Grab your dumbbells for one of Arnie’s latest unilateral workouts

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Arnold Schwarzenegger worked hard for years to build muscles of steel and become a renowned bodybuilding champion. Arnie drops new workouts in his Pump Club Newsletter, where he shares emails to help people simplify nutrition, wellness, and fitness. One of the latest workouts is unilateral, meaning it involves working one side of your body at a time, such as using a single leg or arm. Training both sides of your body simultaneously is called bilateral training, which also provides plenty of benefits.

The benefits of unilateral training

Researchers found that unilateral training significantly improves balance for athletes. With unilateral training like single-arm rows, Bulgarian split squats, and lunges, you can help correct muscular imbalances, lower your risk of injury, and boost your stability and balance over time. Stronger sides tend to dominate with bilateral moves, but focusing on unilateral training helps ensure you’re working each side independently, building muscle more evenly, and fine-tuning symmetrical strength. Without further ado, let’s jump into Arnie’s unilateral workout.

Arnie’s unilateral dumbbell workout

As Schwarzenegger points out, it’s the single-arm and single-leg exercises that help you build strength at your weakest points, focus on your range of motion, and address muscular imbalances. It’s time for some supersets.

The workout

Grab a pair of moderate-weight dumbbells and perform the two exercises in your superset back-to-back, with very little rest between each exercise. When you finish the second exercise in your superset, rest for 90 to 120 seconds before repeating the superset again. Aim for two or three rounds of each superset before moving on to the next superset.

Superset 1

Note that for the single-arm dumbbell press, you’ll need a bench or flat surface to lie back on, so you can press the dumbbell up away from your body. For the Bulgarian split squat, you’ll need a bench or a raised surface to elevate and rest your back foot before squatting down.

Power straight through:

• Single-arm dumbbell press (8-10 reps on each arm)

• Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells (8-10 reps on each leg)

Rest for 90 to 120 seconds, then repeat 1 or 2 times before moving on to superset 2.

Superset 2

You can kneel on a bench to complete your dumbbell row.

• Single-arm dumbbell row (10-12 reps on each side)

• Single-leg Romanian deadlift (8-10 reps on each leg)

Rest for 90 to 120 seconds, then repeat 1 or 2 times before moving on to superset 3.

Superset 3

You can ditch the bench to do these last two exercises.

• Single-arm overhead press (6-8 reps on each side)

• Pistol squat (6-8 reps on each leg)

Rest for 90 to 120 seconds, then repeat 1 or 2 more times. Pat yourself on the back because you just finished one of Arnie’s unilateral workouts.