Strength Imbalance

[Orange Lightning]

Most everyone has a dominant hand and foot, and those limbs are generally stronger than the other 2.
I am right handed and right footed. My left foot is more flexible than my right.

Looking in the mirror recently, I noticed something I thought was odd. My left arm is slightly more toned than my right, but my right is slightly bigger and stronger. Considering the roles my left and right arms play in my training, it does make degree of sense. To be noted though, the difference is very slight. It's not something I did on purpose. I try to train all my limbs in equal fashion to the other.

I started thinking, do I want one limb to be conditioned differently than the other? At the logical extreme of that way of thinking, I wonder what it would be like to fight a person with a really toned left and a really big right. Or toned legs and big upper body. Not unlike Bill Wallace actually.

So, anyone have thoughts on this? An advantage or a disadvantage, or is it a non issue? Do you think this is something I should let happen how it will, or should I try to keep both arms in equal conditioning?

 

[drop bear]

You need to fix it or you will screw yourself up.

Do weights.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

So, anyone have thoughts on this? An advantage or a disadvantage, or is it a non issue? Do you think this is something I should let happen how it will, or should I try to keep both arms in equal conditioning?

There are some techniques that one should train only on one side and not on both sides. The reason is simple. you will get "double result". The trade off will be you will get nothing on the other side. It may be bad that you can't type on keyboard with both hands, but it's not that bad if you can only use your right hand to

- shot firearm,
- hold chopstick
- write,
- play tennis,
- throw baseball,
- ...

If you hang on the tree/pole everyday, you will develop strong "head lock". If you have only 2 hours training time daily, do you want to spend

- 2 hours on 1 side (your one side arm will get bigger than the other side), or
- 1 hour on one side and 1 hour on the other side (your both arms will be developed with equal size)?

You will get different results depend on which way that you may prefer.

 

[Orange Lightning]

There are some techniques that one should train only on one side and not on both sides. The reason is simple. you will get "double result". The trade off will be you will get nothing on the other side. It may be bad that you can't type on keyboard with both hands, but it's not that bad that if you can only use your right hand to

- shot firearm,
- hold chopstick
- write,
- play tennis,
- throw baseball,
- ...

If you hang on the tree/pole everyday, you will develop strong "head lock". If you have only 2 hours training time daily, do you want to spend

- 2 hours on 1 side (your one side arm will get bigger than the other side), or
- 1 hour on one side and 1 hour on the other side (your both arms will be developed with equal size)?

You will get different result depend on which way that you may prefer.

Good point. It seems like some things would be fine to know just on one side. But, generally, I don't know if it would be more advantageous to develop both sides equally or to have one side just be better at certain things than the other. What do you think?
With my staff, it's a night and day difference. With my left hand forward, my hands just don't have the muscle memory to perform the moves anywhere near as effectively as with my right hand forward. Not nearly to the same degree with hand to hand, but the difference does exist. I don't see much point in having too much focus on left hand forward with staff because...well, I'm never going to use that over right hand forward. Different story with hand to hand.

Has preferring one side for some things helped you any? Or would certain tactics of yours be less effective if you did both equal? Or vice versa?
Not doing both sides seems like I could be tactically stunting myself, and not focusing on one seems like I could be steamrolled by someone that focused on one side. After thinking about it, I don't know which one I want.

You need to fix it or you will screw yourself up.

Do weights.

I do weights. Usually freeweights, sometimes machines. I'm not as into weights as I used to be, but I still do them sometimes. My right arm is a little stronger, but up until recently, I was totally evened out. Lately, I've spent the majority of my time on technique, footwork and movement (slipping, jumping, abruptly switching directions, some experimenting etc. ), cardio, and bag work. The fun stuff, basically. I've had a lot less time lately. College. Internship. Not much energy for weights these days. When I do have free time, I rarely spend it on weights now. I will in the future though. Nothing a montage can't fix.

How will I screw myself up? Do you mean I'll look goofy? Or I'll have a disadvantage?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

It seems like some things would be fine to know just on one side. But, generally, I don't know if it would be more advantageous to develop both sides equally or to have one side just be better at certain things than the other. What do you think?

You can always develop different skills on different sides. You just assign "different tasks" to your different sides. For example, if you like to put your left leg forward, you may want to develop you

- left jab, and
- right cross.

Same as to develop your

- spear with your right hand, and
- shield with your left hand.

