Muscle Imbalances

By: Jefrey Gordon Parker, NASM Fitness Professional and owner of Jef Gordon Fitness, Inc.
Have you ever wondered where your energy has gone and why you often can use a shoulder massage? Have you
ever experienced lower back discomfort or even pain? You might be like millions of other Americans who sufer from
a muscle imbalance.
What is a muscle imbalance? First, you must know a little about how your body operates to know what a muscle
imbalance is. For almost every muscle in your body there is an opposite muscle pulling in the other direction, a
primary and an antagonistic (opposite) muscle. Your upper arm has the biceps and triceps that fex and extend your
elbow; they are opposites of each other. When your biceps contracts it causes you to bend your elbow, but at the
same time your triceps is relaxing in order to allow your elbow to bend. When you straighten your arm, like pushing
yourself of a wall you where leaning on, your triceps contracts and your biceps has to relax in order for your elbow to
straighten out. The muscle that is contracting is the primary mover and the muscle that is relaxing is the antagonistic
muscle.
If your biceps is a lot stronger than your triceps to the point where you could not physically straighten out your elbow
all the way, then you have a muscle imbalance in between these two muscle groups. What does this muscle
imbalance defnition have to do with your lower back irritations or your shoulder stifness you say? Plenty, and here is
why.
While you are sitting at your desk all day long your hip fexors and quadriceps (hips and front of legs) stay in a
shortened position and at the end of the eight-hour day you stand up to exercise your gluteus muscles (your butt
muscle). Other than standing from a seated position and walking, your gluteus is not being worked out. That is
important because your gluteus muscle group is the antagonistic muscles to your hip fexors and quadriceps, and
while staying in a shorten seated position all day long your hip fexors and quadriceps become more dominate over
your gluteus, and this makes a muscle imbalance.
But how does this afect that back and shoulders? Good question! Over years of this abuse, your hip fexors and
quadriceps remain contracted every time you stand and now that they can not relax all the way your pelvis has no
choice but to rotate forward as you stand. Thats right; your pelvis has no choice but to rotate forward when you
stand. But you stand up straight every time you say? That may be! But when you do stand, you are not standing up
by relaxing your hip fexors enough to allow your hips to fully rotate into a neutral position, and when your fexors hit
that end of the road stopping point your back takes over from there. Up you stand and put a big huge arch in your
lower back to compensate for youre over contracted hip fexors and quadriceps. You do this because instead of
walking around bent at your waist all day, you compensate by using your lower back muscles to bring your chest and
shoulders to an upright position. Now since that puts unnatural stress on the lower back muscles and the spine, this
single handedly can explain why so many Americans today sufer from lower back irritation or pain. There are other
reasons for lower back pain and injuries but my explanation is for healthy individuals who do a lot of sitting. This is
just one example of many types of imbalances that constantly drain energy and mobility from our bodies.
If you are a person that could always use a shoulder massage, chances are you also work at a desk with a computer,
or some other activity that has you hunched over, or using your hands in front of you all day. I.E. computer work,
secretary work, driving motor vehicles while constant repetitive motions with your hands in front of you. These types
of occupations result in employees having a forward head, and protracted shoulders. most severe cases of this
problem commonly known as a hunch back.
Repetitive movements with the head can also contribute to this problem. Examples are a surgeon constantly turning
his head to look at the health monitors during a surgery or a student studying all day and night looking down at a
desk reading.
If you wonder if you are one of these individuals, then go to the mirror and look at yourself. Look at your shoulders
and see if your head looks like its in front of your shoulders or sitting directly on your shoulder. Look and see if the
palms of your hands face the wall behind you or if they face directly at your side or somewhere in between.
If your hands face the wall behind you or angled so your pinky is on the outside and your thumb is the closest fnger
towards you you have what is called an Upper Extremities Postural Distortion, otherwise known as UEPD.
And while wearing a pair of pants with a belt, does your belt slant forward or backwards? Most common is for your
belt to slant forward but dose your belt look level all the way around your waist? Well it should! A belt that is not
perfectly leveled all around the waist is known as a Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Postural Distortion, otherwise known
as LPHCPD.
