Chances are those imbalances are affecting your performance…
Chances are it isn’t for the better either.
In today’s post we will discuss what kinds of imbalances you might have and what you can do to correct them in order to improve your performance in training and competition.
In my experience I have found 3 main types of muscular imbalances. These imbalances can affect posture, performance, and the risk of injury.
This is the most commonly discussed imbalance. Basically, this type of imbalance is where one muscle is significantly stronger than its antagonist which causes the body to “pull” in the direction of the stronger muscle.
A classic example of this are the individuals who train the “beach muscles” (chest, shoulders, arms, and abs) with little regard to their antagonists (lats, traps, and lower back). This causes the body to pull forward and increases the risk of injuring yourself.
How does this type of imbalance increase the risk of injury?
The simplest answer the that the stronger muscle overpowers the weaker one and causes it rip. Your protagonist and antagonist muscles work in tandem whenever you perform a movement, such as a front kick. As your thigh contracts, your hamstring relaxes. If your thigh is disproportionately stronger than the hamstring however and you throw a powerful kick, the hamstring might not be strong enough to resist the pulling force created by the thigh, resulting in a tear. Yes, this is a very simple example. It’s just to illustrate the general process.
Here are some protagonist/antagonist combinations:
- Pecs (Chest) / Traps (Upper Back)
- Biceps / Triceps
- Rectus Abdominis (Abs) / Erector Spinae (Lower Back)
- Quadriceps (Thigh) / Hamstring
- Gastrocnemius (Calves) / Tibialis Anterior (Shins)
- Gluteus Maximus (Your bum) / Inner Hip Flexors (Iliacus, Psoas Major & Minor)
Fixing these types of imbalances are a relatively simple task. All you need to do is make sure you’re training all the major muscle groups and not neglecting one group because it’s “too hard” (pullups come to mind).
Before you ask, yes I just made this term up. Macro imbalances are where a certain part of the body is largely ignored.
Since my main experience is with Taekwondo, I will speak from that point of view. Taekwondo is largely composed of kicks. In WTF style sparring, 99% of all the points scored are from kicks (I would say 100%, but I’ve seen a TKO from a double punch to the torso years ago). The natural tendency is to train legs, legs, legs and largely ignore the upper body. This is a mistake for a few reasons.
- Force is generated through the use of every muscle in the body. Your upper body affects the power of your kicks, granted not to the same extent as the legs and core.
- A powerful upper body is great to have when you get into the clinch with your opponent. A punch to the ribs might not score any points, but it can knock the wind out of them and drain their will to fight.
- Strong muscles means strong bones. Strong bones means you have less of a chance to be TKO’d by broken wrist, forearm, clavicle, etc. Strong muscles around the neck also mean less chance of being knocked out by a hit to the head.
Am I going to suggest Taekwondo competitors train the upper body as much as the legs? No, but it would behoove you to completely neglect it as well.
Right Side/Left side imbalances
Are you ambidextrous? No? Then chances are you have imbalances between your right and left side. Sometimes they might not even make sense.
I’ll use myself as an example. I’m left-handed. As a result, my left side is much more powerful than my right. However, my right side is much more coordinated than my left. I can throw any spinning kick with my right leg that I want, but if you ask me to do the same with my left leg I look ridiculous.
This is less of a muscular imbalance and more of a neural imbalance. Many times all it takes is more training on the weak side to bring it up to speed.
On the flip side, you CAN have muscular imbalances between your left and right side. To locate muscular imbalances between the left and right, you need to perform exercises where you can isolate the left and right side.
If I want to test whether my right bicep is weaker than my left, I could take a 30# dumbbell and perform bicep curls until failure on both sides. If your right is within a few reps of your left, you’re pretty even. If you can only squeeze out 15 reps on your right while your left side can do 35, then you got a pretty bad imbalance. This can be done with essentially any muscle group.
Right/Left side imbalances don’t really increase your risk of injury, but it does impair performance and options in a match. In my case, I am hampered by my ability to only throw effective spinning kicks from my right side.
And there you have it. To recap there are 3 main imbalances:
- Protagonist/Antagonist Imbalances
- Macro Imbalances
- Right/Left Side Imbalances
All three imbalances are fairly simple to correct once identified. It just takes work.
Feel I missed anything? Got questions? Leave a comment below.