What are some ways to tell which muscles are weaker than others and
which muscles have imbalances compared with others?
Thanks
That is very subjective. One thing is don’t look at muscles, look at actions. When you do that, you can easily balance out the amount of work you do in that plane. Benching is a horizontal push. To balance that out, do as many sets in a horizontal pull.
There is an article here about structural balance by Poliquin. You can’t do much better by using his parameters to test yourself. Balance can also be from limb to limb. Just don’t get hypnotized by training what you can see in the mirror only.
One way is to assess your posture in a relaxed standing position. Get a (preferably experienced) partner to assist.
Look for things like symmetry, internal vs external rotation, joint position, etc.
This might be a good starting point, but would not be definitive.
Just looking at your standing posture is a good way to notice some muscle imbalances. A few other good things to do:
Overhead squat: Feet shoulder width and parallel
Watch the knees, If they go out or in you have a muscle imbalance
Watch the feet, if they want to turn out or flatten when you squat you have a muscle imbalance
Watch your arms, see if they fall forward when you squat
If the Torso is not parallel with the lower leg when you squat down you have a muscle imbalance
This is just one test but I have found that you can find most muscle imbalances with this test. There is also a pushing and pulling assessment that I do but it generally finds the same kinds of imbalances.
Most people in our society generally have tight chest (from sitting at a computer and driving) and a week upper back causing there shoulders to rotate forward. Also the hams and calves seam to be tight in most people probably from sitting so often and not properly stretching the hams and calves. Also most people tend to have one trap that raises more than the other from carrying there bags on that side (see this a lot in a college town or with woman that carry there purses on one side)
How would I go about correcting them if, for instance, my arms fall forward on an overhead squat or something else you mentioned? I have actually had this done before and then had my weaknesses corrected, but never understood it at the time.
How about left/right strenth imbalances?
I’ve noticed when working with dumbells that my right arm can do more reps than my left arm at a given weight.
What’s the best way to correct this? Working my left side only doesn’t seem right, since I’d like my right arm to frow bigger & stronger too.
[quote]Ballin4Christ32 wrote:
How would I go about correcting them if, for instance, my arms fall forward on an overhead squat or something else you mentioned? I have actually had this done before and then had my weaknesses corrected, but never understood it at the time. [/quote]
The overhead squat is tricky. If your arms go forward, try it then with 1/2 board under the heels. If this corrects it, the calves are tight. It is the only joint that changed. The functional movement screen is really interesting. Gray Cook.
I’ve found that stretching my tibialis muscles also increased the depth of my front, back, and overhead squat.