[quote]bozbot wrote:
Majin wrote:
If you want a certain muscle to contract you may need to reduce the weight and work on form and forcefully contracting the desired muscle. Pre-exhaust and partials can also greatly help, as mentioned above.
I also believe that form is the MOST important thing that you need to have right before you can properly do an exercise and feel it in the propoer muscle group. Body awareness is key to making big gain’s, getting past plateaus and reducing the chance of injury.
I was also very arms dominant. believe it or not but stretching the certain muscle groups to feel where and how they respond to stimulus is how i learned to really focus on the muscle. I used to attempt lat pull downs/pull ups/bench/flys like crazy with no advancement then recently I found out that I have a protracted shoulder girdle. my chest was crazy tight, as well as my lats. been stretching everyday and I can already notice my posture getting better and I am able to lift way more on said exercises after only a few weeks. I can also “feel” the muscle actually doing the excercise, where as before I was really just going through the motions.
this was all learned after 6 years of training[/quote]
The good news is you can fix it. The bad news is recruitment and contraction patterns are hard to relearn. Less weight, perfect form and “mind-muscle” connection. If you are diligent you will be surprised how quickly you can change this.
I am much less arm dominant after a lot of work and it has helped my psyique tremendously.