One side bigger than the other?

[Pseudonym]

By: Ben Black

For many of us bodybuilders, developing our physiques is a constant juggling act. We are perpetually compelled to stare into a mirror and see if our bodies are in perfect symmetry. We constantly evaluate for example, if our shoulders are proportionate to the rest of the upper body, or if both our quads display the same sweep and dense muscularity, and on and on it goes.

One Side Bigger?

It is in doing this that many of us have come to realize that (God forbid) one side is bigger or stronger than the other, be it in an arm, leg, or other body parts. Some may think it is no big deal and continue training the same way for the next 2 - 3 years, but a muscle imbalance that goes unchecked is a serious injury waiting to happen.

Most people have a slight muscle imbalance to begin with when they first start bodybuilding. This is due to genetics. Since bodybuilding programs incorporate a mix of two-limb movements, such as barbell bench presses, t-bar rows etc., and unilateral movements, such as alternate dumbbell curls and lunges, very minor imbalances go away after awhile and seldom manifest into injuries or joint pain.

But what happens if the imbalance is more pronounced? You see it at the gym all the time. Somebody is bench pressing and the barbell looks like it's going to tip over because one arm is stronger than the other. As a result the weight is being lifted unevenly. As the poundage increases, so does the potential for injury. Therefore, it requires special attention to correct or at least minimize the problem.

Say What?

Let's take a closer look at the problem. Say for instance, my left arm is stronger than my right, and I decide to do a set of barbell bench presses. As soon as I dismount the bar from the rack, my right arm starts working harder than my left to balance the weight. As I lower and raise the barbell, my left arm and its synergists (muscles around it that help to move weight) contract harder than my right.

This results in:

A) Moving the barbell unevenly because my right arm is struggling to keep up

B) My right arm and its synergists not being fully worked, which causes my left arm to develop faster than my right.

Also, an imbalance usually exists in a limb (in this case the arms), and ultimately transfers to the body part that the limb is used to work. So my left pec and delts end up bigger than my right. If I keep on benching without rectifying my imbalance, I might end up tearing a muscle. One usually starts to identify such anomalies shortly after beginning a bodybuilding program.

There are two ways to identify it:

A) During your workout

B) When you pose

Say you knock out four sets of squats for 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps. Do you feel one leg doing more of the work? Are you constantly off balance and fighting to stabilize yourself? Do you feel a greater pump in one side than the other? The other way is to simply pose at a mirror. Is your right arm bigger than your left when you flex it? Look for subtle differences. Is your right quad displaying more muscularity than your left?

Be Aware

Be aware that while a strength imbalance can be corrected, a size imbalance may not. For example, some of us may find that our left bicep doesn't peak as high as our right, but both arms are just as strong. There nothing much you can do about this because it is due to genetics.

Correcting the situation in its early stages isn't too hard of a task. The key is to make sure that each limb is doing its equal share of work. Most two handed barbell or machine movements allow for one limb to work harder than the other (e.g. lat pull-downs or leg extensions). Cut these exercises out for a couple weeks or keep them to a minimum. If you like machines, look for those that isolate each limb.

The Hammer Strength leg extension machine has two levers to allow each leg to work on it's own. Incorporate dumbbell exercises in place of traditional barbell movements, such as dumbbell presses instead of barbell bench presses. Try split squats and dumbbell lunges for quads and glutes instead of squats. Below is a list of exercises for each body part that focuses on equal distribution of workload on each limb.

Chest Dumbbell Presses and Flyes

Shoulders Arnold Presses / One-Arm Cable Lateral Raises

Biceps Seated Alternating Curls / Cable Curls

Triceps Overhead Dumbbell Extensions / Dumbbell Kickbacks

Back One-Arm Dumbbell Rows

Lower Back Dumbbell Deadlifts

Quads Split Squats / Dumbbell Lunges / Single Leg Extensions

Hams Single Leg Curls

Calves Single Leg Calf Raise

Treat a muscle imbalance like a lagging body part. That means work it first. For example, if my right leg were weaker than my left, I would perform all the dumbbell lunges for my right side before I would switch over to the left. At the end of my workout, I would perform 1 - 2 additional sets of single leg extensions and curls to tax every last fiber in my right leg.

Pace Yourself

Pace yourself and stay focused on feeling the burn throughout the movement. Visualize the weaker muscle contracting and lengthening with each rep. This is crucial for improving the mind-muscle connection.

If you have a muscle imbalance, seriously attempt to correct it. You may be selling yourself short on muscular gains if you don't. Your left arm is only going to grow so big before if realizes that your other side isn't keeping up, and so it stops growing. I've known many people who corrected their imbalances and boom! ... they busted through the strength plateau they had been on for months. Bringing up a lagging body part also improves your overall symmetry. You don't want one shoulder appearing bigger than the other do you?

Finally, give top priority to correcting the imbalance over more seemingly glorious tasks, such as packing on mass with bone-crushing weights. After all, you can't get huge with a torn pec right?

[jono]

using dumbells, or doing each side seperatly is not the complete solution.

you have to make sure you are doing each side the same.. eg with db press's make sure all the angles of your arm is the same on both sides.

[Growth]

using dumbells, or doing each side seperatly is not the complete solution.

It is a pretty good start though, your weak arm will be the limiting factor, whislt you may be able to say 8 reps of DB press, your weak arm will be the limiting factor, therefor your strong arm wont get worked as hard and your weak will eventually equal your strong arm.

I was always under the impression imbalances will generally correct themselves in time, for me it took only 6 moths or so of training before the imbalance became negligible

[Pseudonym]

Do you take the moths before, during, or after your workout?

[jono]

using dumbells, or doing each side seperatly is not the complete solution.

It is a pretty good start though, your weak arm will be the limiting factor, whislt you may be able to say 8 reps of DB press, your weak arm will be the limiting factor, therefor your strong arm wont get worked as hard and your weak will eventually equal your strong arm.

I was always under the impression imbalances will generally correct themselves in time, for me it took only 6 moths or so of training before the imbalance became negligible

an eg of what im talking about you can watch someone whos doing standing db curls. if say their left arm is stronger than their right, they may do a rep with their left arm, then when it comes to the right arm.. they bring the elbow forward during the rep. of course this means the right bicep has less work to do, and even though they are working each arm seperatly, unless they pay attention to their form.. the imbalance will remain.

[Pseudonym]

This is true... I know for myself, particularly with flyes, one shoulder tends to drift higher than the other if I don't watch it.

[Brad]

just read this, so sorry for the late post - but what the hell

for the exercises you can do it on, you should do your reps till pof on your strong side then do the same number of reps on your weak side - no matter what - when you get to your pof stop and have a SHORT break then keep going till you do the same number - this worked for me when I first started (my right side was way stronger from things like tennis and squash)

[Spitterkat]

easy to correct

1. specialisation, if its a strength imbalance, do max style training so you dont gain mass disproportionately

2. (please dont take this the wrong way) stop strokin your egos and reduce the weight so that its being lifted evenly? then when you increase, you left arm will be as strong as your right until they catch up.