How to correct muscle imbalance

Many people who have a dream to achieve an amazing physique , work really hard and push their bodies up to their maximum limit to achieve it. But sometimes things don't always work out in the way you plan them.

Out of all the obstacles which comes in the way of achieving your dream physique , the one that almost everyone encounter is MUSCLE IMBALANCE.

Muscle Imbalance means that one side of our body has a better growth than the other , like , one might have a problem that they have their right bicep bigger than their left , or their right chest is stronger than their left chest.

To understand this problem we need to understand what causes muscle imbalance.

WHAT CAUSES MUSCLE IMBALANCE?

Our muscle grows when during our workout we break our muscle fibres and they recover with our diet and taking proper rest. Muscle imbalance is also caused when muscle fibres on one side of our body are trained more than the other side.

The most possible cause of this uneven trained muscle fibres in one part of the body depends on the stronger hand of that person. For example , if a person is right handed , his right hand will be automatically stronger than his left hand because he do all his daily routine work from his right hand which makes its muscles stronger than the left side.

Similarly , if a person is a sports person , take cricket bowler for an example. If a bowler is left handed , while bowling , his muscle fibres of left hand are trained whenever he practices his bowling. This will automatically make his left hand muscles more stronger than his right hand. This can apply to any sport a person is playing. Whichever hand we use for sports (lawn tennis , squash , batting , badminton , volley ball , etc) get more stronger than the other hand.

When one side of our body is stronger we automatically lift more from that side which leads to more imbalance in our muscles. For example , take alternate bicep curls for instance , if a right handed person is able to do 10 reps with a certain weight from his left hand , he will be able to do more than 10 reps from his right hand , because his right hand is stronger than his left hand.

For beginners , who have just started working out , are not able to feel this difference as the difference is not significant in the start , but if he/she continues with this unnoticed power difference in both sides , it can grow to a bigger and much significant difference which you can spot from your eyes , that our one side muscles are bigger and stronger than the other side.

HOW TO CORRECT MUSCLE IMBALANCE

People who have muscle imbalance , doesn't know the best ways to deal with it. Sometimes the methods they apply to correct the imbalance can make it even worse. But the best ways to correct the muscle imbalance lies in the way we workout or train our muscles.

Stop doing barbell exercises.

For the body part which is not balanced , i suggest to not go for barbell exercises , as while doing barbell exercises you will unwillingly put more power with your stronger side which will make your weaker side even more weak.

Always prefer to do unilateral exercises (like dumbbells , cables , resistance bands , etc) because in that way your both hands will have their separate resistance and separate movement and always do the maximum number of reps from the weaker side and do the same no of reps from the stronger side (even if you can do more reps from the stronger side). This will train your weaker side up to its fatigue level and your stronger side not up to its fatigue and will eventually help to balance your muscle growth on both sides.

Do extra reps with the weaker side.

Another best way to correct your muscle imbalance is to do more reps after your fatigue level with your weaker side. This technique will help you to train your weaker side more than your stronger side.

When we do extra reps after we start feeling pain , that is when our muscle grows the best. So, when you reach your fatigue level then drop the weight from your stronger side and continue doing some 4-5 extra reps from your weaker side.

For example , assume your right chest is stronger than your left chest. So in that case , you have to do dumbbell press , machine press instead of bench press , and suppose your are able to do 12 reps with a certain weight from your weaker side , then you drop your weight , and do some 4-5 extra reps with your weaker side (you can drop the weight , if you are unable to continue doing reps with the same weight).

Do stretching of the weaker side. 

For everyone who do muscle training , it is suggested to stretch the body part they are going to train that day properly. Stretching allows the blood to flow in the muscle tissues and prepares them to be trained in the following workout session.

For your weaker part , do some stretching of about 10 minutes after your workout. Stretching your muscle fibres post workout makes more room in between the muscle fibres and in turn helps them to grow. Post workout stretching is very helpful in growing muscle fibres faster as the more room created is then filled by protein and amino acids which we take in through our diet.

For instance , if you have weaker biceps muscles in the left hand , so after your workout session do stretching of your bicep muscles and while stretching try to hold your position for your left hand (your weaker side) for 10-15 seconds more than your right side , this will allow more blood to flow between the fibres and will create more room for them to grow.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Muscle Imbalance is very common these days , and almost everyone who are beginners or who have started working out few months or a year back , face this problem. Try doing the above methods along with your proper diet and rest (nothing works if your diet isn't good or if you don't rest properly) , and you will see guaranteed results.

Checkout my article on Protein requirement for your fitness goals.