Symmetrical Muscle Development – Reciprocal (Front-Side Left-Side) Symmetry
Muscle symmetry or muscle balance is when the muscles of our body are in perfect ratio to one another. To elaborate, it is when our right and left-side, front and back-side body muscles are equal in size, but more importantly performance ability. It is also when the ratio between our muscles from our top to bottom are in perfect ratio to one another (i.e. the ankles to the calves, the calves to the quads, the quads to the hamstrings and so on). Having muscle symmetry enables us to utilize our maximal athletic potential. It is also essential for preventing skeletal deviations that lead to debilitating pain and injury.
Because this topic covers several aspects, we are only going to cover front-side to back-side muscle symmetry aspect in this post. The other aspects are covered and can be viewed in their separate posts.
Front-Side Back-Side Muscle Symmetry
Front-side back-side muscles symmetry, or symmetry through the coronal plane, is the symmetrical development of the muscles reciprocal to one another on the anterior and posterior parts of the body. i.e. the quadriceps to the hamstrings, the biceps to the triceps, the chest to the back. Asymmetrical front to back muscle development commonly occurs when one muscle group is exercised (in isolation) with more and or with greater intensity than its correspondent muscle. Also, it commonly occurs when the full range of movement of exercises are not executed, or when muscle tightness from incorrect training and or poor posture inhibits the activation of its reciprocal muscle.
Asymmetry from Isolated Gym Exercises
Gym equipment that isolates the muscles being trained makes it difficult to develop front and back muscles symmetrically. In full body functional exercises, many muscle groups are activated simultaneously, causing them to develop uniformly to the capacity of which they are needed for various functional movements. But during isolated gym equipment training, certain muscle groups tend to be favored and trained more and or to a greater intensity dependent on adept or aesthetic preference by the individual, rather than for a performance beneficial perspective. These muscle imbalances cause certain muscles to have to have to stay engaged to keep the individual from falling over during normal daily activity (postural deviation). This eventually causes rigid muscular tension which results in spinal and joint deviation and risk of injury and debilitating pain.
Asymmetry from Partial Range of Movement
More often than not, people short cut their exercise movements for a variety of reasons.
1. The extremity ends of the range of movement is where the most pain is felt
2. Lifting through the full range means lifting less weight
3. They realize their form will become compromised from their lack of flexibility
The 3rd reason is the only reason good enough for not training through the full range; from a functional perspective. If you’re just after muscles for show, you may want to give them that extra pump from lifting weights out of your true capability. Strict form is absolutely number one from a risk of injury point of view. But it is no excuse to keep exercising a particular movement through a partial range.
Stop!
I’d suggest that if you cannot perform a particular movement through its full range, stop performing the exercise and rather, start performing flexibility exercises that will enable you to perform the full movement.
Squats are a classic example. I see it time and time again; people performing partial squats to avoid putting stress on their lower back and or their knees. And absolutely, I think this is better than people that perform full range squats with piss poor form. It’s an injury waiting to happen.
But in time, performing partial squats will cause muscle asymmetry, detrimental to functional performance ability and again, resulting in eventual postural deviation.
When we only perform a movement throughout a partial range of its full motion, we only develop performance ability through that particular range. To stay with the example of squats, when we only squat through the first 45o, we do nothing to develop strength throughout the rest of the motion. As functional squat type movements usually require us picking things of the floor, our functional capacity is as good as useless for the most part.
But more than that, it causes muscle asymmetry as many movements require activation from different muscle groups throughout various stages of the entire movement. Again to use the squat as an example; during the initial phase of the movement, the quadriceps and hip flexors are the main muscles engaged. After the initial 30o or so, the hamstrings and gluts become largely engaged. As you can see, performing partial squats over time will cause a muscle imbalance between the quadriceps hip flexor and the hamstring glut muscles.
