Often Overlooked

[SisterSteel]

Something I wanted to talk about is imbalances and the fact that they cause injuries. I see some youngsters getting hurt because they don't work opposing muscle groups. If you work your lower back, you need to work your abs. If you work your quads, you need to work you hams. Seems easy enough... doesn't it? But here's the thing many people are getting injured because they don't address this.

So keep that in mind when you're training.

[mj_0360]

I just tore muscle fiber in my stomach doing deads. I used to never work my abs but that will change when I recover!

[red crayon]

A muscle imbalance is a very serious thing. Thats why they have a term for some of them. The most common one is "Chicken Man". Thats a guy that works his upper body and all the muscles he can see in the bath room mirror look good but the others dont get much work ie. legs and back.
You can throw your shoulders out of whack on military presses if your triceps over power them. To much arm work and not enough shoulder work. So on and so on.

[baby1]

So true!!! So many people work their abs and never bother with their backs. Also, many people seem to be quad dominant and that creates big problems. They need to work those hamstrings to. Same goes with stretching. If they have tight hammys, they need to stretch them but also need to stretch the quads as well.

[Sinister613]

I attribute my rotator injury to overdeveloped upper chest and very underdeveloped upper back/rhomboids. Working hard to fix that now.

[MuscleAddiction]

A muscle imbalance is a very serious thing. Thats why they have a term for some of them. The most common one is "Chicken Man". Thats a guy that works his upper body and all the muscles he can see in the bath room mirror look good but the others dont get much work ie. legs and back. You can throw your shoulders out of whack on military presses if your triceps over power them. To much arm work and not enough shoulder work. So on and so on.

Which is why I kind of laugh at the new division they have in bodybuilding competitions now...Physique...that class is for the guys who like to only train upper body as they wear board shorts to cover up their chicken legs...if you don't have a strong foundation, the rest won't be as strong either.

[red crayon]

Even in some of the supplement adds you see a lot of guys with a good upper body and long sweat pants on. lol it cracks me up. At the gym I go to there are usually 2 days I can count on no one being in my way, Leg day and Back Day. lol.

[TheRage93]

I 100% agree. I always see newbies bench pressing and complain about shoulder pain.
When I ask what there back routine looks like, or there modalities, they reply little to none. Keeping balance is very crucial as well as keeping modalities up if you want to go to unchartered territory.

[rikkitikkitavi]

So by this, are you talking about working the opposing muscles the same day? Or just working them evenly on another day? I had some guy try telling me you had to work a muscle and its compliment right after each other to get them evenly, but I couldn't see how it would matter. Of course he was doing full body workouts everyday, but I don't like to do things on the same day like back and chest.

[TheRage93]

So by this, are you talking about working the opposing muscles the same day? Or just working them evenly on another day? I had some guy try telling me you had to work a muscle and its compliment right after each other to get them evenly, but I couldn't see how it would matter. Of course he was doing full body workouts everyday, but I don't like to do things on the same day like back and chest.
I am a PL. after benching I grab a lacrosse ball and roll the pecs out and I also do internal rotation flexibility to put the joint back in alignment. After this I hit either Lats or upper back. I guess it's all on preference.

[kazman68]

Classic is guys who train chest,chest,chest but skip back/rear delts, I know a guy like that, I have tried to tell him not only does it look bad it causes imbalances, Dr already diagnosed him with one, and wonders why he has shoulder problems. They may not look bad standing by themselves or next to an untrained guy, but put him next to someone who is developed everywhere, and he fades away to nothing.

[Vicious 13]

I got a buddy who only works biceps... Huge arm but that's about it

[kazman68]

I got a buddy who only works biceps... Huge arm but that's about it

1/3 a huge arm triceps are about 2/3 of arms...you want huge arms work tri's as well...

[SisterSteel]

1/3 a huge arm triceps are about 2/3 of arms...you want huge arms work tri's as well...

Yup. Thick muscled triceps make big arms.