The Importance of muscle imbalance

There’s a lot of talk about proper life balance with work, family, and food...but is your workout balanced?  Are your muscles balanced?

Did you know your quads are made up of 4 muscles... makes sense right.  This muscle group (rectus femoris, Vastus medialis, Vastus Lateralis, Vastus medialis) needs to be balanced out individually for knee health as well as balanced as a group to properly offset the hamstrings and glutes, or opposing muscle groups. 

Every joint in the body has muscles on each side to aid with flexing/extending, aduction/abduction, or rotation. Muscular imbalance can cause tightness on one side and weakness on the opposing side which can cause many problems including joint pain or potential injury.  Repetitive movements in a work setting or doing the same fitness routine over and over again can cause imbalances as well as sitting for long periods of time or maintaining a poor posture.  

When designing your workouts make sure you are thinking about balance in your muscle groups as well as changing up your routine. Make sure you are moving in multi planes and targeting opposing groups like pushing and pulling, for example.

If you have hit a fitness plateau, fallen into a fitness rut, or are facing injury from muscle imbalance you may be in need of a new workout routine.  Any of the qualified WRAC Trainers can help you with program design as well as fitness assessments to see if you are out of alignment. 

Contributed by:  WRAC Wellness Director, Lisa Smith
lisa@wrac.org

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