The ways we move, our dominant sides, and the injuries we suffer throughout life all contribute to muscle imbalances. These pesky imbalances can not only look asymmetrical to the eye, they can also lead to mobility issues, movement inconsistencies, and further injuries down the line.
Affinity Fitness offers up their five tips for addressing and fixing muscle imbalances.
1. Use Unilateral Exercises This is key – we’ve talked about unilateral vs bilateral exercises before, and a mix of both is appropriate for everyone, regardless of muscle imbalance.
2. Start with the Weaker Side
3. Let the Weaker Side Set your Workout Volume
4. Do additional work on the weaker/smaller side #’s 2 through 4 here are all valid ideas for the short term, but grouped together here because none of them present a valid long-term solution. That long term answer would be…
5. Fix the underlying problem (mobility or flexibility) Bingo! Most muscle imbalances are a result of a larger issue. They rarely just happen out of the blue. Addressing that underlying problem and fixing it is perhaps the most important suggestion on this list (We’ll say unilateral exercise is a close second for now).
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