Bilateral facilitation versus Bilateral Deficient

        When you're at the gym you have choices for exercises. Which equipment should I use? Should I use machines? What is the best training split? Which exercises are better?

    All of those are legit questions that can only be answered through experience. With experience comes experimentation with different machines or styles of training (or it should....). I used the lat pull down for 6 weeks. Ok cool now I'm going to switch it up and go with pull-ups for my back. Upon time and dedication, adaptations occur. We touched on some of those adaptations in past articles. One of the more hidden adaptations is bilateral facilitation and bilateral deficient. 

So, how does bilateral facilitation and bilateral deficient apply to the gym?  In the words of Yoda, "Patience you must have, my young padawan"

    Bilateral exercises are exercises that use two limbs (Bi=two). This can be bench, squat, deadlift. Any exercises that use two limbs. Unilateral exercises use one limb (Uni=one). Single leg squat, Bulgarian split squat, one armed row, etc. Any exercise that uses one limb is considered unilateral. In terms of which training style is better-they both can be used in the gym effectively. Slightly changing an exercise can create new stimuli for the body and create new adaptations. My advice-switch it up every so often. If I am also doing leg press, then sprinkle in single leg leg press or if I am continuously doing two handed rows then switch to one handed row.    

    Before getting to how these terms apply to the gym, we first must define them. Bilateral facilitation is the force produced by both legs is greater than forces produced unilaterally. Meaning that my squat total is higher than Bulgarian split squat. For example, if I can back squat 200 pounds and use 40 pounds for Bulgarian split squat then I would have Bilateral facilitation. 200>80. (40 pounds per leg x2 legs=80 total pounds)

    On the other hand, Bilateral deficit is the max force produced bilaterally is less than the sum of forces by each limb. Using our example above if my squat is 70 pounds and I can use 40 pounds for Bulgarian split squat then I would have a bilateral deficit. 70 pounds squat<80 pounds for Bulgarian split squat.

      In terms of training, we would want to be strong enough for bilateral facilitation. Bilateral facilitation typically comes from stronger, more experienced lifters that have been training. Bilateral deficient generally is from untrained, weaker, less experienced lifters. Bilateral deficient can also come from folks rehabbing an injury. As you get stronger Bilateral facilitation should take place over Bilateral deficit.