 

[drop bear]

Good point. It seems like some things would be fine to know just on one side. But, generally, I don't know if it would be more advantageous to develop both sides equally or to have one side just be better at certain things than the other. What do you think?
With my staff, it's a night and day difference. With my left hand forward, my hands just don't have the muscle memory to perform the moves anywhere near as effectively as with my right hand forward. Not nearly to the same degree with hand to hand, but the difference does exist. I don't see much point in having too much focus on left hand forward with staff because...well, I'm never going to use that over right hand forward. Different story with hand to hand.

Has preferring one side for some things helped you any? Or would certain tactics of yours be less effective if you did both equal? Or vice versa?
Not doing both sides seems like I could be tactically stunting myself, and not focusing on one seems like I could be steamrolled by someone that focused on one side. After thinking about it, I don't know which one I want.



I do weights. Usually freeweights, sometimes machines. I'm not as into weights as I used to be, but I still do them sometimes. My right arm is a little stronger, but up until recently, I was totally evened out. Lately, I've spent the majority of my time on technique, footwork and movement (slipping, jumping, abruptly switching directions, some experimenting etc. ), cardio, and bag work. The fun stuff, basically. I've had a lot less time lately. College. Internship. Not much energy for weights these days. When I do have free time, I rarely spend it on weights now. I will in the future though. Nothing a montage can't fix.

How will I screw myself up? Do you mean I'll look goofy? Or I'll have a disadvantage?

You will put your posture out and get joint problems.

 

[Orange Lightning]

You will put your posture out and get joint problems.

From having one limb be heavier than the other? I don't think that will happen to me. Can you go into more detail?

You can always develop different skills on different sides. You just assign "different tasks" to your different sides. For example, if you like to put your left leg forward, you may want to develop you

- left jab, and
- right cross.

Yeah. Of course. That makes sense. I do stand left foot forward, but I occasionally find myself right foot forward. Especially when plenty of kicking is involved. I'm definitely stronger with different moves on different sides. Combinations even more so. But I've always tried to train a move on the non dominant side at least adequately well. My left round kick in particular took a lot of time to make any good. Especially when it's the front foot. to Up until now, I've only ever thought of it as a weakness. My right leg is a stronger and more accurate kicker, but my left is more flexible. My right leg is a lot more....instinctive? Intuitive? My left leg needs a lot more analyzing and drilling to figure out what it could do better.

I definitely lose and gain things on either side. I'm fine with switching between left foot forward and right foot forward. But because each side is better at certain things, I don't know if I should focus on equalizing it, or continuing to specialize each side. Assuming I already do the bread and butter stuff like the jab and cross on each side.

Let's see..... These are my differences without getting into combinations - my left is not great at low round kicks or high side kicks, better at high hook kicks (more flexible), but not spinning ones (not as powerful). My right is a bit better at kicking in general, but most notably round kicks. My left hand is way more practiced at backfists and elbows, my right better at overhands and straights. Right foot forward, I feel like I might be wasting my left foot some because it can't utilize the back foot's power as well without the strength and accuracy of my right. But my kicking off the front foot is dramatically better with my right. Right foot forward, my hands are fine in most respects, but can't do anything too complicated With my left in front, round kicks are almost a joke unless I have a squared stance with my left foot well off to the side. The result is more side kicks, so my left side kick might be quicker than my right's.

Besides that, it's relatively equal. The strength of all my limbs are pretty close. It's primarily differences in technique that change things. My left hip just doesn't seem to want to rotate the same way the my right does. Been spending a lot of time trying to equalize my kicks. My left has come a long way, but not as far as my right. It's not even that I've spent more time on my right. My right just seems to know what to do better.

 

[Andrew Green]

ntage or a disadvantage, or is it a non issue? Do you think this is something I should let happen how it will, or should I try to keep both arms in equal conditioning?

Imbalances are a big cause of injuries. A proper S&C program that is designed to compliment your training should help take care of this, but if you let yourself get major imbalances you'll eventually end up with things out of place and injuries as a result.

Not just sports, but people that do physical work get this a lot, especially if that work is repetitive. Working the body in a way that doesn't balance things out is a major cause of preventable injuries.

 

[Orange Lightning]

Imbalances are a big cause of injuries. A proper S&C program that is designed to compliment your training should help take care of this, but if you let yourself get major imbalances you'll eventually end up with things out of place and injuries as a result.

Not just sports, but people that do physical work get this a lot, especially if that work is repetitive. Working the body in a way that doesn't balance things out is a major cause of preventable injuries.

In my brain, somewhere, I've heard that before. I forgot about it though. Thanks for the reminder. I didn't know it was so common.
As it is right now, the difference is barely perceptible. I'm not worried about one limb getting too imbalanced. There's no way it will get that out of hand. Especially now that I'm aware. I'm more so thinking about skill and muscle memory than muscle mass.