Correcting an Imbalance

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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Hello everyone. I’ve been training for 2 years now with true dedication, i cut down from 29% bodyfat to 8%, and am currently bulking at 190lbs, 6’1, 24 years old male.

I just finished recovering from a rotator cuff injury before x-mas, and despite having been at it hard again for 2 months, i’m noticing that i still haven’t been able to correct a problem i’ve had all along; imbalance.

My left is weaker than my right for pretty much everything. Chest, shoulder, bicep, tricep, upper back. I’ve read that single arm excerices like dumbell bench and etc will correct it, but i haven’t noticed any change. Is 3 ish months of bulking far too soon to BEGIN noticing a change? Or should i be simply adding more sets to that side? Grr.

The other weird thing is my chest. It’s lagging far behind the rest of my lifts, like maxing squats at around 350-400lbs, dumbell rows at 120, and bench at…160. Oddly, my decline is significantly higher than my bench or incline, maxing (again calculated, i dont waste time maxing) at around 225.

I eat the right stuff (tons of research) at the cals to gain ~1 lb per week for me, 8 meals a day, 40%P,40%C,20F. My Workout i got from this site, Total Body Training, which is 3 full body Workouts a week switching up exercises very often, sets, reps, etc.

I apologize for the long post lol, i hope someone makes it through. Questions or advice, please feel free to message me!

Thanks :slight_smile:

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crickets…and tears

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I dislocated my shoulder a couple of years ago wrestling my brother. I thought it was healed and I started training shoulder full bore again, and my shoulder completely popped out of socket while doing DB presses. To this day (two years +) my left side lags behind my right. Basically, I’d say life light and do some PT before lifting heavy again. Don’t ignore it. It won’t go away until you’ve addressed it.

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From what I understand it takes quite a long time to bring up strength following shoulder surgeries.

But from a motor learning standpoint, frequency of stimulus is critical. IMO TBT 3 times per week is not frequent enough to bring up a lagging weak side. If something is weak, work it every day or even multiple times per day. This is not a thrash-the-muscle type of workout. For example, every morning and night do a couple sets of band rows, band lateral raises, and one-arm pushups only on the weak side. Really focus on the mind-muscle connection of the weak muscles, but don’t go to the point of fatigue.

For a long time I tried to correct imbalances during my regular workouts with little success. But with the high-frequency strategy, I made dramatic progress quickly.

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would you really have to do all of that? couldnt you just lift weight according to how heavy you can do it on your weak side until it equals out?

my pec and front delt on one side are significantly weaker than the other, my pecs gettin bigger but my shoulder isnt