Here is all the information you need to know to fix your muscle imbalance!
And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!
Why do i have a muscle imbalance?
Having muscle imbalances is very common, everyone has them to a certain extent.
But what is the cause of your muscle imbalance?
There are couple of reasons why.
First thing that you have to consider is that no one in the world is perfectly symmetrical. Its not just your muscles, but also your face. Every side is a little bit different than the other one.
You can see this is full effect, when you take a photo of yourself and you flip it around. You will see that you look different!
This is why genetics, can be a big reason why you have muscle imbalances, just simply because you were born like that, because everyone has one side that is more dominant.
When someone tells you to kick a ball, or to punch someone, you will always perform that action with your more dominant side, thats why its little bit bigger and stronger than your other side, due to all the small day-to-day actions that you do only with your stronger side.
And this goes hand in hand with activites that you perform almost every day like the job that you do, or your favorite sport that you have been doing for years.
For example,if you work at the office for a long time, it will most likely lead to imbalances in the neck, shoulders or back muscles due to sitting in a bad posture for a long time repeatedly.
The same goes for sports, lets say you are a baseball player, and you do the same movement over and over, this will result in a big muscle imbalance over the time.
One more thing that can also create muscle imbalances, is major injuries.
This happened to me personally. I had a shoulder surgery, and after that, i had my arm in a shoulder sling for like 2months, so obviously the hand just sat there for 2months without doing anything at all.
And when i could finally remove the sling, my arm was so weak, that i couldnt even lift up a cup filled with water.
Of course, this slowly improved, and i have regained my strength. But still, it will never be as good as before.
And the last thing that i want to mention, is that you can develop muscle imbalances simply just by having an incorrect lifting technique or just by not stretching enough before exercise.
You dont need to stretch for 15minutes, just make sure that your muscles are not stiff and you are ready to go.
How to fix it
The best method of fixing muscle imbalances, is to use unilateral exercises.
That means that you will focus on only one side of your body at a time.
So start using dumbbels instead of a barbell.
The way that you will do it, is that you will always start with your weaker side first, and lets say you manage to get 10 reps with your weaker side, and then you switch to your stronger side, and you will only do as many reps as you did with your weaker side, even if you could do more, dont, that would make the whole thing completely pointless.
And you can also supplement this method, by simply adding one extra set for the weaker side.
So for example, instead of doing 3 sets for each side.
You will do 4sets for the weaker side, and 3sets for the stronger side.
Combining these 2 things, will help you a lot!
But i still got 2 more great tips for correcting your muscle imbalance!
The first one is to film your exercises in the gym.
You should do this even if you dont have any muscle imbalances, as it will help to improve your technique, its crucial to see how you are actually performing your exercises.
And the last tip, is to try to really focus on mind muscle connection, especially on your weaker side, when you are doing the unilateral exercises.
Really try to visualize the muscle working, this will improve your mind muscle connection.
You should definitely not underestimate the power of visualization!
Conclusion
Please dont forget, no one is perfectly symmetrical, so dont stress about small muscle imbalances, you might notice it, but no one else will.
And if you got a significant muscle imbalance, i hope that this article gave you all the necessary tools to fix it!
Just keep in mind, that fixing a muscle imbalance will not happen overnight, it will take months, if not years, so be patient!