Want to see How To Fix Muscle Imbalance Faster and More effectively than ever before?
Are you tired of putting up with one side of your body’s muscles and joints having to worker Friggin harder to just get you through your day?
By the end of this article, you’re going to know how to fix your muscles through exercises and all the unseen ways, plus…
My #1 Recommendation for long-term results that you can’t just get from exercises along! But first…
It’s reported that 80% of people will experience “a” lower back pain at least once in their lives, and this is just worsening from “decade to decade.” You might have heard it in the news, seen it on google, or maybe on TV, but for those of us who haven’t-
It’s so bad, it’s ranked the #1 leading cause for missed days at work, and the #1 reason for slouching for the last 15 years! Do you ask yourself how? maybe why?
Lower back pain is tough, primarily for two reasons.
- Understand. It’s a complex world back there, especially when it’s not the part of your body you can see.
- Treat. The reason is that there are a variety of factors to keep in mind.
Your body is to “biomechanics(the way your muscles act with one another in movement), as what the Mona Lisa is to Leonardo DA Vinci…like a coded piece of gem.
The back is a complex system like an algorithm, interconnected with joints, muscles, tendons, facet joints, disc, fascia, and layers of tissues. And so we threw on our reverse engineer hat to move from a problem to the core…
But first, where does your pain start?
Lower back pain comes from:
- walking improperly
- poor posture
- poor pelvic alignment
- hamstrings
- hips
- glutes
- abs
- little to no spinal movement
Muscle Imbalances From Repetitive Motions
Phewww! we got past the onboarding “tutorial”. Glad that was over? Here’s a little more relief: while you’re at it.
You can fix these issues!
These muscle imbalances come from somewhere, so where? Simply, the way you position your body has a CASCADING effect on how you function.
Let me use the example for slouching.
Ex: When you slouch, your muscles will work harder to hold you up because the wrong muscles are taking the load. In your result, these two muscles work harder:
- Fascia – A tough membrane composed of 3 layers covering you muscles.
- Musculotendinous junctions – where your muscles and tendons meet.
Have a read to see how I put these two definitions into work…
Turn your attention to your upper back. What shape does it form? If you said a circle, good job!
Your shoulder blades elevate and concave in(the main reason for constant hunching).
Easy fix right?… So I’ll just stand up and It’ll get corrected!
For a couple of reasons, this is not the right-thinking. When you stand, your muscles can not contract because you scapula gets stuck into position causing you too stretched muscles to stay that way. Now another problem occurs…
Your lat muscles get too weak…
Leaving you fascia and musculotendinous junction to keep you up. You came here because you know I can give you more than a hand, I can give your back.
And so In my article, I will help you fix your muscle imbalances by understanding:
- Everything from acute to chronic imbalances
- How our muscles help us
- What not to do
- Prevention
- How to fix muscle imbalances
- Tips
At any point, if you want to leap ahead to the ways to fix your muscles, please do so.
Let’s get to it.
Acute And Chronic Imbalances
While acute lower back pain is short-lived, chronic lower back pain(CLBD) can persist for weeks, months and even years if not treated properly.
Chronic pain has the ability to affect you not only “socially but psychologically”. Keep Psychologically in mind, as we pursue with your treatment.
Note: Don’t ignore these symptoms! It’s important to surround yourself with the right personnel, whether it be me, a life coach, a physical therapist, or a chiropractor.
So the minority rest, will the majority think in panic…
The majority of the population truly believe either:
- there’s no hope
- go about treatment there wrong ways
I can tell you from my own expertise, most chronic pain is non-specific, meaning it’s unrelated to the spine. And even in “spinal disparity”, there’s room to relax, take a breather, and get to correcting.
Your muscles are a machine…
…And in the next part, I will show you why.
How Your Muscles Help You
I stated earlier how our back is a biomechanical machine with muscles that are attached to your joints throughout the anatomy of you back. To get the OPTIMAL help from you muscles, you need a balance of both “length and strength”. Don’t be alarmed if you haven’t achieved this, here’s a secret:
“Most people are in the same shoes.”
In fact, I still struggle with this still.
What’s a humanities’ lesson have to do with your lower back? A ton!…
Over the years human species have evolved and adapted to best meet their environment. We need survival, we’re a species of evolution, and of an odd one at best.
As children, we can grow up with perfect muscle balances, and live well.
And as the years pass by, we take the stress from our work, and home lives. They become more habitual and our activities become more predictable or repetitive, as it’s a better use of words. For that, we experience adaptations that cause our posture imbalances.
Aside from monkeys, we’re the only species that have evolved with all these great muscles. Unfortunately, sedimentary lives distract us from using them properly. Just think about all the great things in your life you’d be capable of doing! Achieving, succeeding. This single thought inspired me to push forward with my healing process, so why not you?
Daily activities such as:
- working at a desk on the computer
- picking up your child
- lifting grocery bags
…will cause muscle imbalances.
