i need help evening out left and right side muscles - Exercise & Fitness Message Board

jbakerutexas · 01-12-2001, 06:23 AM

Ive been working out a good amount recently and supplementing and I'm finally noticing some results...
Problem is...my right side is a good bit stronger than my left side and when I work out I feel like I'm only making my right side stronger and my left side isnt getting a good work out!!! I can see my right side (chest, arms, back) getting bigger than my left.
What should I do to even out? More free weights? More machines? Work only my left side for a while???

Any help appreciated.

gainfreak · 01-12-2001, 09:11 AM

Hey J whatsup??

I have the same problem but only its my left side!! What I did to try and correct this is instead of using the barbell for exercises, I switched to using dumbells because they make each side work independantly. For chest I do dumbell bench presses/dumbell incline bench presses and seated incline cable flyes. For back I do single dumbell bent over rows/single cable machine rows(on the high/low cable machine or on a cybex machine) and I do lat pulldowns(this is the only exercise that uses both sides together) And for shoulders/arms I use all dumbell exercises. Such as dumbell press/side laterals for shoulders INcline dumbell curls for biceps and single cable pushdowns for triceps. You dint have to worry about legs unless you have the same problem with one side dominating. I will warn you though -in some rare cases, you can be neurologicaly defficiant on one side of the body causing you to be uncemetrical. This is very rare but you might want to ask your Doctor(if you think that this is the case-- I doubt it though!) I hope this helps

jbakerutexas · 01-12-2001, 10:39 AM

Great. Thanks for all the advice/excercises to try.

I think the problem was just that my right side was naturally a little stronger to start out with (baseball throwing arm, football passing arm, etc) and Ive been using almost exlusively barbells instead of dumbells. Maybe the sides working independantly will even it out a bit.

Thanks again

01-12-2001, 01:32 PM

I must respectfully disagree with earlier advice to use dumbbells - that could make your problem worse by encouraging the muscle groups to work independently. I suspect that will make the stronger side stronger and keep the weaker side, weaker. Everyone when they first start out are stronger on one side than another. I do not know how long you've been working out but be patient; use the barbells (stay away from machines as much as possible. Free weights require coordination in itself a muscle builder) which will force your weaker side to grow stronger. Good luck...
JOHN

gainfreak · 01-12-2001, 03:09 PM

I must respectfully disagree with John because I am talking from experiance not a textbook example. My left side was noticably bigger than my right side where as you physically could see it. Prior to working out, Both sides were the same. I used all barbell exercises at that time. After doing some searching about this problem, it was recommended to me by another bodybuilder to switch over to the dumbells. Let me ask you a question, How can a your weaker side get stronger if your stonger side is assisting it in an exercise? also I do agree with John about staying away from the machines(other than the lat exercises) I feel that it is best to use free weights as much as possible.