force and unwanted movement. So, if we think about walking or running, as one leg strikes the other leaves the floor. During this action our pelvis and hips have to stay stable to ensure our pelvis doesn’t slant resulting in us losing integrity and balance. Single leg exercises are an excellent method of building the stability in our lower back, hips, knees, ankles and feet required to function and move with strength and control.

Fixes imbalances - You’ve likely heard the words muscle imbalance thrown around quite a bit, especially if you’ve ever experienced any back pain, researched healthy desk set-ups or had a few sessions with a physio. We are very rarely ever 100% symmetrical when it comes to muscle tone and strength. Our everyday activities are also rarely performed symmetrically; you likely walk the dog with the lead in your dominant hand, you twist to your left more at your desk or you stand on the train in a way your weight is loaded onto one leg more than the other.

In the short term, these daily habits go unnoticed. However, if these habits continue, they will eventually start to cause some aches, pains and movement dysfunctions - pairing this with bilateral (both limbs) weight-bearing exercises such as squats, hip thrusts or press ups and you’re now building strength on an uneven base.

Performing single leg exercises on the regular is an excellent method of combating these ever evolving muscular imbalances and keeping each leg functioning and moving close to equal.

Increased focus & mind-muscle connection - Performing single leg exercises enable you to put 100% focus into one leg at a time. This can be an extremely valuable way of building proprioception (awareness of your body in space) and mind-muscle connection, helping you to build a stronger neurological link to the primary muscles being used and therefore feel those active muscles working.

Develop technique & mechanics - Increased focus and mind-muscle connection can in-turn help you to further develop your technique of the movement. For example, being able to feel your hamstring stretch and contract during a Romanian deadlift can be extremely beneficial when you’re trying to perfect your technique and target that specific muscle group.

Managing intensity - With only one leg working at a time, the load we’ll be able to use compared to a bilateral exercise such as a squat is drastically reduced. This can be more beneficial to individuals with pre-existing injuries or movement dysfunctions as we’re not loading our body as heavily. 

Strong carry-over - As previously mentioned, the vast majority of sports and daily activities involve a bias towards single leg. Whether it be running, jumping, pivoting or everyday ambulation, our body needs to be able to effectively and efficiently move, function and produce power on one leg at a time. 

Longevity - Research shows that not only is muscle mass one of the strongest contributing factors to increased lifespan, but it also plays a vital role in increasing quality of life in our later years. After the age of 30, your muscle mass and strength can decrease by 3-8% each decade. This can increase to up to 15% per decade after 50 (known as sarcopenia), potentially leaving you with a 50% total loss of muscle mass and up to 90% loss of strength as you enter your 80s, as you can imagine, this has huge consequences!

Combatting this muscle loss and retaining strength through some resistance training will put your physiology in a much stronger place to fight disease and declines in mobility and physical ability, improve balance, boost your ability to recover from illness or injury and more. Adopting some single leg strength exercises into your regime will help you to build and maintain strong muscle mass, joints, ligaments, tendons and bone for longer, helping you to feel well, move pain-free and live better for longer!

I hope you found this article useful! I’d love to know what exercises you’re going to start implementing into your workout regime @olliethompsonhealth