weak side

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splashangel
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weak side

Post by splashangel »

Hey yall,
I have a couple of questions. One is, I always give out on left side first. I am right handed. But i feel I could keep going on right side but left fails me. Will it catch up? Should I be working left more often ? I try to make sure form is right but,you know, I'm alone with some videos. I think form is good . Next question is, I get cold later. Like a few hours later I am freezing all the way through. Not like from sweat but from inside out. I don't do it after running, just when I work with weights. Hot tea helps but what would cause it? Thanks for help.
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Boss Man
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Re: weak side

Post by Boss Man »

You could have a slight muscle imbalance, if there is a significant discrepancy between what both arms can do, though you must allow for the fact, that the dominant side of your body that you have used for years to cut food, write, draw, throw things etc, will; be a bit stronger by default anyway.

There's a couple of ways to alter the problem.

Avoid using things like Bars and two handed Cable exercises. go for Dumbells and one handed cable variations of exercises involving bars and cables, to force both sides to work properly, without one side becoming a bit too lazy and reliant on the other to assist.

This could potentially cause a muscle imbalance, if you regularly created a scenario where you got an uneven emphasis of the weight you used, on areas particularly like the back and Chest, because you may either underwork one side of the body, or accellerate the growth potential of the other. More than likely it would be logical to underwork one side, if you create a greater emphasis on the other.

With Dumbells, you could do this to correct an imbalance. You use a dumbell on the weaker side that is what you would determine as challenging, about 40-45% approximately of normal bar weight, remembering bars take some strain in the middle, which won't happen with dumbells, so just using 50% less might be too much.

Then on the strong side, use one roughly about 20% -33% lighter depending on the weight of the first.

I.E. 8kg on one Pec, 6kg on the other.

This should not affect execution of an exercise or ability to keep stable, if you're working both arms together or alternately, as if you think about it, how often do you put a moderately weighted bag over one shoulder or carry a moderately weighted bag of food for example and fall over onto the heavier side of your body, or become ungainly and stagger about?

So you'd be able to create a minor weight discrepancy between both sides, without jeopardising safety or technique, as long as your initial body positioning and exercise execution, were sound as per normal

The same would apply to the one handed cable stuff. You'd work one side first then the other, but use again roughly around 20%-33% less weight, on the stronger side.

The reason for using a bit less on the stronger side in both instances, is to either keep the stronger side plateaud, or growing at a slightly slower rate than the weaker side, to help the weaker side catch up.

Obviously you could be likely get issues, if you dropped the weight on the stronger side by 60% or more, in comparison to the weaker side. as you might then get stability issues if the discrepancy was too significant.

The second way to try and correct an imbalance, would be when you work on certain machines and say for example you did 3 sets on something like a Chest Press, you would cut the weight down by around 45-50% and work it using one arm at a time.

So if you had the left side weaker for example, you'd go Left, Right, Left, Right, Left. challenging the left side 3 times and the right twice.

Then you'd halve that weight and finish on the right side, so that last set on the strong side was using half the weight used on both previous sets, but the left side would be working with the same amount on all 3 sets.

Doing this would hopefully achieve the same kind of effect described earlier, to plateau, or slow down the growth of the strong side, hopefully allowing the weaker side to catch up in time.

This technique would be fine, because should you encounter a little bit of difficulty on the final rep or two, you could use the free hand to stabilise the weight being used and take it back to a resting position, but ONLY for that, not to help you do one or two cheat reps.

Hopefully that all makes sense :).

I can't guarantee you have an imbalance, but I won't rule it out as it seems the most likely thing right now, to me anyway.

As for you feeling cold, I'm not interpreting that correctly I feel. When do you start feeling cold; during a workout or a few hours afterwards, because if it's afterwards, what could be happening is you are getting a reduced thermogenic environment, because you're not pumping the blood and increasing circulation anymore, so any increase in body heat could start tapering off afer a workout, meaning if you felt a bit cold before training, you'd go back to feeling like that again at some point.

Then the simple answer is try to stay warmer before workouts, like wearing warmer clothing or something like that.
splashangel
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Re: weak side

Post by splashangel »

Thank you and I think I get it. I will begin tomorrow with dumb bells. And yes, I get very cold about hour1/2 -2 hours after weight lifting. Not cardio. :? I freeze for a few hours at least. I can certainly live with it but I am really curious about it.
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Boss Man
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Re: weak side

Post by Boss Man »

Possibilities on the cold feelings.

A: The cold feeling could be related to sweat cooling, if you sweat quite a bit and don't wipe down enough in certain places.

B: A drop in temperature caused when you've stopped working out.

C: You wear warmer clothing to workout than that which you would wear outside.

D: Your body has been getting used to a fairly hot indoor temperature environment during the summer, exaggerated by thermogenic activity in your body. Temperatures that are not necessarily reflected when you go home, especially if you are living in an air conditioned environment and have been in a sweaty workout environment, so your body might be adjusting to the drop in temperature and stabilising its temperature, when you go home.

If you have been having air con on at home or some kind of fan system, even one that's just a desktop one blowing near you, not necessarily ceiling fans, then in the coming weeks or days when temperatures outside drop and you don't need it, you might find if you're working out in a temperate environment, similar to your home, you might feel a bit cold when you'e outside, but you'll warm up back home and you might find your problem dissipates.

I can't be sure why what you're talking about happens exactly, so one of the things I posted may highlight the cause or not, but it's likely your issue could pass soon, but if it's not a real problem, then don't worry about it too much :).
splashangel
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Re: weak side

Post by splashangel »

I am no longer having problems with chills. I shower (hot) straight after work out and wrap up in heavy house coat as soon as done, even though I am still hot. I get a hot cup of tea and rest for about 30 min. During this time I begin to cool off but never reach freezing anymore. I just thought I would share in case this happens to anyone else. I am working on weak side but still no change I don't think, but, it is still early.
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Boss Man
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Re: weak side

Post by Boss Man »

Keep your chin up and keep believing. I'm sure the thing(s) you want to change can be changed.
kukagra
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Re: weak side

Post by kukagra »

On the topic of your weak side which is your none dominant side don't stress about it. It is normal for one side to be stronger then the other, it is just a genetic characteristic of humans for me dominant side is actually weaker then other side which is opposite of you. If you are worried about it because it could look imbalanced visually you shouldn't worry about that either even Arnold Schwarzenegger's arms and legs don't look completely symmetrical. The best thing to do if you want to achieve symmetry visually is to do the exact same amount of work with both if you do ten reps on one side do ten reps on the other.
Alinshop
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Re: weak side

Post by Alinshop »

Things usually even out, even though you may always have one side a little weaker then the other
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