The key to healthy posture, symmetrical muscle development, and a lower risk of injury is avoiding muscle imbalances when you train. As you know, muscles have opposing muscles that perform the opposite function. For example, biceps contract your upper arm while triceps, in the back of your arm, extend it. An analogous group of muscles in your lower body are the quadriceps in the front of the thigh and the hamstrings in the back. These muscles have opposing actions.
Muscle imbalances develop when one muscle group is stronger than its opposing one. When a strength imbalance exists, the stronger muscle tightens up and the opposing muscle lengthens and weakens. Muscle imbalances impact the movement of a joint in a way that can lead to injury. Plus, your body is designed to work in a balanced manner with all moving parts, including bones, muscles, and tendons, possessing balanced strength and a good range-of-motion. When one muscle is stronger than its opposing one, it can affect your movements, your performance when you strength train, and your posture.
Since muscle imbalance can cause problems, the best approach is to prevent muscle imbalances from developing in the first place. Imbalances can develop due to the way you strength train, but also daily habits such as the way you sit and stand can have an impact too. What are some ways to prevent muscle imbalances from occurring?
Focus More on Compound Exercises
Compound exercises, ones that involve movement of more than one joint and muscle group at a time, train your muscles to work in a balanced manner. In contrast, isolation exercises that focus on one muscle group do not. It’s not uncommon for people to work the muscles in the front of the body more than those in the back when they concentrate too much on isolation exercises. For example, everyone’s favorite upper body exercise is biceps curls. So, we tend to work out “our guns” more than the opposing muscles the triceps. In contrast, when you do compound exercises, you train your muscles in a way that forces them to work together.
Vary the Exercises You Do
How often do you change your routine? It’s easy to get into a training rut. You get comfortable with a group of exercises and keep doing them over and over. Repetitive movements over time, especially if you’re not working the opposing muscle group as much, can lead to muscle imbalances. As the American Council on Exercise points out, muscles that are overworked with repetitive movements can assume a state of partial contraction that can alter the position of the joint. Make sure you’re changing the angles with which you work a muscle and changing exercises so you aren’t working a muscle from the same angle all the time.
Stop Sitting So Much
Surprisingly, sitting too much and sitting incorrectly can contribute to muscle imbalances. Sitting slumped over in a chair causes the muscles in your shoulders and chest to shorten and the muscles in the back to lengthen and weaken. Prolonged sitting also tightens the hip flexors and lengthens and weakens the opposing muscles, the hamstrings and glutes. This strength imbalance forces you to rely more on the muscles in the front of your lower body, quads, and hip flexors, for stabilization when you do exercises like squats and lunges. You’re forcing one set of muscles to carry more weight because the opposing group of muscles is weak and lazy. It’s easy to see how this can lead to injury.
The key to correcting those tight hip flexors and weak glutes and hamstrings is to stretch the hip flexors several times per day and focus more on exercises that strengthen the glutes and hamstrings, the opposing muscles. Exercises that target these muscles include Romanian deadlifts, single-leg deadlifts, kettlebell swings, and hip thrusts. You need to get the weaker muscle group up to speed. Are squats enough? Squats and their variations, including the back squat, emphasize the quads more than the hamstrings and glutes. Therefore, don’t depend on them to keep the glutes and hamstrings strong. Foam rolling can also be helpful for relaxing tight hip flexors.
Of course, you should also focus on sitting less. Even if you have a desk job, take walking breaks at regular intervals the day and do hip flexor stretches.
Balance Your Training By Adding More Pulling Exercises
How much of your routine consists of pushing exercises and how many exercises involve pulling? It matters. Most people do more pushing exercises, such as bench press, than they do pulling exercises, such as rows. When the ratio is too skewed towards pushing, muscle imbalances can develop. In fact, a lot of people already have muscle imbalances and don’t even know it. You should be doing at least as many pulling exercises as you do movements that involve pushing. That’s because most of us push more in our daily lives than pull. So, the “push” muscles are already stronger.
For the upper body, rows of all types are the best for strengthening the muscles that pull and this includes barbell rows, cable rows, and dumbbell rows. Rear dumbbell flys also work the muscles that pull. Pull-ups are one of the best pulling exercises for the upper body. For the lower body, deadlifts are your best bet.
When One Side is Stronger Than the Other
Another type of muscle imbalance is asymmetrical strength. In other words, one side is stronger than the other. If you can do 12 repetitions on one side and only 8 on the other, you have a strength imbalance. The way to correct this is to work one side at a time and train the weaker side first. By focusing more on the weak side, you can, over time, correct the imbalance.
The Bottom Line
Now, that you know some of the most common causes of muscle imbalances, adjust your training so you can avoid them. Make sure you’re doing at least as many pulling exercises as you are pushing movements. Focus at least 75% of your training on compound exercises as opposed to isolation movements and don’t get into a rut. Change the exercises you do regularly and do different variations of your current exercises. Watch what you’re doing when you aren’t training too. Focus on sitting less and sitting correctly. Also, watch your posture. Slumped posture can also create muscle imbalances that lead to injury.
References:
· American Council on Exercise. “Muscle Imbalance | 6 Things to Know About Muscle Imbalances”
· Wentworth Institute of Technology. “Muscle Imbalance”
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