Resistance Training: Getting Lagging Body Parts to Respond

Genetics plays a role in how quickly you develop muscle, how much you can develop and which muscles are easiest to develop. For example, you may discover it’s easy to get definition in your thighs but challenging to get your biceps or triceps firm and defined. Why do some body parts lag behind? Of course, genetics has something to do with it, but the way you’re training may also be a factor. Are you guilty of working muscles you enjoy harder and lighten up on muscles you don’t? Another common scenario is to avoid exercises that are difficult. Guess what that leads to? Lagging body parts and muscle imbalances, which is not what you want.

Do you have a body part or muscle group you just can’t get to grow? Why are some body parts, like calves or biceps, so hard to develop for some people? Find out why and what you can do to get those slow-to-develop parts to grow.

Upper Body Lagging Body Parts

For women, muscles in the upper body are often the laggards. Women start out with a lower proportion of lean body mass in the upper body relative to the lower body and have to train hard to get arm and shoulder definition. Men have an easier time getting upper body definition for several reasons. Hormones are a factor, but men also have more fast-twitch muscle fibers in their upper body relative to women and about 52% more upper body strength, so there are discrepancies in how much women can lift relative to men. Women also carry more body fat on their arms relative to men.

Biceps, triceps, and shoulders aren’t the only muscles that are hard to grow. Calves are a sticking point for some people. You’ve probably seen people who look firm and toned in their upper body and thighs but still have skinny, underdeveloped calves. A lot of it has to do with genetics and anatomy. The longer your calf muscle is, in general, the more potential you have for development and the more responsive your calves will be to training.

You can’t pick the anatomy you were born with or your genetics, but you can still bring those lagging muscles up to speed with focused work and patience. First, make sure the lack of definition in a particular area isn’t due to too much body fat. With women prior to menopause, it’s common to carry body fat in the hips and thighs, but fat redistributes to some degree after menopause with greater fat storage in the upper body. Body fat covering a well-developed muscle can keep it from looking as firm and toned.

Once you’ve identified lagging body parts, make sure you’re working those muscles regularly, not neglecting them because they’re not your favorites to work, and that you’re using good form. If that’s the case, increase the training volume for that particular body part. Add an extra set or two for that muscle group and work the muscles from different angles. For example, if your biceps are lagging, rotate between hammer curls, concentration curls, preacher curls, unilateral curls, and kneeling single arm curls, to name a few. There are lots of variations on biceps curls that you’re probably not doing. Your muscles will quickly adapt to doing garden-variety biceps curls over and over. If you normally use dumbbells, use resistance bands or barbells for variety.

When training lagging body parts, make sure you’re working that body part to failure on some of your sets. Failure means you’re unable to do another rep using good form. Periodize training for that body part, rotating between low reps, high resistance, and high reps, lower resistance.

Lagging Body Parts Advanced Training Techniques

If you do the above and you’re still not seeing a change after 4 to 6 weeks, introduce more advanced training techniques into your routine. Eccentric training or negatives, where you slow the movement during the lengthening phase of the exercise causes the most muscle damage, which can, in turn, stimulate growth. For example, when your focus is shoulder growth, emphasize the lowering phase of overhead presses by slowing the movement so it takes 4 to 6 seconds to complete. A good time ratio for eccentric training is 2 seconds for the concentric and 4 to 6 seconds for the eccentric. Expect to feel sore and give the muscle group at least three days of rest after an eccentric workout. A number of studies show eccentric training leads to greater hypertrophy than standard training.

Another way to increase the stress you place on lagging body parts is by doing drop sets. Once you’ve completed all the reps you can do with good form using a given weight, drop the weight back by 20% and continue working until you can’t complete another rep. If you’re still up to it, drop the weight one more time and work to complete fatigue. When you do this, you’re increasing the time the muscle spends under tension. One study also showed drop sets caused a post-exercise surge in growth hormone.

Cluster sets are another advanced technique that will force your muscles to work in a different way and increase the amount of weight you can lift. With cluster sets, you break a set into “clusters” with a short rest period between each cluster. For example, rather than do 8 biceps curls and then resting, do two curls, rest 20 seconds, do two more and rest, until you’ve completed the set. Because you’re introducing short rest periods into the equation, you can lift more than you would normally be able to lift for 8 reps. Another variation is to do a certain number of reps and stop one rep short of failure. Rest 20 seconds and start up again.

Supersets are another more advanced training technique that can trigger stubborn body parts to grow. To do a superset, do two exercises that work the same muscle group, back to back, without resting in between. Antagonistic supersets are two exercises in a row that work opposing muscle groups.

Always train your lagging body parts first, while you’re still “fresh.” You’re less likely to push yourself hard if you wait until the middle or end of your routine. Attack that stubborn body part first thing and get it done.

Bottom Line

Finally, don’t forget that patience and persistence pays off. Some muscle groups are slower to grow based on genetics, but you can overcome this disadvantage by increasing the volume and intensity of your training and by using more advanced training techniques like eccentrics and drop sets. Don’t give up on that lagging body part, but realize to get it to grow you’ll have to step outside your comfort zone, work harder and try more advanced techniques.

 

References:

IDEA Health and Fitness Association. “Eccentric Exercise”

Acta Physiol Scand 140: 31-39, 1990.

Eur J Appl Physiol 89: 578-586, 2003.

J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2003 Jun;43(2):243-9.

 

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