UKC

Hi,

I have a big difference in strength between my left and right arm. Which means I often fail to do moves or have to resort to very difficult sequences using my stronger arm. Which seems to exacerbated the problem.

I have tried things like off set pull ups or assisted hangs, but again I seem to just end up using my stronger arm.

Does anyone have ideas how I can correct this inequality.

Thanks in advance

WB

In reply to WB:

You just have to keep pumping away with the weaker arm

I've had this with one arm push ups. I make sure reps are equal and concentrate on slow movement with the stronger arm while using more powerful movement with the weaker arm to achieve the same reps. After a few weeks I now feel stronger with the 'weaker' arm.

You are going to have to consciously work on it otherwise it won't improve on it's own as you have said.

In reply to WB:

start masturbating with the other arm

In reply to WB:

Hi WB,

Your dominant side tends to do a lot of fine motor control actions such as writing or feeding yourself with fork. As such muscle recruitment and movement patterns are much more ingrained that with the non-dominant side. In essence, doing stuff feels more natural to the dominant side.

This could lead to the perception of weakness as your technique is not as refined, the recruitment is not there when you want. Yes there will be some difference in strength but unless you are built like a fiddler crab or Nadal its not something you cant educate your body to overcome.

So do your offset pullups, make sure you strengthen your shoulders, work on your core. Always do the reps/sets with your weak side first.

Shoulders: google scapula pull ups, dips and pressups. These exercises will get your large back muscles engaged properly and permit a good clean pull up. Offsets put a huge strain on a small section of the body which gets neglected. Do 10 reps per set and do 3 sets. Add weight once you can complete this without failing in the last 3-4 reps of the final set.

Core: side plank, plank, back bridge. For the first two you want strict form and do this with straight arms - none of that rest on your elbow stuff. Work up to being able to hold each pose cleanly for 2 mins.

Pullups: Narrow, regular and wide offsets. Also if you have access to a set of rings, do typewriters on these and allow your wrist to rotate, it will save you the dreaded elbow tendonitis that comes from torquing your elbow hard on a statitc bar. For strength I would go with 6 reps per set and perfrom 4-5 sets with around 4-5min rest between. Do more and you work endurance, do less and you work power.

Fingers are often neglected as well, my advice is to deadhang but do so in offsets, i.e non-dominant hand hangs the crimp whilst the dominant holds a low hold with say 1-2 fingers. Deadhang protocols can be easily picked up off the beastmaker, metolius etc websites. Consider trying Eva Lopez maximum added weight, minimum edge width protocol, once you hit 40-50kg added weight start hanging one handed.

If after a few weeks of trying all of this you make improvements, this will be neuromuscular improvements. After about 6 weeks your actual muscles should have started adapting so you should really see some improvements on your former pre-trained self.

Good luck and remember if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

In reply to alx:


Thank you for your reply. I'll try it out.

In reply to WB:
Its funny though that I can do a few one armers with my left (non-dominant arm) whilst I struggle with my dominant right arm. How does that work? My reckoning is that the non dominant arm gets to rest more so is stronger! anyone else find this?

In reply to petegunn:

Do you find that you trust your dominant hand more on holds and as such choose a sequence which reachs with the dominant side first? As such you have been training lock offs every time you climb with you non-dominant side.

In reply to HosteDenis:

I use both at once

In reply to WB:

I often find this when I use dumbells for bicep exercises - my left arm feels stronger than my right arm (or at least I feel the fatigue in my right arm sooner than I do in my left).

I assumed that if there was a difference, my right arm should be stronger given that I'm naturally right handed and favour that arm more...but it's not.

Not a massive difference, but quite noticeable towards the end of a set.

I was going to post about it on here but thought I'd get swamped by wanking references

In reply to WB:

This might just be the most useless piece of advice ever, but breaking my right collar bone and having it plated back together made my left arm have to work harder while the newly weedy arm got its act together again. They're now about the same. It should be no surprise that his advice comes with a health warning..........

In reply to alx:

Can see that this might be true. locking off with the perceived weaker arm so that your more dominant hand will reach the next hold first. I did some one armed 90 hangs and could hold them way longer with the less dominant arm. Knew there would be some science behind it.