For about the last eight weeks I have been working to improve my body symmetry.  Initially the problem was I had a noticeable difference in strength and visual development between the left and right sides of my upper body.  It seemed that my left side was lagging my right side.  So my goal was to improve the strength and development of my left side to match that of my right side.  The plan has been to use various exercises that isolate the left and right sides of the body.  I would start with the left side since this seemed to be the weaker side and run each exercise to failure.  I would then, with the right side, match that number of reps plus one rep to account for the incomplete rep at failure on the left side. I would quickly do a drop set on the left side with 4 to 6 reps as a target. My thought was to continually hit the left, weaker, side with extra reps when I couldn’t match the number of reps that I could do with the right side.  By working the weaker side harder strength and development progress should, in theory, be more aggressive for that side of the body.

 
Assessing my progress over the past weeks showed that, in nearly all cases, the strength of my left side became more equalized to the strength of my right side.  That is, as weeks progressed I was doing less drop sets on my left side.  In fact during the final week I did only a few drop sets and these were for exercises where I increased the weights.  I also noticed that the form for some of my bar bell exercises improved because I wasn’t struggling as hard with the left side of my body as much.  The ability to use both sides of the body equally is one of the reasons why I feel good body symmetry is important and it seems that I have been able to accomplish progress in this area.

 
I was curious about how others approached this issue so I discussed it with some of the guys at the gym where I workout.  Of those that considered body symmetry as important the consensus is to include a number of dumbbell exercises in their routines to help maintain body symmetry.  Also, the guys that I talked to which were more serious about their workouts showed a tendency to avoid using machines in their routines.  Their routines stuck to primarily free weight and cable exercises.

 
So, going forward I plan to keep body symmetry an important part of my routine planning.  It is obvious that it is an ongoing effort and needs to be constantly addressed.  The way to achieve body symmetry seems to be by using a number of exercises that isolate the left and right sides of my body in every routine, especially dumbbell exercises. ,

It has been about three weeks since I started working for achieving better body symmetry.  In my previous blog I mentioned what I thought were my shortfalls in body symmetry.  I also outlined my initial plan for making improvements.  My initial thought was to first improve differences between left and right side strength and development then work on balancing the body parts.

The workout plan I employed used a number of dumbbell and Hammer Strength machine exercises to isolate the left and right sides of my body.  My target was 4 sets of 6 reps using 86% of my estimated 1rm.  When I was unable to complete a rep with one side of my body I would stop and do a drop set on the weaker side.  I typically dropped the weight for the drop set by 10lbs.  The idea was to hit the weaker side with some extra reps to help stimulate increased development.

Gains towards achieving my goal would be shown by being able to do equal reps with both sides of my body.  Some exercises that demonstrate these results are shown below:

Arnold Press

The Arnold Press shows an increase in reps for the initial weight over the three-week period.
 

DB Flys

The DB Flys demonstrates an equalization of strength between left and right sides at 40lbs.  However, at 45lbs the left side still showed weakness as compared to the right side.  This shows that continued work is necessary to equalize the strength of both sides of the body.

DB Preacher Curl

The DB Preacher Curl shows a general increase in strength in both left and right sides for weeks 1 and 2.  In week 3 the weakness of the left side became evident at 30lbs and shows that more work is needed here.

Though after only three weeks it difficult to say with all certainty, it does appear that the added drop sets on the weak side are serving their purpose.  My plan is to continue using this concept and further evaluate its effectiveness.  For the next several weeks I am planning a pyramid routine with target reps at 10-8-6-4.  I will continue to use exercises that isolate the left and right sides of my body as before.  The one significant change of this routine is I plan to use a four-day split rather than the five-day split I have been using for some time.  The four-day split first of all fits my weekly schedule better and second it allows me to use the fifth day to target specific body parts with some extra sets.   The split is as follows:

Monday

            Chest – Triceps

Tuesday

            Back – Biceps

Wednesday

            Off

Thursday

            Shoulders – Forearms

Friday

            Legs

Saturday

            Extra sets for desired muscle groups

Sunday

            Off

The details for this routine will be posted in my Bodyspace.  I will also attempt to post the workouts in Workout Tracker for better monitoring of progress.

Body symmetry is an important but often forgotten part of bodybuilding.  Body symmetry refers to the balance between body parts.  That is, body symmetry implies that there is balance between the size and strength of say, the chest and back or the shoulders and arms etc.  Also, the left and right sides of the body should be symmetrical or equal in size and strength. Body symmetry is important because it not only gives the appearance of strength but aids in properly performing lifts and other activities.  Though genetics plays a large role in an individual’s body symmetry it is not entirely out of someone’s realm to make positive changes to their body symmetry.

 
 After making some observations concerning my own body symmetry I have identified a number of areas that require improvement.  First off, my upper body tends to lean to the right.  This one is pretty obvious in my progress pics.  I have explored a number of possible reasons for this problem but have not come up with anything conclusive as to why.  Secondly I show shortcomings with overall symmetry (probably due to poor routine planning).  I need to gain size in numerous areas.  For example I think my arms stand out as an area in need.  Lastly my right side is generally stronger than my left (this may be part of the cause of my posture problem) and I show more development on the right side as a result.  Though the developmental differences are not readily evident in my progress pics, differences can be seen especially in the lats and chest.

