- 10/22/08: Newsletter
- Strengthening Your Legs
- Working Out on Empty Stomachs
- Making Cardio Less Painful
- Avoid Crashing
- Coping With Sweets
- Increasing Metabolism
- Organize Your Training
- Eating Habits
- Visceral Belly Fat
- The Best Running Shoe
- Strength or Aerobic Capacity?
- Toning Legs with Cardio
- My Doctor's Scale is Off
- More Reps and their Effects
- 04/24/08: Newsletter
- 1-08-08: Newsletter
- 11-08-07: Newsletter
- 10-03-07: Newsletter
- 8-29-07: Newsletter
- 6-20-07: Weight Loss
- 6-13-07: Back Injury
- 5-08-07: Friendly Pressure
- 4-27-07: Running Routines
- 4-20-07: Cycling Cardio
- 4-10-07: Back Injury
- 4-03-07: Lunges Quads Butt
- 3-27-07: Running Off Fat
- 3-27-07: Runners Diet
- 3-23-07: Eating Late
- 3-13-07: Abs for the Obese
- 3-07-07: Supplements
- 2-21-07: Carbs Weight Gain
- 2-14-07: Accurate Bodyweight
- 2-07-07: Weight Fluctuations
- 1-30-07: Best Oatmeal
- 1-21-07: Winter Cardio
- 1-14-07: Training Children
- 1-10-07: Sick Bay
- 1-03-07: Shin Splints
- 2006: Archives
- 2005: Archives
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01-08-08//Muscle Imbalance
How do I correct muscle imbalance?
Chris:
I have been lifting about a year and have made great gains. However I just can’t seem to get bigger hamstrings. My quads are fine. They are big and strong. In fact probably better that average but my hamstring are a different story. They are weak and much smaller than my quads. They’re just not proportionate to the front of my legs. I have tried everything but they just don’t seem to respond. Do you have any suggestions that will help me correct this problem?
Ted
Ted:
You have what I like to call a muscle imbalance. There are four major things I believe you must do when trying to correct muscle imbalance. Try adding some of these tricks to you’re training program and I’ll bet you’ll have more success.
Prioritize problem areas. If you already have good arms and you work them at the beginning of the week when you are fresh and full of energy and you save your weak spindly legs for Friday when you can’t wait to get home and relax, guess what? You’ll continue to have weak spindly legs.
It makes much more sense to work you’re legs on Monday when you can focus better and get a good workout. Who knows? Maybe they’ll actually grow. The same principal applies to training splits. If you’re working more than one muscle group a day start with the muscle that needs the most help. Save the strong muscles for last. You’ll get much better results.
Don’t overwork their strengths. We’ve all seen the guy in the gym doing twelve sets of bench presses for his chest and 2 sets of cable rows for his back, big mistake.
Opposing body parts such as chest and back should be worked evenly. Whatever you do to the front you should do to the back. If you’re trying to correct an imbalance you may even want to reduce the amount of sets for the stronger body part until the weak muscles begin to catch up.
Take you’re time adding weight. Getting stronger takes time. You can’t expect to fix the problem in a month. Increasing the weight too soon will only cause injury or a false sense of strength gain. Just because you’re lifting the weight doesn’t mean you’re using the right muscles. Take it slow and be sure you can feel the muscle you’re trying to work. When you can do 2-3 extra reps add 5-10 pounds. Eventually you will make progress.
Use proper form. Some muscles are very difficult to isolate. You may think you’re working them but you’re actually putting the pressure on the wrong area. A good example of this is abdominals. I can’t tell you how many people tell me that they can do a hundred crunches until I show them how to do the exercise correctly. All the sudden they have trouble doing twenty.
Remember correcting muscle imbalance takes time. Be patient and apply the above techniques and you will be well on your way to correcting your problem.