Why People Like You And I Have Muscle Pain
Yeah, we’re going to have muscle pain at some point in our lives. But I said Lower back pain…you muscles are a part of you lower back problems.
As your muscles get all bent out of shape and out of balance, your alignment will get pulled out, in turn causing more pain, with wear and tear on your muscles, joints, ligaments, and even your spine.
And get this, with a weaker “core”, you’ll develop what’s called a postural dysfunction. In this case, your pelvis gets pushed forward on either side or both, and it causes a curvature In your spine, turning normal into abnormal curvature. And this is the root of any back pain you experience –
- A herniated disc
- degenerative disc
- spinal stenosis
- Sacroiliac joint(SI joint)
- spondylolisthesis
- back muscles and the list goes on.
This means on one side of your body you will have short and tight muscles, and your other side will be long and weak.
Not taking the right approach to treating your imbalances can lead you into chronic pain, and thinking that you’re doing the right thing because everyone is doing it is wrong. In fact, take a look at this video that explains so:
If you don’t know a thing about Jesse Cannone, he helps people with bad backs just the way I do, except that we specialize in different areas; he does more face to face at the moment.
Nonetheless, he is right about your posture and fixing your muscle imbalances, that there are way too many people who try to go fix one region any disregard all other conditions in:
- Dehydration
- Nutrition
- Spinal issues
- Strength
- Flexibility
That’s why the right movements are important, and right below I’ll show you how to avoid the wrong ones.
Related: Lose The Back Pain And A Special Muscle correcting System
What You Shouldn’t Do To Yourself
As I went through my physical therapy sessions 2 years ago, I picked up tips and prevention exercises. Along my journey to get my muscles in balance I found that I had been doing the wrong exercises! What a shame! But no time wasted – time learned.
I’m more than privileged and honored to help you not do what I did. If I knew what I knew now, I’d be in better shape sooner. And with the information I have, you’ll do what I couldn’t.
Here are the exercises not to do:
1. Toe Touches
Now, I wouldn’t expect you to actually touch your toes, it’s not about touching your toes, but about your muscles and spine. Doing this exercise will:
- increases pressure on your spinal disc
- pressure, and wear on tear on your ligaments(overstretching)
- overstretched you muscles
Let’s climb up to your stomach, the impeccable abs.
You probably heard the phrase “to have a better spine and posture, you should focus on decreasing your weight”. But guess what? While that is true, it’s only partially. You can work on a routine, but fail in getting the desired results because of either:
- The wrong exercise was performed
- You didn’t do enough to maintain the pressure of your disc
So here’s where you can go wrong:
2. Sit-ups
While you might think sit-ups are appropriate, I’ll equip you with this as I hush…
Instead of using your lower back to lift you up, your hips take on the load. They rotate and therefore causing your muscles to get weaker. Also, this exercise puts too much pressure on your disc. Please stay away from it. I wouldn’t want you coming back, although I can help you without a problem.
3. Leg Lifts
Here’s another core exercise, and one less to worry about.
When you lift both legs in the air, what this does is put a lot of weight on your abs, and if your muscles are already weaker than someone else’s, the pain will become greater.
Avoid these three exercises from your routine, and you’ll have a clear vision for a pain-free life, most certainly I can guarantee you.
Take these prevention strategies into account:
Prevention And Redemption
What’s better than avoiding the wrong exercises? Learning how to prevent yourself from doing them, and do anything to cause an imbalance in the first place. Here is ‘s how to prevent muscle imbalances, whether you are an athlete, a less active individual, and for everyday people like you and me.
A quick note first: you have two muscles, you “antagonist, and passive muscle”. It is important both muscles work together equally, so one is not overcompensating for the other or placing added pressure. As an example let me borrow your hamstrings for a second.
Your hamstring muscle is connected to your quadriceps, and you might know what’s coming next.
Do you have an equal balance between the two? If you don’t you’ve solved 1 of 2 questions. One being “I have an imbalance”
and two, “I’m going to prevent it in the future”, so hold onto this thought, because I’m about to show you how to prevent any pain.
Here’s what not to do:
If you’re lifting weights, there are more ways than one to not only cause a muscle imbalance but injury.
Don’t do:
Have two different sized dumbbells(or another form of weight object). Let’s make one thing clear, I don’t want you hurting yourself.
Using the “deadlift” exercise with “wait” – not a weight bar, but dumbbells, and of different sized weights. Let’s say your right side dumbbell is at 25 pounds, and your other side has a 30LB weight. Now question for you…
Which side of your body will use more effort to raise you up?
Left side.
It’s in the “physics”,- a force is pushing down against gravity, which is your right dumbbell. So now, you left side is overusing you muscles to rise.
While it feels great to have a stronger side to your body, it can be a danger when pumping time at the gym comes around.
When certain muscles are stronger than the others, it will get overused and will lead to pain on both sides, and a possible injury.
