How to Prevent Muscle Imbalance

Muscle imbalance is one of the leading causes of major and minor sports injuries, but is easy to identify and correct early in your fitness routine. Muscle imbalance can also cause non-fitness related aches and pains, like back pain. All you have to do to prevent muscle imbalance is identify any weaknesses in opposing muscle groups and do strength training to remedy them.

Instructions

    • 1

      Assess your muscle strength by doing weight training on all of your opposing muscle groups and recording where you have disproportionate strengths and weaknesses. For example, if your abdominal muscles are weaker than your back muscles, you have a muscle imbalance that may be causing back pain.

    • 2

      Record your muscle imbalances (which muscle groups are weaker than their opposing groups) and develop a weight-training routine to remedy the imbalance.

    • 3

      Continue to do strength training for your stronger muscle groups as well, but strength train for your stronger groups on off days for your weaker groups, and do fewer repetitions using less weight than you would do if you were working to build rather than maintain strength.

    • 4

      Begin a strength training routine before starting a fitness routine, like running or swimming, for the first time. Build up your muscle strength before relying on your muscles for a daily fitness routine to avoid strain.

    • 5

      Manage your muscle imbalances as your fitness routine develops. Your fitness routine may use certain muscle groups more than others and build strength without weight training, but continue to use weight training to balance out the muscles that develop as a result of an extended fitness plan.