When it comes to building muscle, most of us put all of our attention on our “mirror muscles” – as these are the muscles that we and others can see. Unfortunately, as a result of this, the various muscles that we can’t see or don't even know exist get neglected. Which over time leads to crucial muscle imbalances and weaknesses – namely in the lower traps, the hamstrings, and the rotator cuff muscles. In this video, I'll go through 3 of the most common unbalanced muscles (including both leg muscle imbalance and back muscle imbalance) that your routine is likely creating and why they matter. I’ll also cover how to fix this muscle imbalance in the most efficient manner possible.

The first muscle you’re neglecting when it comes to back muscle imbalance is the lower traps. When the lower traps are weak or imbalanced, the instability this creates can not only put you at a greater risk for shoulder injury, but it also negatively affects your ability to execute various pressing movements. To correct this imbalance, start by incorporating a few lower trap specific exercises into your routine to first activate it, and then gradually build up its strength. Perform a couple of lower trap exercises, such as wall slides, scapular pull-ups, and Prone Y raises, 2-3 times a week, and overloading it overtime.

The next muscle that relates to leg muscle imbalance is the hamstrings. And this is detrimental because we know that a weak hamstring to quadriceps ratio is a major risk factor for both future hamstring injury and knee pain, and can also become a limiting factor in your strength in key lifts and various athletic abilities. Despite this, though, a lot of people still fail to devote enough attention to their hamstrings. So to ensure you're training your hamstring in a balanced manner, including both hip-dominant exercises like deadlifts as well as knee-dominant exercises like leg curls or the glute-ham raise. Make sure you control the way down of each rep during your hamstrings exercises. Better yet, incorporate more eccentric focused variations such as the Romanian deadlift or even do some eccentric-focused sets to your other movements. Also, you should occasionally switch up your routine such that your hamstrings are trained early on when you’re less fatigued.

The last of the muscle imbalances are the external rotators of your shoulder. The vast majority of the movements you do in the gym train internal rotators and neglect the all-important external rotators. This can lead to a massive imbalance in the shoulder joint, which reduces the stability of your shoulder during your key lifts and can eventually contribute to shoulder impingement. So if you currently aren’t devoting much attention to these muscles, simply adding in a few sets of face pulls with a focus on external rotation at the end of the movement by keeping the fists up high is a great way to start to prioritize and strengthen these external rotators a little more. In addition, exercises like the full can and side-lying external rotation are also great movements that you should include.

Guys, I hope you were able to see that it's the little muscles that you can't see or maybe don't even know exist that often go overlooked, but really are what will enable you to build muscle most effectively AND protect you from injury in the process. I also hope that you now know how to fix the top 3 muscle imbalance most people suffer from. And for a step-by-step program that puts this all together for you by showing you exactly how to train to build muscle without developing unbalanced muscles or weaknesses in the process, then take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program is best for you and your specific body below:

https://builtwithscience.com/bws-free-fitness-quiz/gender?utm_source=Youtube&utm_medium=Video&utm_content=Description%20box&utm_campaign=3%20muscle%20imbalances%20slowing%20your%20gains%20Dec%208%2F2019

Filmed by: Bruno Martin Del Campo

MUSIC:
Soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired

ROTATOR CUFF VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NA8lUy5_Qc&

STUDIES:

LOWER TRAPS
http://www.physactiv.eu/wp-con....tent/uploads/2017/04
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.o....rg/fcd9/da87c18bee3d

PRONE Y RAISE
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12774999

HAMSTRING IMPORTANCE
https://www.researchgate.net/p....ublication/236955327

SQUATS
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.o....rg/f3da/3a19feda261c

LEG PRESS
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.o....rg/0589/f5b2784123b3

HAMSTRING DEVELOPMENT
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24345718
https://www.sciencedirect.com/....science/article/pii/

EXTERNAL ROTATOR CUFF
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24077379

Subscribe to my channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/jeremy....ethier/?sub_confirma