How to deal with asymmetry in muscle mass?

Hi guys,

Today I noticed that my right arm/chest/trap areas are a little bigger than my left. It's not a ton, but it's noticeable to me.

Is the best way to handle this to simply emphasize the weaker/smaller side until the imbalance is negligible or is there something to do in addition to regular training?

Advice?

Thanks.

Emphasizing usually ends up working. Generally going back to an easier progression and building back up evens things out. You could also try doing some some assistance exercises to accelerate the hypertrophy on the smaller side.

Unilateral work with an emphasis on extra volume for the lagging side should even things out a bit.  The only problem with this is that you have to hold back on training your stronger side, and some people don't feel the trade off is worth it.

As Daniel said, finding your appropriate working level and training with good form should even the problem out somewhat.  I don't feel that it's anything to worry about, having a dominant arm/leg is a perfectly natural thing.

It's natural but not desirable. 

Thanks for the advice, guys! Sounds like slightly emphasizing my weaker side is the most subtle way of dealing with this. 

Maintain the same weight /reps/schema until you will reach balance. then move on.

alex87 said:

Maintain the same weight /reps/schema until you will reach balance. then move on.

I prefer this approach myself, but have only used it for strength/ co ordination imbalance, not specifically hypertrophy

Jon Douglas said:

I prefer this approach myself, but have only used it for strength/ co ordination imbalance, not specifically hypertrophy

I understand your point Jon , by the way i'll give to you some considerations..

During my last 4 years teaching in a gym where people doing pure hypertrophy i can say that probably at least 50% of them have muscles imbalance. The most important cause is due to deficit in muscles fibers composition, as the imbalance is bigger as your deficit is fiber 2-type connected, both 2A and 2B, but in the most of cases 2B, the fast fibers not the intermediate fibers. There is the evidence that those people have a little difference of strength when they try to lift high weight in different arms or asymmetric movement while lifting in multi-joints movements. This lack of balance is due to different numbers of 2B fibers that actually express more strength then the other. what they can do is move into hypetrophy to have some balance, changing a type of fiber into another (with some limitation) or making bigger what is little.

But how does a people with imbalance work? to failure? to muscle burn? with how many reps?

what is important is the WEIGHT , much much much in respect to failure.

This follows the law of Hanemman who said that a muscle actives its fiber on the principle of dimension. If you train with medium weight you activate type 1, type 2A and nothing more . this because the edge of activation of these fibers is intensity - dependent (in BBing intensity is the weight you move), then you will reach failure with these fibers.

But the problem is that the more visible imbalance is due to bigger fibers, the 2B type. To activate them you need to overcome an edge of activation higher then the other fibers, higher edge, higher stimulation, higher intensity needed. Higher intensity means high weight for you!

i stayed for a long period thinking that failure, reps, rest, schema were the important factors, i was right? no, the weight is far more important compared tho the other parameters. Since a weight is activating certain muscles fibers for a particular numbers of reps you will obtain hypertrophy.

alex87 said:

I understand your point Jon , by the way i'll give to you some considerations..

During my last 4 years teaching in a gym where people doing pure hypertrophy i can say that probably at least 50% of them have muscles imbalance. The most important cause is due to deficit in muscles fibers composition, as the imbalance is bigger as your deficit is fiber 2-type connected, both 2A and 2B, but in the most of cases 2B, the fast fibers not the intermediate fibers. There is the evidence that those people have a little difference of strength when they try to lift high weight in different arms or asymmetric movement while lifting in multi-joints movements. This lack of balance is due to different numbers of 2B fibers that actually express more strength then the other. what they can do is move into hypetrophy to have some balance, changing a type of fiber into another (with some limitation) or making bigger what is little.

But how does a people with imbalance work? to failure? to muscle burn? with how many reps?

what is important is the WEIGHT , much much much in respect to failure.

This follows the law of Hanemman who said that a muscle actives its fiber on the principle of dimension. If you train with medium weight you activate type 1, type 2A and nothing more . this because the edge of activation of these fibers is intensity - dependent (in BBing intensity is the weight you move), then you will reach failure with these fibers.

But the problem is that the more visible imbalance is due to bigger fibers, the 2B type. To activate them you need to overcome an edge of activation higher then the other fibers, higher edge, higher stimulation, higher intensity needed. Higher intensity means high weight for you!

i stayed for a long period thinking that failure, reps, rest, schema were the important factors, i was right? no, the weight is far more important compared tho the other parameters. Since a weight is activating certain muscles fibers for a particular numbers of reps you will obtain hypertrophy.

I meant my comment as I agree with you but don't want to make a strong recommendation because of my inexperience, but that answer is great food for thought. Thanks for taking the time

What is the cause of your imbalance?

I have one shoulder that has a forward roll and the other does not (from the way I sit when playing video games)

It's making my rolled shoulder take the brunt of nearly all exercises so one delt is growing and thus my chest, etc on that side is lagging

Im working on my posture and sugest you find the cause of the imbalance and tackle it at the root!!