Symmetry

[flintstone]

I have a confession that will need to be addressed at some point.......So here goes. I was born with a very mild form of Cerebal Palsey in the right side of my body. Now, before anyone gets sympathetic, forget it. I have survived over 40 years without limitation. I played football, baseball, and wrestled in high school. I might also add that I was as good as anyone else, and better than some in these sports.

I have always worked out (sometimes more dedicated than others) and have been able to physically hide the fact that I have this. As a matter of fact, only 1 or 2 of my friends know about it.

The problem is, as I get bigger, I am afraid that a serious disproportion may result. I know some people have this (symmetry issue) to deal with as well. My question is: Is there routine that may help my right side catch up with my left in terms of size? I want to grow both sides, but I'd like for my right to catch up.

There is not a tremendous difference in size at this point. If one were looking, they would notice it, but it (according to some) really isn't that obvious.

My legs are equally proportionate as I have had to walk/run on them; My right arm is somewhat smaller from top to bottom; and my lats are somewhat smaller as well.

Any advice as to how to conquer this? For those of you uneducated about my condition, my muscles are just as capable of growing as everyone else's -

[access]

That's an interesting question.

Is there a strength difference between your left and right side? I assume there is.

[flintstone]

Yes there is..to a point. As far as bench press is concerned, my left gives out before my right (surprisingly) but, curls, flies, ect. where the muscles in my arm, lats, and shoulders are isolated, there is a difference in strength, but not a huge one. By this, I mean that my left isn't twice as strong as my right or anything like that. It is just that I have to do less dumbell reps with the right as opposed to the left because of failure. Maybe on a 10 rep set, I can get 7 or 8 with the right (depending on the exercise). I have always had less fine motor control in the right side so I used the left to compensate. When I got into athletics, I had to use the right more, so it began to grow, and it nearly caught up with the other side.

As I said in an earlier post, one would have to be looking for the difference in order to notice it. Many of my friends, some of whom I have trained with are unaware of my condition. Maybe its because I'm blessed with large frame that seems to respond well to physical activity.

Everyone is slightly larger in their dominant side to some degree. Mine (difference) is slightly more pronounced than average, but way better than probably 99.9% of those with the same condition (I consider myself lucky). I would guess that I am 90% to 95% in my right side overall compared to my left. Maye I shouldn't have mentioned the condition because it really never has been an issue or limiting factor, but I thought it may help someone in coming up with a suggestion to balance my symmetry

[access]

Sounds to me like your particular case is really not a big issue seeing as the strength difference is only minimal. As you mentioned we are all somewhat strength dominant on one side anyway. I certainly would not worry at all and seems like your not. You can always make some slight training modifications allowing your weaker side to catch up a little to if need be at some later stage.

[Smiley]

I'm not sure if people will agree with this or not but what I do is always balance the stronger arm with what the weaker one can do. So if you are doing isolation exercises with one arm use the weakest arm first then only do the same weight and reps with the other arm.

[flintstone]

Originally Posted by Smiley

I'm not sure if people will agree with this or not but what I do is always balance the stronger arm with what the weaker one can do. So if you are doing isolation exercises with one arm use the weakest arm first then only do the same weight and reps with the other arm.

I don't know if anyone would agree either but I've kinda been doing that. Sometimes I work the weaker arm to failure plus an extra set. Don't know if that falls under overtraining or not though.

[Smiley]

Sounds good to me Flint

[Gator_Mclusky]

This may be an obvious answer but Id train that side more. Get in an extra work out or go heavier on that side than the other side(ex. If ya can get 12 reps with the right side, then do 8 reps with the other to failure.) Of course you will have to use alot of dumbbells.
Site injections offer a temporary swelling at the inj. site that only last a couple wks if your juicing but it looks good for two wks or throughout the cycle if one hits the site every wk once or twice. One can inj. the biceps peak and the outer Tri and it swells em up quite a bit for the cycle.
Hope this helps.

[CHIQUITITA]

Flintstone- You mentioned above that strength and the ability in building mass does not really present a problem for you, so with that said do you have specific goal to competie any time soon in mind? I'm just wondering if tweaking your diet might help you achieve a more proportionate look as well? Just thinking and rambling outloud here.

You situation reminds me of a friend whom I trained with who also has a very mild form of cp. Her right side was more dominant and she had a noticable disproportion in her legs which affected her gait. As far wieght training was concerned we did work the compound/core movements when working all body parts but we did do plenty of accessory/isolation work. She competed in her first figure show this past April and in terms of her developing a more symmetrical figure, I want to say here diet and cardio played a large factor in helping her define her symmetry. Now she's gearing up to compete in her first bb show and to be quite honest, the only thing she has changed is her diet and cardio requirements..... her training structure has changed with slight modifications. I think I got a little off track here but in response to your original post, I would venture in suggesting to isolate your movements and work towards lifting the identical weight on both sides, and then always do a few extra reps on your weaker side. I'm very sorry my answer is super generic but Im interested in seeing what other people suggest to do. I'll contact my friend and see if she might have some valuable insight to add.

[Juice Monkey]

I don't know if you are doing this already but I train the weaker side in isolated exercises first when my body is the strongest. I used to have a severely weak bi curl on my left than my right and that fixed the problem. It was more than a half inch smaller to.