Did you know that strength imbalances are a huge contributor to injury?  When you do a single arm workout like a landmine press or dumbbell presses. Is one arm noticeably stronger than the other? 

When you do pistols or lunges, is one leg easy and the other super challenging? 

 

 What is a strength imbalance?  

 

Lets take me for example.  My back squat. For almost 2 years I tried to increase my one rep max back squat. I wanted to get stronger. What did I do? I squatted, squatted and squatted some more! What was the result?

 

 I ended up with major knee pain and inflamed hips.  I couldn’t squat without pain, not even air squats. And my one rep max definitely did not go up.  After learning the importance of strength balance and testing mine…. I realized that my left leg was substantially weaker than my right leg. So when I was back squatting my right leg was taking the majority of the load and that was creating issues.  Once I switched to single leg movements like lunges and step ups and was able to narrow the gap of that strength balance, not only did my knee and hip pain go away my back squat number went up almost 20 pounds!!  Without even trying.  I was completely surprised when we tested it. 

 

A second example…. My strict press or shoulder press. I could not break into those triple digits. After testing my strength balance in both my right and left arm I realized there was an egregious difference.   That difference led to injury in my stronger shoulder. Every time I would press, jerk or do handstand push-ups because my stronger arm was taking the majority of the lower it was being overworked and in turn, not happy about it.  I mean I wouldn’t be either. Nobody likes being the one doing the majority of the work! So of course they boycott! They get inflamed and painful. 

 

Your shoulder pain, knee pain, or back pain may actually be a strength imbalance that simply needs addressed. 

 

If you’d like to figure out what your strength balances, reach out. Coach Chad and put you through an assessment that will expose all the areas you may need to work on. Even if they are small, addressing them now will only make you stronger and more resilient long-term.