Working the wrong muscles.

Brego888

I've a question about my gym workout. Working out 2-3 times a week over the past 6 months with some decent results. Gaining muscle weight and losing fat. I feel good, I'm much stronger and I'm healthier.

My problem is though that clearly my left pectoral muscle is being overworked. When I'm using barbell, dumbell, chest or shoulder presses my left pec is constantly doing most of the work or some of the work on that side. This has lead to a (realistically barely perceptible) lopped sidedness in my chest and to an extent my biceps.

I assume this a problem with poor form/technique. Any advice on how to correct this?

long range shooter

Brego888 wrote: »

I've a question about my gym workout. Working out 2-3 times a week over the past 6 months with some decent results. Gaining muscle weight and losing fat. I feel good, I'm much stronger and I'm healthier.

My problem is though that clearly my left pectoral muscle is being overworked. When I'm using barbell, dumbell, chest or shoulder presses my left pec is constantly doing most of the work or some of the work on that side. This has lead to a (realistically barely perceptible) lopped sidedness in my chest and to an extent my biceps.

I assume this a problem with poor form/technique. Any advice on how to correct this?

Try to do 1 arm excersises for a while,its probably imbalance between right and left pecs.,and focus more on left than right for a while.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/one-arm-dumbbell-bench-press
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/dumbbell-one-arm-shoulder-press
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/one-arm-dumbbell-preacher-curl

If not see a physio,could be other reasons

Brego888

long range shooter wrote: »

Try to do 1 arm excersises for a while,its probably imbalance between right and left pecs.,and focus more on left than right for a while.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/one-arm-dumbbell-bench-press
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/dumbbell-one-arm-shoulder-press
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/one-arm-dumbbell-preacher-curl

If not see a physio,could be other reasons

Can you explain the logic to this?
Will doing single arm exercises stop my left pectoral overcompensating on the workload?

long range shooter

Brego888 wrote: »

Can you explain the logic to this?
Will doing single arm exercises stop my left pectoral overcompensating on the workload?

http://youtu.be/kDSh2Ed6ttA

But I think the best is to see a physio,and get him to make a program that suit better.

Brego888

Thanks for the advice man. Having looked into it i reckon some isolated single arm exercises should be brought into my routine for a while and I'll reassess it in a few weeks.

long range shooter

Brego888 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice man. Having looked into it i reckon some isolated single arm exercises should be brought into my routine for a while and I'll reassess it in a few weeks.

Anytime,bro,good luck with your progress.:D

Mellor

Brego888 wrote: »

My problem is though that clearly my left pectoral muscle is being overworked. When I'm using barbell, dumbell, chest or shoulder presses my left pec is constantly doing most of the work or some of the work on that side. This has lead to a (realistically barely perceptible) lopped sidedness in my chest and to an extent my biceps.

What is the effect on your biceps?
You biceps aren't involved in pressing movements.

And you said it happens with dumbells too. What exactly is happening, your pec should do most of the work there. Maybe its not a noticable as you think. Left/Right differences are pretty common in arms/legs. It might not be noticeable. You could put up a picture to see if people can tell (maybe even flip the photo, or not, to avoid people saying "left is bigger" etc)

Brego888

Mellor wrote: »

What is the effect on your biceps?
You biceps aren't involved in pressing movements.

And you said it happens with dumbells too. What exactly is happening, your pec should do most of the work there. Maybe its not a noticable as you think. Left/Right differences are pretty common in arms/legs. It might not be noticeable. You could put up a picture to see if people can tell (maybe even flip the photo, or not, to avoid people saying "left is bigger" etc)

Even when I left a dumbell for a bicep curl on left arm my left per seems to be doing a lot of the work still. I've been trying to isolate my left bicep and tricep to work on those so they are more active when I return too more compound lifts. This is still a struggle though.
When I leave the gym, regardless of chest, arms or back day, my left pes still feels like it's got the best workout!

It must be a problem with form or maybe I need to keep going with the left arm strengthening work?
I measured both my left and right upper arms and there is an inch difference in size with the right being bigger which I assume is normal as I'm right handed

Mellor

Brego888 wrote: »

Even when I left a dumbell for a bicep curl on left arm my left per seems to be doing a lot of the work

Your pec doesn't cross the elbow joint, it physically can't perform a (bicep) curl.

Brego888

Mellor wrote: »

Your pec doesn't cross the elbow joint, it physically can't perform a (bicep) curl.

Perhaps not but at the top of the curl it's still contracting and tightening. I must be doing something wrong

Alf Veedersane

Brego888 wrote: »

Perhaps not but at the top of the curl it's still contracting and tightening. I must be doing something wrong

You might be rotating your shoulder inwards a bit to get a little bit of help with the curl so there might be a bit of contraction in rotating the shoulder.

Brego888

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

You might be rotating your shoulder inwards a bit to get a little bit of help with the curl so there might be a bit of contraction in rotating the shoulder.

I'm not long back from the gym and I think this is exactly what I'm doing. At least on the bicep curls anyway

Alf Veedersane

Do you feel contraction in your pec using lower weight dumbbells? If the answer is no, then you're just trying to curl too high a weight. Drop to the next weight down+work on better form. You'll probably be working the bicep better than at heavier weight

tattoo86

Is it possible you might have Polands syndrome, from wikipedia: is a rare birth defect characterized by underdevelopment or absence of the chest muscle (pectoralis) on one side of the body, and usually also webbing of the fingers (cutaneous syndactyly) of the hand on the same side (the ipsilateral hand). Poland syndrome most often affects the right side of the body, and occurs more often in males than in females. i have this condition but without the webbed fingers, just a thought!

kevpants

tattoo86 wrote: »

Is it possible you might have Polands syndrome, from wikipedia: is a rare birth defect characterized by underdevelopment or absence of the chest muscle (pectoralis) on one side of the body, and usually also webbing of the fingers (cutaneous syndactyly) of the hand on the same side (the ipsilateral hand). Poland syndrome most often affects the right side of the body, and occurs more often in males than in females. i have this condition but without the webbed fingers, just a thought!

tattoo86

Like i said it was only a thought, here are some pics of fernando alonso who also happens to have polands syndrome so you can see if maybe its the same thing.

Brego888

Nope definitely not as severe as Polands syndrome. My "problem" now feels very insignificant in comparison to that!

tattoo86

It was not my intention to make your 'problem' seem insignificant its just after working out for a while i also noticed my left side seemed to be more developed than my right and after researching and visiting doctors i was told it was poland's syndrome, its nothing severe, it just is what it is.

Brego888

tattoo86 wrote: »

It was not my intention to make your 'problem' seem insignificant its just after working out for a while i also noticed my left side seemed to be more developed than my right and after researching and visiting doctors i was told it was poland's syndrome, its nothing severe, it just is what it is.

Nah no worries man, I hadn't read it as a slight on my query. It sounds pretty mad though, so you have little to no muscle on your right pectoral as a result?

tattoo86

No nothing below the delt on my right side, but i can still lift the same weight as my left side, its a bit mad alright, some of the doctors i seen never heard of it, even sent me for an xray as they thought it might be a concave chest.

Mellor

tattoo86 wrote: »

No nothing below the delt on my right side, but i can still lift the same weight as my left side

For all lifts?
That's surprising

tattoo86

Y i use dumbbells in the gym and can do the same amount of lifts on each side be it, bench press, shoulder press, flys etc