Obstacle Course Training: Unilateral Workout

It's March and I am starting to prepare for the upcoming Obstacle Course Racing season. What I have done the last few years is over the colder winter months stick to a mostly pure strength training approach to my workouts, mixing in a little bit of high intensity conditioning work.

As I get closer to the events I plan to participate in I try to start mix in work that will enable me to transition from running to doing intense work to simulate moving from obstacle to obstacle. I wanted to perform unilateral work with this workout in regard to power, strength, single leg work, pulls and presses.

Set One: 4 Rounds

Single Leg Hop to Pull Up (5 each side)

From an 18” plyo box. set box under a pull up bar and sit on the box. Use one leg to perform a single leg jump up to the bar and do one pull up, sit back down and repeat.

Pull Up - Knee Raise - Pull Up

Did 5 strict pull ups then 10 controlled knee raises then as many strict pulls as i could manage after that.

Single Arm Rope Pull (cable machine) from High Plank Position (5 each side)

Used the rope attachment for the cable machine and set myself up in a high plank (top of push up) position. Fully extended one arm out to reach the rope and pulled into the body.

Rear Foot Suspended Single Leg Lunge (10 each side)

Using a TRX, I put 1 foot in the strap and performed a body weight lunge.

Set Two: 3 Rounds

Dumbbell Alternating Bench Press (10 Each Side)

Tried this two ways. First set was done with the weights done close to my chest and pressed out individually from there then I tried it holding the weight in the up position and lowering one at a time then back up . For me it was more difficult when I held the weights down rather than up while the other arm was working.

Dumbbell Alternating Overhead Press (10 each side)

Again I tried this holding the dumbbells in a different resting position while the other side was working. Unlike the bench press this felt more difficult while I held the weight overhead while the opposite arm was working.

I finished both sets of the presses with 10 reps with both sides working together. At this point the overhead press turned into a push press.

On the course you will find yourself in positions where you will have to rely on just one side of your body to perform work. Pulling up over a wall, hoisting objects, dragging objects (or yourself) and of course humping up hills on step at a time. Doing some unilateral work will help ensure the body can optimally handle these activities.