arthunter888
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 23, 2009
- Messages
- 623
I'm just getting into body-building (mainly for bigger arms). I have noticed that my muscles are dis-proportionate in a couple ways.
1) My entire upper left side is slightly more bulky than my right (biceps, back, shoulders). This is because I've been playing tennis for many years and am left-handed, so my left side is used much more than my right.
2) Other upper body muscles like my chest, shoulders, neck are relatively more bulky and make my middle-arms (biceps/triceps) look small.
I currently workout once or twice a week, doing only bicep and tricep isolation exercises. With isolations, I try to address the above-problems to balance my muscles by focusing more on the right side of my body (#1), and focusing more on middle-arms than the other muscles (#2).
The problem is I want to start adding compounds because I read these are better for muscle size gain, like bench press and chin-ups, but these use all the muscles that are already bigger than my middle-arms, AND uses the left and right side of my body, thus not helping to balance problems #1 and #2. As if the muscles that I want to keep the same will continue growing WITH the muscles that I want to grow, thus not achieving balance.
Is this a misunderstanding of how muscle gain works? Is the truth that weaker muscles will grow at a faster rate than stronger muscles, thus "catching up" on their own, or am I right in thinking that relatively bigger muscles will grow at the same rate as relatively smaller muscles, thus requiring more focus on smaller ones to balance? How would you suggest I achieve both types of balance?
1) My entire upper left side is slightly more bulky than my right (biceps, back, shoulders). This is because I've been playing tennis for many years and am left-handed, so my left side is used much more than my right.
2) Other upper body muscles like my chest, shoulders, neck are relatively more bulky and make my middle-arms (biceps/triceps) look small.
I currently workout once or twice a week, doing only bicep and tricep isolation exercises. With isolations, I try to address the above-problems to balance my muscles by focusing more on the right side of my body (#1), and focusing more on middle-arms than the other muscles (#2).
The problem is I want to start adding compounds because I read these are better for muscle size gain, like bench press and chin-ups, but these use all the muscles that are already bigger than my middle-arms, AND uses the left and right side of my body, thus not helping to balance problems #1 and #2. As if the muscles that I want to keep the same will continue growing WITH the muscles that I want to grow, thus not achieving balance.
Is this a misunderstanding of how muscle gain works? Is the truth that weaker muscles will grow at a faster rate than stronger muscles, thus "catching up" on their own, or am I right in thinking that relatively bigger muscles will grow at the same rate as relatively smaller muscles, thus requiring more focus on smaller ones to balance? How would you suggest I achieve both types of balance?