Muslce Imbalances & Gymnastics

[OliveStrip]

Hi all,

I'm wondering exactly how one approaches fixing muscle imbalances with gymnastics training. It seems very difficult to do seeing as how 1 armed and 1 legged exercises are so difficult to perform because of the tremendous amount of resistance you are dealing with (bodyweight). So how do you go about developing balance in the muscles? Would you use ring training? Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Thanks a lot.

[Neal Winkler]

Are you talking about postural imbalances or left and right strength imbalances?

Just give specific examples.

[OliveStrip]

I'm talking about one side being stronger than the other, whether it be arms or legs.

[Neal Winkler]

Decrease the volume on the stronger side to a maintenance level (1 workout per week or 1/3 the sets per workout), and proceed with the weaker side normally using appropriate variations.

[OliveStrip]

How do you decrease the volume of a stronger side when you are using two handed exercises? I am not strong enough to do 1 armed pushups or 1 armed chins.

[Neal Winkler]

Oh I see. I thought in your original post you were saying that you were doing 1 armed exercises. My bad.

If you do variations that allow you to properly perform the exercise, then they should catch up because your dominant arm isn't getting as much stimulus. Just give it time.

If you are unable to do even the first variation, then I guess you may need to use weights with the protocol that I mentioned above.

That's all I can think of.

[Blairbob]

Unless you start switching off both sides of your body to start doing menial tasks, you're always gonna be a bit stronger or more dextrous on one side unless you are truly ambidextrous.

[Neal Winkler]

Yeah, but I took his post to mean that the strength imbalances are significant.

[Edward Smith]

Often times strength between hands or feet is not due to actual structural strength but is the effect of increased coordination in the dominant hand/foot.