Muscle imbalance (upper and lower body)

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

I have a question about how to correct a muscle imbalance between my upper and lower body.

My upper body strength is too close together with my lower body strength, and want to correct it.

Would the only way to basically do that is to do little upper body strenght, and focus of lower body strenght? Or would that be an incorrect thing to do?

Thanks for any help in how to correct this issue. I’m just not quite sure how people correct an issue like this.

2

Good question,

If you bench and tbar row 150, you should
squat and dead 315lbs to be gym style.

Your lower body should always be two times as strong as your upper body.

so if you bench squat and deadlift 315, ten you have to deadlift and squat 630.

:cool:

3

I disagree. I’d say you should strive for at least a double bodyweight squat and a 1.5 bodyweight bench is pretty decent.
Look at powerlifting records.

4

Post your numbers.

5

I have actually missed quite a few weight sessions recently, so my lifts aren’t great at this point. I don’t have my max, but will be checking it this week.

But, in todays session, for 5 reps I did this:

Bench: 175
Squat: 205

Weight: 160lbs

I follow BFS, meaning:
1st week: 3x3
2nd week: 5x3
3rd week: 5, 3, 1
4th week: 10, 8, 6 (I tend to do 4, 4, 2)

Those are for main lifts. The main lifts are Mon. Bench and Squat, Wed. Powerclean and DL, and Fri is towel bench and Box squat. Also, do assistance exercise (one or two).

So, not only do I hope to fix the imbalance, but strengthen my lifts up.

6

If this is the order of doing the exercises Mon/Fri, you have part of your answer there…
Perhaps a Lower/Upper/Lower days’ schedule in the week will help.
Overall, prioritise what you want to improve, not the reverse!

7

Well, from what I see in it, the thing is mostly focused on lower body, seeing bench happens 2 times a week, while squat happens 2 times, and then you have deadlift and powerclean.

How would you suggest it be changed?

8

I think what Nik means is to squat before bench on Mon&Fri.

9

In an EMS article written by Charlie, he mentioned for bodybuilders that they could use EMS to maintain muscle bulk/strength on their legs for example, so they could then utilize more of their CNS reserve to overcome a plateau or to spend more time working on bulking their upper body. Though obviously you would use the EMS upper body and work on your legs.

This may provide a quick fix if that is all that you think is required but wouldn’t ultimately fix any discrepancies in your programme causing this imbalance as you see it.

10

Either what mortac8 says and see how it goes, because the order is important, or Lower ONLY, Upper ONLY, Lower ONLY at least for a rather short period of time.
I’d start with the first option, if you feel the current setup works fine for you.
Hope it helps!

PS if this is the case, as you say in your post, why this “imbalance” then?

11

I think it probably had to do with the order of the weights, as you have said. I am sprinting and then lifting. I also did bench before I did squats. I don’t know exactly why the numbers are so close, but I will see if the order change will help.

12

Hope im not hijackin this thread

anyone notice how slight the build was on the russian who took 2nd in the 100 meters? this years WC’s, During heats i was noticing alot of euro’s & even some estern bloc guys & gals were not that “built up” as our sprinters. Im startin to think we put too much merit in upper body strength work for sprinting

13

I attended a seminar by Charles Poliquin on the Lower Body Structural Balance.

(I know that opinions vary as to his benifit to sprinters/Runners)

I used it as a rule and found that it took longer to transfer any gains to speed and power, so now I just use it as a guide as to weather I need to spend some time to balance out the athlete, who in my case were mostly team sport players.

Here are the ratios.
Back Squat 100%
Front Squat 85%
Power Clean 66%
Close Grip Bench Press 63%
Power Snatch 51%
Peterson Step-up 46%
Back Split Squat 41%
Triple Jumpers Step-up 30%

I also only use the front squat as the form must be more strict. And the squat is done Olympic Style, to the bottom.

I hope this helps,

14

true, no ones (in the USA) wants to lose ther looks for thier sport, why should they.
:smiley:

But, lose tthat do always turn out to be the best.

We all had to make sacrifices for our sport.

Long distance runners arent have to live with being skinny with the high level of tertestarone lost,
Body Builders who love running cant run for as long as they want, and for some have highly unusable or functional strengh for any sport, but just for looks.
Sprints have the best position, and how the most freedom than everyone else :stuck_out_tongue: , because some bulk is needed.
Powerlifters cant run as long as they want, and make allot of unhealthy decisions, but the strongest powerlifter they is dont care about looks or symmetry, but the best powerlifters ever are those olympic lifters sh or lw.

We loose to win!

:cool:

15

Thanks.
Was him also explaining wich was/how to look fo the weak points if a lift is under the estimated percentage??

16

Yes,

But you can do the Klatt Test in 3 minutes flat and it will tell you more that testing all those lifts.

I don’t have links for this test, but if you find some could you PM them to me.

17

I may not be spelling the name correctly, I am dislexic.

But I just tried google and couldn’t find anything.

I will ask the coach who showed it to me and I will get back to you

18

Thanks very much!!

19

Say what you want about Eastern European guys not being as bulked up, look at who wins the championships (even indoor where the best “bulked” guys aren’t competing).