Asymmetry from Muscle Tightness (Reciprocal Muscle Inhibition)
When a muscle is activated – or more accurately from a functional real world perspective – when a group of muscles are activated, their ability to engage is dependent on the motor neural signal given by the brain. An observable fact known as ‘Reciprocal Inhibition’ is responsible for muscle activation, whereby the ability of a muscle to engage (or tense) is dependent on the ability of the opposite muscle to disengage (or relax).
For example, to tense your biceps muscle, you need to relax your triceps muscle. If they are both activated at the same time, no movement can occur. To test this yourself, semi-straighten your arm and tense completely, making it unable to move in either direction. Both the bicep and tricep will be engaged. Now put your palm underneath your desk with your elbow at a 900 angle and pull upward (as though performing a biceps curl). Feel the back (triceps) of your arm and you’ll notice it is relaxed. Do the opposite (push down on the desk with a 900 bent elbow) and your bicep will be relaxed.
So imagine now if you are holding tension in your quad and hip flexor muscles due to asymmetrical muscle development (very common) and you go to perform a squat. As mentioned above, the squat involves quadriceps and hip flexor muscle activation for the upper phase of the movement, and hamstring and gluts (opposite muscles) activation for the lower phase of the movement. As you reach the lower phase, your strength and power is going to be diminished by your quad and hip flexor muscles staying engaged; taking practically the full effort of the squat. As you can imagine, you would at best have halved the capacity of your full potential. This will not only be limited to the squat, but the same for any corresponding movement (i.e. jumping, lunging, running, cycling, wrestling, rowing, skiing, boarding).
Developing Reciprocal Muscle Symmetry – Stretch & Massage
Stretching and muscle massage is by far the most underrated component of exercise. Most people think that stretching is just to prevent injury, or to make you flexible enough to be able to perform 21 positions in a single jiggy-jiggy session. And that massage is simply for the pleasure of getting some relaxation time happening, perhaps post jiggy-jiggy action. Absolutely it is that too. But stretching and muscle massage is the building foundation of all fitness and ability to deliver the full potential of our fitness performance.
As mentioned above in this blog – the more relaxed a muscle, the greater it is able to perform.
Cats are known for having tremendous athletic ability. They posses extreme speed, strength, agility, power, balance, coordination, accuracy and FLEXIBILITY. If you have ever played with a cat, you may have noticed that if you press on their muscles, they’re so soft that you’re actually able to press them down to the bone. Their muscles are super relaxed. If you check out how they spend their time, you might realize that they spend a great deal of their awake time stretching. Of course, most of their time is spent asleep – giving their muscles full relaxation time.
Stretching and massaging the tension out of the muscles in which we hold tension is key to or athletic performance – whether we are wanting to unleash our endurance, stamina, power, speed, agility, balancing skills, brute strength or a combination of all of them. It’s also one of the few things that have no limitations to how much stretching or massage is good for us. The more the better. Remember, to be effective, each stretch should be held for a minimum of 15 to 30 seconds. Generally, the tighter the muscle, the longer you need to stay on it. It is also important that you stay as relaxed as possible throughout the stretch. Pushing and straining will do you more damage than good, so relax into each stretch, taking it deeper with each exhalation.
Keep in mind that a few minutes stretching each day is better than only doing it here and there. So start with a few minutes and work your way to more extended sessions. As a tip, set a timer on your desk for every 30mins to 1hour, and spend a few minutes out of your seat stretching. If you have a desk job, I can almost guarantee you’ll want to spend time on your hip flexors.
Remember, keep your good posture from bed rise to fall, and maintain that strict posture during your exercise and serious play. Gaining symmetry is dependent upon the degree of your asymmetry. But the gradual shift will see that you become exceedingly fit and healthy as you become more and more symmetrical in your skeletomuscular system. It will ensure that you not only increase your athletic fitness ability, but that you gain and/or maintain your overall wellness and health.
For more information about symmetrical development, see my post Symmetrical Muscle Development – Right-Side Left-Side
With love, gratitude, presence and certainty,
Karl
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