What is muscle imbalance?
More importantly…why should you care?
Almost everyone in this world is affected by muscle imbalances. If you can move, chances are that you are, you have, or you will be faced with some kind of muscular imbalance in your life. The majority of people begin to confront these issues when it feels like it is too late. They seek aid from doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, and personal trainers. What if I told you that you could fix these muscle imbalances on your own? That you could even fix these imbalances from the comfort of your own home?
Addressing muscle imbalances is a benefit for all walks of life and all walks of pain. Muscle imbalances can be caused by moving a lot…and also not moving much at all. Imbalances can be found in a child…and also the ‘well seasoned’. The ‘out of shape’ and the athlete both have reached out to me to fix their imbalances. There is so much focus on “How to lose 50 lbs?” and “How to get 6 pack abs?” that everyday people are consistently changing their workout plans to achieve very superficial goals. They are desperate to look a certain way or trying to follow what social media tells them is normal or healthy.
The reality is… the way we think about exercise, health, and fitness needs to be rewired. We have to see the body as a whole— internal and external. We also must acknowledge that most things in this life are progressive… including the health of your muscles. If your muscle imbalances were created over a certain period of time then you must understand that it takes a period of time to fix them.
So what is a muscle imbalance?
A quick Google search will tell you in some version of this, that muscle balance is “the harmonious action where muscles that surround a joint work together with normal opposing force to keep the bones involved with the joint centered.” With that said, a muscle ‘imbalance’ would mean that the muscles surrounding a joint are not working harmoniously. There are multiple reasons that a person’s muscles may be working out of harmony and these are some of the most common ones:
Natural posture (posture your body goes into without thinking)
Injury
Repetitive stress (body movements or postures you do often)
Unbalanced workout
Improper form during exercise
Inactive lifestyle
Almost everyone can relate to one of these common reasons. Which one do you relate to and if you could fix it yourself, wouldn’t you want to know how? (answer these questions in the comment section below :)) The main thing that must be done to address muscle imbalances effectively is to gain body awareness. How can you fix something that you don’t know you have? I’ve seen it over and over again from massage clients coming to me to ‘fix’ their pain and they don’t have an understanding of where the pain is coming from in the first place. Here is a big secret… usually the cause of muscle pain is not from the area in pain. In fact, the actual cause of muscle pain is generally due to tightness in an opposite side of the body or opposite muscle. Consistently rubbing or even just stretching an area of pain is not going to address the issue in the long run. To truly ‘fix’ your muscle imbalances, you must strengthen the weak muscles, stretch the tightened muscles, and become aware of the body movements/postures that cause your imbalances.
Now that you have a taste of this muscle balance thing, let’s turn your muscle imbalance into a MUSCLE IN BALANCE!
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