Three Ways to Fight Muscle Imbalance
Your body has a system in place for movement that includes muscles working in opposite directions of each other. Consider: pectorals and triceps push while rhomboids and biceps pull. Muscle imbalance is when a muscle or set of muscles become stronger than their opposing muscles.
Why Muscle Imbalance is Bad
- Your joints depend on muscles to hold them in place and to move them correctly. An imbalance in strength can cause bones to move poorly in the joint path, causing pain and wear.
- Tightness in one muscle set and weakness in another can lead to poor posture, another cause of pain in our back, hips, and knees.
- We risk injury when major muscle groups are stronger than their counterparts. We might perform an activity that could strain or tear muscles, tendons, ligaments, or other important tissue.
What Causes Muscle Imbalance
Your workout: If you do the same kind of exercise and never change it up, you could be strengthening one area while ignoring another. For example, running is a sagittal plane, or forward/back, movement, working the front and back of your body. If you ignore the inner and outer thighs, you will create muscle imbalance in your legs which can lead to hip and knee problems.
Your preferences: While it is normal to dislike working out a set of muscles (I hate quad exercises, myself), avoiding a muscle set can create an imbalance. Or perhaps you work out your quads but you don’t work them out as much as your hamstrings because, well, it’s hard! This sets you up for issues.
Your lifestyle: Sitting a lot? Writing on a computer all day? These positions are major muscle imbalance culprits! Sitting tightens hip flexors and stretches glutes, leading to back pain and glute amnesia. Long hours typing on a computer or holding your phone tightens chest muscles and weakens back muscles, leading to poor posture.
Repetitive motion: A strong muscle tightens, so a muscle that is worked in the same way for hours at a time becomes excessively tight. This can happen in your job or from exercise.
How to Resolve Muscle Imbalance
Cross-train! Vary your workouts. Try new formats. Think about the direction you are typically working out and do something that works in a different direction. If you walk a lot, do strength exercises that focus on the inner and outer thighs, like performing side steps or side presses with a band. Maybe you have a practice of doing push-ups every morning; be sure to get in some back strengthening, too.
Talk to an expert! If you are avoiding certain muscles because strength moves you know are uncomfortable or worse, painful, perhaps you need to see a trainer and get ideas for other ways to work out that muscle set. For instance, triceps extensions can compromise the shoulder joint because they are performed overhead. You can also work out the triceps with straight arms pressing back while in a mild squat position — a more natural position for the shoulder joint. You could also be using the wrong weight size or performing the move incorrectly. Don’t give up: get advice.
Get Moving! Muscle imbalance from sitting, typing, driving, and texting can be combatted with exercise and stretching. You need to strengthen muscles that get weak and over-stretched while stretching muscles that seize up. I’ve said ‘stretching” twice but most people ignore the stretch part of the workout. Don’t! Muscle fibers need to be lengthened so that they work more effectively. (A stretch is most effective when held for over 20 seconds and it should not be painful.)
Where Pilates Fits In
Pilates instinctively offers muscle balance because the design of most moves is to stretch one area while strengthening another, typically opposite muscle sets. Also, traditional mat Pilates follows a similar workout each time, giving you an opportunity to strengthen what is weak each time you practice. Lastly, modifications are easy to apply for any place you need a little extra care until you build your strength up.
Linda Magid has taught group fitness classes for over 7 years. She is certified with AFAA and AEA, with a specific certification in Pilates from SCW. You can find her Pilates studio at www.pilatesforrealbodies.com. Contact her at @LindaMagidFitness on Facebook and Instagram.