 
While researching body symmetry and applying what I have learned to my personal shortcomings in particular, the one thing that became evident was that the solution was not a simple tweak to a routine.  There are multiple things that need to be brought into harmony before acceptable symmetry can be achieved.  However the one thing that stands out as a significant contributor to the overall problem, is the strength inequality between the left and right side of my body.  This alone is a major limiting factor to continued progress and, in my opinion, needs to be addressed first off.

 
After consulting with numerous people (including the trainer at the gym where I workout) concerning possible strategies for resolving the left/right symmetry issue, I came up with a routine to hopefully help this.  Since my body responds well to routines that use 6-10 reps I decided to employ a 4×6 routine.  The routine starts with some barbell work.  Outside of doing some warm-up sets, my thought for the barbell work is to keep the left and right sides of my body working together for a couple of exercises.  Then I get into exercises that target only one side of the body.  I do reps until failure of the weaker side.  I then hit the weaker side with a drop set for an additional 3-6 reps. The heavier weights and the fact that I am attacking the weaker side hard with a drop set after failure should help to bring equality to the left and right sides of my body. 

 
I plan to work with this routine for at least 4 weeks at which time I will evaluate any progress and decide what the next step will be. 

About a year ago my son introduced me to Noxplode.  When I first tried it I was amazed at the amount of energy that I had.  Just slug down a scoop of this stuff mixed with water and on an empty stomach then in a short time you hit the weights with a whole lot of vigor.  This had to be a good thing!  So I continued to use it for almost a year.  I was previously using creatine monohydrate and I didn’t feel that it was doing me a whole lot of good.  It seemed to just cause me to retain a lot of water.  I retained a lot of water with Noxplode but I was willing to live with that if the product actually helped me achieve my lifting goals.

After using Noxplode for a while I didn’t feel that I was making the progress that I felt I should be making.  I wasn’t sure if it was the Noxplode not working or that I was doing something else that was causing my slow progress.  I took a look at my routine and my diet and the adjustments I made didn’t seem to make much difference.  I continued to research the possible causes of my dilema.  My thoughts turned to what I was doing for pre and post workout nutrition.  For preworkout nutrition I was taking Noxplode on an empty stomach and working out for about 90 mins then consumed a protien shake for my post workout nutrition.  I felt that my problem could be that I am going into my workout without enough nutrition to carry me through so I decided to drop the Noxplode.

I tweaked my diet and added some nutrition before my workout.  I also added bcaa’s to my preworkout shake.  I noticed that I didn’t have the energy burst that I had with the Noxplode but this only seemed to impact my cardio.  I couldn’t maintain the intensity that I could when I used the Noxplode.  My weight lifting was not impacted as my cardio was.  I could still lift the same weight and do the same number of reps.  The most significant thing I noticed is that I am seeing gains at every session.  So, my weight lifting has actually improved but my cardio has suffered some.

I’m not saying that Noxplode dosn’t work but my experience with it seemed to be the wrong path for me.  I believe I was walking into the gym with the hope that the Noxplode would achieve some miracle, but it doesn’t.  In other words I was living on the “high” it created.  Without it I am more focused on my own abilties and I think this has been a positive move for me.

If a person has been standing halfway across the gym talking to their friends for 10+ minutes, why do they feel that I am intruding when I want to use the equipment that they were using before they started talking to their friends?  Is it proper etiquette to allow someone to finish their sets no matter how much time passes between their sets?  Nothing irritates me more then to have the flow of my work out interupted by a social event!

Why are people so obsessed with body weight?  Wouldn’t body fat percentage be a better obsession?  The last time I was at 10.7% body fat I weighed 203 lbs.  This time I weigh 205 lbs.  Which means that I had 21.7 lbs and 21.9 lbs of fat respectively.  Or, put another way I had 181.3 and 183.1 lbs of lean body mass respectively.  I think the later body mass figure is a better obsession than simply weighing 203 lbs.

My wife suggested that I skip my workout after work and cut the lawn.  The lawn will get cut TOMORROW!

For some time I have been trying to get my body fat down to 10%.  I have come close, in fact last month I got to about 10.7%, but the 10% mark seems to be just out of reach.  Lately I have been sitting between 11% and 12% and it has been a tough go at breaking that trend.  Although the 11-12% is much better than the near 20% I was just over a year ago.  I have reset a goal of reaching 10% body fat by the end of September and I feel I should be able to reach it. My plan at present is to add more cardio time to my workouts and tweak my diet a little better.  The cardio part should be easy but tweaking the diet might prove challenging.  My caloric intake is about as low as I can go so my option here is to adjust the balance of carbs, protien and fats.  I think if I shift the balance to more protien calories and reduce the carb and fat calories I might do better.

I did some research on the Pre-Fatigue technique to get my chest workout going someplace.  Mondays being my chest day I thought I would give it a try.  I did some flat bench flys immeadiatly followed by flat bench press for 4 sets.  I used the same weights that I was using previously and found that I wasn’t able to get the number of reps on the bench press that I was before, which stands to reason.  Overall I felt the plan has some merit in that I left the gym feeling the tightness one gets after a good workout. So, I will try it again next week with less weight on the bench press to keep my reps where I want them.

I have just come off a bad weekend for my diet.  After attending a party at Summerfest (a music festival) Friday, where they served all you could eat and drink and a local celebration on Saturday I have had my fill of eating junk food and drinking alcoholic beverages for a while. Thus the spike in my weight.  I was glad to get my diet back on track this morning when I went to work.  I feel much better already.   I should be able to get things back in order over the next couple of days.