Just a short little post on muscle Imbalances and how these can affect both performance and wellness. If you have a muscle Imbalance whether that be either a left or right side dominant. Or even one muscle of which is considerably stronger than the opposing muscle. This is in time could create an injury within that muscle or in a different location within the body.
The body is a very clever mechanism of which is also in a very fine balance of being pushed too far. It'll correct itself so far and for a period of time until it then it is too much to handle. This can be the smallest of things, you heard the saying the straw which broke the camels back. This is exactly which could happen, it may be the smallest of things which could be the last part.
Imbalances primarily come about from being one side dominant, or by doing the same repetitive movements over and over again. It is a common theme with people whom have a repetitive task as a job. For example a plasterer who uses the same arm to do the same movements over and over. It also occurs in a gym environment. If continually using a barbell or a fixed weight machine. The dominant side may then begin to work more due to it being stronger therefore growing even larger and stronger still.
There is a fix! As obvious as it sounds just try to spread the load equally on both sides. Or in your work try to use both sides. Carrying the shopping 1basket use the weaker side for a while to balance it up. The other way to do this would be in a gym environment. Instead of relying on the fixed weighted machine. Or a single barbell. Try to use a set of dumbbells if your gym has them available. This is a great way to balance up between left and right. This in time will help significantly to improve the strength in that weaker side. At first you need to choose a weight of which the weaker side can do but which is challenging for your chosen rep scheme. Yes the stronger side will find this easy, but you need to trust the process. Trust that strengthening the weaker side for a period of time will help both with overall health and performance. This doesn't mean just do the weaker side! You need to train both.
As you can see from the image above. The rhomboid major is over developed on the clients right side. He wasn't aware of this, until beginning to talk about it. He did then mention that he struggles with the left side when doing certain movements in the gym. With this correction little bit of extra to put in to his gym routine and this will hopefully erase any underlying issues before they become a problem.
So how do you go about finding an Imbalance. Simple really. Test it out. Next time you're shopping try and carry the basket with you other arm see how that goes. If it's difficult chances are you need to do it a little bit more. In the gym get out those dumbbells and give it a go.
Let me know how you get on or if you need any help with movements to correct that movement.
Thanks for reading
Alex
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