Strengthen Your Weakest Links

I don't know how many times I've watched people in the gym and seen them day after day, week after week, train the same body parts and use the same exercises. Usually chest, arms, abs, and shoulders. All the muscles they can see in the mirror. It is rare to see these individuals train their legs, even though the legs are the largest muscles in the body. And by training them they will increase total body strength and size. But, legs are not fun to train and not many people care about how well developed the quads and hams are. So it's just easier not to do them and cover up how weak they look with a pair of sweats.

These individuals are doing themselves a huge disservice. Their goal is to get bigger and stronger, but they are actually preventing themselves from ever reaching that goal. Eventually they will end up with muscle imbalances, resulting in injuries.

However, this can all be prevented and you can reach your goal of having the body you want.
You first however, must determine your weak links. So how do you do this? Well, look at your body. Are you shoulders rounded forward? If yes, then you need to do more back work (rows) and less chest work (bench presses) which is what caused you to develop this problem. Are you quad dominant or hip dominant? If you are quad dominant your knees will come forward when you squat and your ankles will lift of the ground. If you have either of these you need to do more posterior chain exercises like: deadlifts, RDLs, leg curls, and hyperextensions. On top of this you also need to work on your hip and ankle mobility, which can be achieved through proper stretching and using proper form with little or no weight. If you are able to fully squat to parallel or below (and have no limiting injuries) and can keep your knees from coming forward and your ankles on the ground then you are pretty well balanced. If you are hip dominant and this is very very rarely the case with most people you need to strength the quads with exercises like: front squats, and step ups.

Those are just the two most common weak links that I see. There are many more like grip strength which will limit the amount of weight you can handle, lower back strength which limits the amount of weight you can squat and deadlift, and many more. The point is that you need to train your entire body each day you workout and determine your weakest links. By doing this you will have much greater success, see better results, and have less injuries. Even if this requires you to do exercises you don't care for.

Stop overlooking certain body parts and get start getting stronger!

Have a Great Day!

Josh