One of my dear gym-going subscribers asked “how do you balance strength between your different body parts? How do you balance biceps/triceps, hamstrings/quads, and left and right sides of the body?”

If you yourself go to the gym, and wonder if your exercise selection is setting you up for injury, read on.

First, let’s tackle the question of how to balance side-to-side imbalances. If one side is significantly stronger than the other side, you have to identify whether that weakness is coming from the nervous system or the muscular system.

With our clients, we figure that out through manual muscle testing. If we find that the source of weakness is at the nervous system, no amount of exercise will fix that. But a simple, 12-second technique called “trigenics” will. Since this is something that you need a professional to help you with, I won’t spend much time on this. Although if you do need help, let me know.

So let’s assume that your side-to-side imbalance is caused by the muscular system. What do you do?

A lot of people will just continue to work both sides equally. That will just maintain or increase the imbalance.

Some people will actually do more sets for the weaker side. This is more sensible.

But we like to get fast results for our clients, so we take it a step farther. We don’t work the strong side at all. We do 1-4 sets for the weak side. We keep this going for as long as it takes for the sides to even out (so we test periodically). Typically this takes 2-6 weeks. After both sides even out, we start working both sides equally again.

This works best because not only is the weak side getting stronger, but the strong side is getting weaker. This really accelerates your results.

Now let’s tackle the issue of muscle balance between different muscles. Here’s a rule of thumb: men under 35 spend WAY too much time working on their chest and biceps. Women under 35 spend WAY too much time on cardio machines, and if they do strength training, it’s a million different variations of abdominal exercises.

What a wonderful way to set yourself up for injury, frustration and stagnation.

So although there are no well-established, agreed-upon guidelines on the balance between different muscles, I’ll tell you my own experience and observations from hundreds of clients.

Let’s assume that our person (doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman) can do a flat barbell bench press with 100 pounds for 10 repetitions. Here are the numbers I would like to see in different exercises:

 

Deadlift: 170-180 pounds

Back squat: 140-150 pounds

Front squat: 120-130 pounds

Overhead press: 65-75 pounds

Lat pulldowns: 100-120 pounds

Bent-over barbell row: 100-110 pounds

Bent-over 1-arm dumbbell row: 50-55 pounds

Seated rows: 80-90 pounds

Biceps curls: 25-30 pounds total (that’s 12.5-15 pounds per side)

Triceps pushdowns: 35-45 pounds

If you maintain these strength ratios, you’ll:

  • Have a well-balanced, symmetrical physique
  • Prevent injuries
  • Be cooler

Oh, and a few of these won’t hurt either: