with hidden asymmetries,

asymmetries, obvious to all intelligent

intelligent trainers but yourself?
yourself? Subverting your every
every
attempt to get stronger, healthier, and more aesthetic?

The truth is that you’re probably fine, and here are some reasons why as well as some
information to help you avoid going down fruitless roads of attempted self-improvement.
self-improvement.

1.) Defining “Imbalance”

Define “imbalance.” What does it mean to have a muscle imbalance? Does that mean the same
muscles on opposite sides of your body must be the same size? The same strength? What about
the front vs. back of your body? Chest vs. back, front delt vs. rear delt, ham vs. quad?

Before you let your imagination take you to a world in which your body is a hideous
Frankenstein-esquee mess or, worse yet, let an Instagram coach talk you into that perception,
Frankenstein-esqu
please ask.

Ask yourself or the person who’s suggesting

suggesting it EXACTLY WHAT CONSTITUTES
CONSTITUTES IMBALANCE.
In most cases you might be surprised to learn that it’s actually quite difficult to ascertain this
information. With as many accusations of imbalance as are flying around these days, you’d think
the definition would be set in stone, but it’s not. It turns out that “muscle imbalance” can come
with any or no symptoms at all, be based on a variety of performance
performance measures oror none at all, be
easily perceptible on a physique or in movement patterns or… not at all.

Turns out there ARE actual criteria for muscle imbalances and ways in which to improve them IF
they exist and if improvement
i mprovement is needed. Let’s take a look at the major categories
c ategories below.

2.) Clinical Relevancy in Wellness

In the health professions, muscle imbalances are diagnosed and treated IF and ONLY IF they are
CLINICALLY RELEVANT. This means, for one thing, that they have to be large enough to be
detectable, and, large enough to negatively affect health. It turns out that ALL muscles in ALL
people are to some extent asymmetrically developed. Yep, your quads are gonna be different sizes
if we measure closely enough. But when does that matter in medicine? It matters when the
imbalances are so great that your joints and other tissues begin to experience pain or are moving
in such an awkward way as to cause pain with high likelihood eventually.

The reality here is that such imbalances are usually MASSIVE, and here’s why. Because no one
has bones and joints that are identical in shape between the two sides of their body, daily
movement such as walking is going to tax one side of the body more than the other. The body’s
response to this is to hypertrophy muscles on the more used areas more, and thus the bigger and
stronger muscles account for the imbalance and all i s well.

The problems almost always arise when your imbalance is SO big that, either the muscles can’t
fully compensate or their compensation has to be so extreme that it itself irritates still other
structures. The good news is that such imbalances are both rare and usually quite obvious,
especially to a medical professional. So if you are not experiencing pain but you think one quad is
stronger than the other… you’re probably fine. If you are experiencing pain, have a sport doctor
check you out, and hell, even get a second opinion. If both folks say that imbalances are not the