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What should you do if you have a muscle imbalance? Nothing. Because in most cases, most muscle imbalances are pretty small and not noticeable, and assuming you are training hard with proper technique, will most likely balance out over time, especially if you’re a beginner.
However, if you are concerned that one side of your body is taking over on most movements, and maybe even affecting your sets, here is what you should do. First choose 1 unilateral movement, only working one side at a time, and start your workout with that movement.
Then, beginning with your weaker side, train to failure in the 6-8 rep range, until you literally cannot finish the rep. If it’s your first time doing that exercise, it may be a little difficult to choose the correct weight, so if you end up underestimating your strength, and after 8 reps, you still have a couple left in you, don’t just intentionally stop because you hit that rep range, just keep going to failure. Even if you end up doing 14, just make a note for next time to increase the weight so you can fall back into that 6-8 range. Once you finish this set, rest about 1-2 minutes, and do the exact same number of reps with your stronger side. So if you got 7 with your weaker side and failed the 8th, do 8 reps with your stronger. Even if you could do more, don’t. Because, then that kinda defeats the whole purpose of balancing things out.
Once you finish each set on both sides, rest again this time for at least 2-3 minutes, and do one more set to failure on your weaker side, and one more set with the same reps on your stronger side, repeating the exact same process as before. Do this in the beginning of your workout right when you get to the gym, after your normal warm up routine, then proceed to your normal workout, with your normal intensity.
Do this twice a week, or whenever you train that muscle, and within a month or 2, your imbalance should be pretty much gone. However, if you do fear that one side is significantly weaker than the other, you could choose to do a different unilateral movement this time at the end of your workout, and repeat the exact same process. However, if you’re already doing 3 or more exercises for that muscle during that session, including that first unilateral one, and you don’t really want to change those other 2, then I’d recommend just sticking to that 1 movement at the beginning.
Just don’t go adding tons of unilateral movements on top of your bilateral ones, because that’s just gonna eat into your recovery, and also don’t go removing all of your bilateral ones to do only unilateral, because then, using this technique, you won’t actually have a chance to train your stronger side to failure, since you’re just matching the reps each time. And doing that too often will significantly slow down progress on your stronger side, potentially creating a whole new problem in itself. So just 1, maybe 2 unilateral movements, so that you can ever so slightly slow down, NOT STOP the progress on your stronger side, and give your weaker side a little boost to catch up.
Even if it takes a little bit of time, have patience, and just keep training hard. And if you do this method twice a week every single time you train that muscle, eventually when you train to failure on your weaker side, you’ll slowly notice that once you move back to your stronger side, you’re not just stopping to hit the same number of reps, you’re stopping because you’re training to failure on that side too. And once you get to that point you’ve pretty much balanced it out. However I would still recommend doing that unilateral exercise, even if you don’t do it first, just so that another muscle imbalance doesn’t develop again, considering there may be some other factors at play. And that is how to fix a muscle imbalance.
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About Me: I started lifting at 17 years old in 2019, the summer before I entered my freshman year of college. I was a mere 120 pounds at 5'8, and my only goal was to gain weight. Since then I've bulked 5 times, reaching my heaviest at 206 pounds, and cut 4 times to a lowest of around 10% bodyfat. In 2025 I plan to compete in my first natural bodybuilding show. Using the knowledge I have acquired and continue to learn, my goal is to help all of you achieve your fitness goals and prove that no matter what stands in your way, hard work and consistency will always prevail! (main character anime moment)
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