Symptoms for your Upper Extremities Posture Distortion include neck and shoulder stifness and are known to cause
headaches in individuals sufering from Upper Extremities Posture Distortion. While the Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex
Postural Distortion symptoms include low back pain, stifness and irritation. All three posture distortions drain your
precious energy every single day from the task that you need that energy for on a day to day basis!
Corrective strategies must be taken to eliminate symptoms which include fndga proper ftness professional trained
in correcting muscle imbalances or a good physical therapist. If you experience any pain as symptoms, seek a
proper physician frst and get referred to a good physical therapist before you begin any ftness exercise program.
When you decide to invest in a personal trainer I strongly suggest that your trainer personally talks to your physical
therapist or doctor before your training sessions begin if you are recovering from any pain or injuries. I recommend
this so your trainer will know all your limitations and help you get stronger so you do not get injured again.
A side beneft of your personal trainer talking with your health care professional, and I think it is a really good side
beneft, is that your health care professional will be able to spot if your trainer really knows what he or she is talking
about and if they are truly qualifed to help you or not. You are taking a risk if you are getting over a injury and
trusting your ftness routine to just any Certifed Personal Trainer.
Muscle imbalances do not have to cause any pain or discomfort to be debilitating, only the most sever cases
experience pain on a daily basis. Most cases though an individual will not even notice the imbalance. Instead
noticing a weakness in a sports activity or wight lifting routine they can not seem to improve. Plato. Muscle
imbalances impair your ability to work out. Do you know what shin splints are?
Most people typically join a gym to get in shape and use the typical exercises; bench press, lat pulls, leg extensions
and of course the leg press machine.
A individual with a Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Postural Distortion is having lower back problems and they think by
exercising their lower back with the lower back extension machine is going to strengthen and help it feel better, when
truly they are just exacerbating the problem even more!
Because people work at a computer all day long, their chest muscles are in a short position and their rhomboids are
in a lengthen position. So doing bench press to strengthen those chest muscles is shortening them up even more,
and produces even more Upper Extremities Posture Distortion symptoms. Also, leg extension, leg press, and lower
back extensions can also make your Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Postural Distortion symptoms even worse and here
is how.
Tight hip fexors, tight quads and tight lower back muscles all contribute to the Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Posture
Distortion as well as a weak gluteus maximus, weak abdominal muscles and weak shoulders. Weak shoulders?
Yes, weak shoulders I will get into in a more advance section of this book.
Because your hips and quads are tight already, doing leg extension without working the antagonistic muscles
correctly will just exacerbate the problem more. And because most people are not capable of doing a proper abs
crunch because of their Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Postural Distortion, it infames the back.
And yes, the leg press machine is working the much needed to be worked antagonistic muscles of the hips and
quads, the gluteus muscles. Because you are seated in the leg press machine, or laying the back with the sled and
feet pointed into the air, your hips are in the same position as they are when you are seated at work, home, driving in
the car to work and home! How is this machine going to counteract all your sitting? It doesn't.
Even though your muscles will be soar from the leg press machine and it feels that you just had a awesome workout
and burned a bunch of calories, and it probably did, you still did not work the angle of your hips you need to work to
counteract the Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Posture Distortion which is caused by all the sitting you do throughout your
daily life.
To change the imbalance of the Lumbo Pelvic Hip Complex Posture Distortion you must work the desired new angle
of the hips so your body will remember that angle and keep it even when you are not working out. That is the whole
concept behind Corrective Exercise Training: Create fexibility in the tight muscles while increasing range of motion by
working the weaker muscles in the desired new range of motion.
When your antagonistic weak muscle groups becomes equally as strong as your primary over dominate muscle
groups you achieve what is called an equal length tension relationship between the two muscles groups, which is the
length at which the muscles can produce the greatest force. Posture is greatly improved and consequently eliminates
all symptoms of the muscle imbalances.
Learn how to correct these and other imbalances like the Lower Extremities Posture Distortion mentioned in my more
advance Muscle Imbalance Correction E-Book. www.jefgordonftness.com
Also learn how to over come any ftness challenge and make your ftness dreams a reality on a month to month basis
with a ftness professional that understands you by your side. www.jefgordonftness.com/_wsn/page5.html