One of the more frustrating things for people who exercise regularly is asymmetric muscles, lagging muscles, and muscle imbalance. It’s frustrating because regular exercise takes a lot of effort and discipline and you want the results to be the best they possibly can. It’s something that happens often and it’s usually caused by a few factors such as natural development, daily activities, bad posture, unbalanced exercise program, or doing an exercise with improper form. Although it’s frustrating when it happens it’s quite common and it can be fixed by following a few simple steps and sticking to a proper workout routine so there’s no need to panic.
Do More Unilateral Exercises
Unilateral exercises will make sure that you are properly addressing the muscle imbalance and working more on your weaker side. Unilateral exercises are better for fixing muscle imbalances because they can separate and target the asymmetric side.
Whenever you have muscle imbalance and you are doing an exercise that involves both sides, the stronger side will be dominant and push or pull more of the weight. When this happens the side that is stronger is getting worked more than the side that is weaker so the stronger side will remain larger and the weaker will remain smaller.
Unilateral exercises will allow you to focus on the weaker side and work it just as hard as the stronger side to achieve symmetry.
For example, you can switch the barbell bench press with dumbbell bench press, the barbell squats with dumbbell lunges, the barbell biceps curls with dumbbell bicep curls, and so on.
Begin With The Weaker Side
Most of the population on earth is not ambidextrous which means that one side will be stronger than the other because it’s the dominant one. However, it won’t be as visible before you start working out. To fix symmetry and lagging muscles it’s recommended that you start every exercise with your weaker side because you are much fresher at the beginning than at the end of your workout.
Starting with your weaker side will ensure that you are as fresh as possible and you are able to give in 100% to address your muscle imbalance and fix symmetry.
Proper Workout Volume
Your workout volume should be set by following your weaker side. If you follow the advice from the point before and start with your weaker side, make sure you do the same amount of repetitions and sets with your dominant side too. Set the volume following your weaker side and even if you can do more with your stronger side, don’t. That way you will avoid one muscle developing more than the other one which in time will lead to perfect symmetry.
Work More On Your Weak Side
Muscle imbalances are created by favoring exercises as well. Some people love working out their chest but dislike the back exercises which can create muscle imbalance in time. Others hate leg day and only work out their upper body which also creates an imbalance. You can fix this type of imbalance by either increasing the exercise volume and focusing more on the lagging muscles or you can increase the training load of the lagging muscles.
Identify The Problem
Getting to the root of the problem is always a good idea. Identifying why you have developed muscle imbalance will help you avoid making the same mistake in the future and prevent you from developing more lagging muscles. This is especially important if you are doing an exercise in improper form. Doing an exercise wrong is one of the biggest causes of muscle imbalances and even if you fix your symmetry problem it’s bound to come back again if your form isn’t right. However, if you identify the issue with your form you will be able to prevent it from ever happening again.
Another common problem that causes lagging muscles and muscle imbalance are when you have restricted movement because you lack flexibility or you had an injury. It can be an issue that you don’t even know you have but it’s affecting your workout and overall body symmetry. If this is the problem that causes muscle imbalance you can fix it by going to a therapist that can help you retrieve your full range of motion.
