Muscle Balancing Act

We all know the balancing act whereby we have one side of our bodies stronger than the other, this is most evident in the arms due to being right handed or left handed. This is most common among newbies to the gym who have never trained before.

We all know that when we lift the bench press for example there is one side that we find easier to lift than another; it may be that your right side feels it can keep going while the left starts to flounder so how do you combat this imbalance?

My personal preference to combat this issue is by lifting with dumbbells. By taking the same exercises but using dumbbells you are letting each side of the body work independent of the other, this means that one side cannot support the other by taking the brunt of the weight.

Initially you may find the weaker side gives up before your stronger side so you have to stop earlier than you would expect but over time (a short time) the weaker side will improve and catch up with your stronger side. By doing this you will also find when you go back to barbell exercises you will actually be able to lift more!

If you find that you have one side of your body weaker than the other whether its your arms, shoulders or legs why not start isolating the muscles so they work independent and can catch up with the stronger side over time.