Increasing strength in weaker arm?

[ShyWolf]

Cathe or educated crowd:

I have found that when I work my left arm it is so much more weaker than my right arm which is my dominant one.

How can I increase the strength on my weaker arm so I can lift the same weight on both arms without feeling that my left arm is failing?

It's frustrating to be able to work my right arm with proper form but when I use the same weight on my left arm I feel like such a wimp. x(

 

[RhiannonW]

I have the same problem. There are a few posts about this issue in the forums, but I don't know exactly what they're called. You could probably search on 'uneven strength' or 'weaker side' and pull up something.

The advice I got was work the weaker side first; do as much as you can with proper form; then work the dominant side only as much - no more - than the weaker side.
Another thing you can do is work only the weaker side additional times per week. I just added 2 additional times (making 3 total) per week doing 3 sets each add'l time. It only took 10 minutes each time so it was easy to fit in.

Good luck.

 

[kathryn]

As Rhiannon said, do the weaker side first, as many reps as you can, then do the strong side, doing the same amount of reps. You can also do negative reps on the weaker side by spotting yourself while doing concentration curls. When you reach failure on the positive movement (the curl), use your opposite hand to help the weight up, then control the negative. Do this for 2 reps beyond failure.

Also, whenever Cathe and the crew use a barbell, use dumbells. They will force your weak side to work, rather than allow it to rely on the strong side for help.

It may take a while, but if you do this consistently, your left side should catch up with your right side.