No matter how well developed you think you are, there are muscles on your body that can use some catching up. For example, those who have spent years trying to build bigger pecs often end up suffering from lagging back development, the result of simply training most what is seen most often. Not only does this lead to visual imbalances but it can create postural or strength disparities that can produce serious injury.So what is the proper process for this issue? Here are a few ideas and it all starts in the mirror.
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Be Honest with Yourself
Take a look in the mirror, or have someone take well-lit pics of you. What do you see? Are certain muscle groups out of whack? Do you have big front delts but barely-there rear delts? Hefty lower pecs but no upper chest mass? Meaty triceps but small biceps? You may think that you’re doing everything you can but different muscle groups react differently to training programs so if you’re doing the same amount of volume and intensity for similar muscles, you may still have some imbalances that need to be addressed. What is the mirror telling you?
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Add New Variations
If you have tried growing biceps by simply doing more barbell curls and it’s not working, try different arm angles. Preacher curls, high-pulley cable curls, hammer curls, incline curls – all of these moves target the biceps slightly differently and one of them may hold the secret to new growth.
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Train More Frequently
Most lifters subscribe to a “once a week” approach when it comes to individual bodypart training. But if your delts, for example, are lagging then you may need to add extra sessions. Try starting with one extra session, allowing 3-4 days of recovery between workouts. Continuing the delts example, if you train them with back on Tuesday, try a delts-only session on Friday or Saturday to instigate new growth.
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Crank Up the Volume
As with training frequency, adding more volume to every session may help. The general prescription that many lifters learn and stick to calls for 12-16 sets of work for larger muscle groups like chest and quads and 9-12 sets for smaller ones like biceps and calves. But if you’re not growing, this isn’t working. Try increasing this volume by about 50 percent to see what kind of results you get. That means 18-24 sets for large groups and 12-18 for small ones. Of course, this means more muscle breakdown and thus recovery is more demanding –you have to get adequate rest and nutrition to make this a worthwhile move.
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Pump the Brakes
Got a killer set of quads? We’re proud of you. You’re a winner. We don’t want you to fully rest on your laurels but maybe it’s time to cut back a bit on your quad training a bit so they don’t overpower your hamstrings as much. An overdeveloped chest will dwarf delts and a barn door back can overshadow undertrained legs. Simply scaling back on training “gifted” muscle groups may help naturally correct huge visual imbalances.Moji Oluwa is a personal trainer, strength expert, MRI/ProLab athlete and posing choreographer in Los Angeles with 27 years experience in sports and training. He was captain of the Nigerian Olympic weightlifting team in 1996 and is an award-winning natural bodybuilder with 28 first-place finishes and 17 overall titles to go along with his seven Best Poser awards. He travels to guest pose at natural bodybuilding shows and does motivational speeches for colleges, high schools, Boy Scouts, boys’ homes and churches. For more training advice, visit his personal site at http://www.mojifitness.com.
No matter how well developed you think you are, there are muscles on your body that can use some catching up. For example, those who have spent years trying to build bigger pecs often end up suffering from lagging back development, the result of simply training most what is seen most often. Not only does this lead to visual imbalances but it can create postural or strength disparities that can produce serious injury.
So what is the proper process for this issue? Here are a few ideas and it all starts in the mirror.
Be Honest with Yourself
Take a look in the mirror, or have someone take well-lit pics of you. What do you see? Are certain muscle groups out of whack? Do you have big front delts but barely-there rear delts? Hefty lower pecs but no upper chest mass? Meaty triceps but small biceps? You may think that you’re doing everything you can but different muscle groups react differently to training programs so if you’re doing the same amount of volume and intensity for similar muscles, you may still have some imbalances that need to be addressed. What is the mirror telling you?
Add New Variations
If you have tried growing biceps by simply doing more barbell curls and it’s not working, try different arm angles. Preacher curls, high-pulley cable curls, hammer curls, incline curls – all of these moves target the biceps slightly differently and one of them may hold the secret to new growth.
Train More Frequently
Most lifters subscribe to a “once a week” approach when it comes to individual bodypart training. But if your delts, for example, are lagging then you may need to add extra sessions. Try starting with one extra session, allowing 3-4 days of recovery between workouts. Continuing the delts example, if you train them with back on Tuesday, try a delts-only session on Friday or Saturday to instigate new growth.
Crank Up the Volume
As with training frequency, adding more volume to every session may help. The general prescription that many lifters learn and stick to calls for 12-16 sets of work for larger muscle groups like chest and quads and 9-12 sets for smaller ones like biceps and calves. But if you’re not growing, this isn’t working. Try increasing this volume by about 50 percent to see what kind of results you get. That means 18-24 sets for large groups and 12-18 for small ones. Of course, this means more muscle breakdown and thus recovery is more demanding –you have to get adequate rest and nutrition to make this a worthwhile move.
Pump the Brakes
Got a killer set of quads? We’re proud of you. You’re a winner. We don’t want you to fully rest on your laurels but maybe it’s time to cut back a bit on your quad training a bit so they don’t overpower your hamstrings as much. An overdeveloped chest will dwarf delts and a barn door back can overshadow undertrained legs. Simply scaling back on training “gifted” muscle groups may help naturally correct huge visual imbalances.
Moji Oluwa is a personal trainer, strength expert, MRI/ProLab athlete and posing choreographer in Los Angeles with 27 years experience in sports and training. He was captain of the Nigerian Olympic weightlifting team in 1996 and is an award-winning natural bodybuilder with 28 first-place finishes and 17 overall titles to go along with his seven Best Poser awards. He travels to guest pose at natural bodybuilding shows and does motivational speeches for colleges, high schools, Boy Scouts, boys’ homes and churches. For more training advice, visit his personal site at http://www.mojifitness.com.