Either way, you see it, there’s a recipe for disaster…
For EX: when you’re lifting a heavy box at work, your weaker muscles can get easily torn from not being ready to handle such a task.
You see what can happen, but how do you see your pain?
How To Spot A Muscle Imbalance
The best and easiest way to spot a muscle imbalance is to run an Asymmetry test. It’s an examination to see if theirs a mismatch between your right side muscles and left side muscles. All you need to do is:
- grab a measuring tape
- measure both sides 3 times
- take the average and compare
In the next section, I’ll talk to you about how to fix the ever so muscle Imbalances you’re experiencing.
How To Fix The Root Of The Cause
So now you know how to spot a muscle imbalance, but how can you fix it? This section is underwhelming easy once you get it down.
You’ve probably heard someone tell you, let’s fix the symptoms, wait no you haven’t, and that in part of doctors not telling you different. This is where you spend hundreds, and if not thousands on treatments. Not what I want for you. So “hold you horses.” We want to treat the root.
When has someone ever told you they will fertilize your soil without getting to the very bottom layer of the dirt? almost never.
But let me ask you one serious question.
Are you ready to find a serious approach to your lower back pain? This can be it for you.
I promise that my proven system will do anything else but let you down. Ready to take a step forward in the right direction?
Let’s do this!
Lower back tightness? maybe it’s your hips?
The #1 reason I come across are muscle imbalances is that of the hips. And to no surprise, people tell me “man I have done me so well, my spine is messed up!” Quite frankly, that response turns to fear, and hate right away. I immediately run the checkup test…
I ask:
- “How are your hips?”
- “do you lean forward more than you do back?”
- “Is it hard to rotate?”
- “And do you hips hurt when you stand up?”
Just these 4 questions tell me all I need to conclude, “bingo, it’s the hips!”
A small physical Examination helps me to determine that on one side of your hips, the pelvis is higher. Luckily, I can help you fix that. Do this:
1. Hip abduction exercise
How to do:
- Find a flat surface to lay you back on
- Bend your knees, keep your feet(and heels) flat on the ground, with them hip-width apart
- Wrap a resistance band around your knees, enough to feel it tight
- Bend your knees outward, causing a “V” shape
- Hold it for 10 seconds(if you can)
- Repeat for 2 sets of 20 reps each
- Do 3 times a week
Doing this exercise will help with hip muscle imbalance because the muscles in your pelvis are held together so they don’t move.
Now onto you “core” muscles
Do this:
- Find a flat surface
- Get on your hands and knees
- Keep your chin tucked
- Head up, in line with your body
- Your hips in neutral position
- Place your shoulders directly over your hands
- Lift your opposite leg and arm just a little, without shifting
- Now, start raising a little higher, focusing on keeping a neutral spine and not shifting
- Once you feel more comfortable raise all the way up, keeping your spine in neutral
Position:
10. Hold it for 10 seconds. It’s harder to hold it than it is to position yourself.
This will help the small muscles attached to the segments on your spine, and prevent you obliques From moving out of forward, thus preventing shearing of your disc.
Now, lets moved down away, to your glutes. And yes, I’m talking about the gluteus medius, Maximus and minimus.
Your gluteus medius and minimum plays an important role in holding you stable, and the Maximus is like the powerhouse. Without proper correction, your pelvis will come out of alignment, and what sits on your pelvis? The sacrum – the base of your spine. And if that’s unstable your spine becomes unstable, causing you lower back pain.
There must be something to do about it. So what can you do?
My favorite thing is building a strong butt with stronger hips.
Do this:
- Squats
- Keep your head in line with your body
- Now, tighten up your core muscles
- Sit back as if a chair was behind you
- Keep your knees in line with your feet, and your feet In line with your knees
- Once you feel comfortable, you can put your hands up in the air
- Hold for 15 seconds – if you can
- Come back up, and repeat for 3 more times
I got some good news for you if you want more lasting relief to the point where your lower back pain will go away…
This addition made the biggest difference. And now you can do it too!
An alternative approach:
Place a resistance band between your knees. Now pull to the outside, and feel the stretch.
These are all amazing stretches you can add into your daily routine and pack a punch of health benefits from feeling better and stronger to overall keeping your conscious set in a better state.
By this point, it’s not so much about “how to correct muscle imbalance in lower back, middle and upper, but what is it that you need to be doing on a daily basis to improve your strength and flexibility so you can set your pain free and start living more rejuvenated!
Just set a time and place to correct your lower back for a couple of minutes out of your day and you will be SO thankful you did, I promise you.
According to Runnin For Sweats, there are 6 exercises to find and fix your muscle imbalances.
Best Exercises and Stretches For A Herniated Disc
Most of the strategies and exercises I showed you just seconds ago are helpful for ANY muscle imbalance and will help you re-align your posture which is most important, but what if you had a herniated disc?
There are specially targeted exercises you should be using to fix a herniated disc that in a way will help with your muscle imbalances but EXERCISING IS NOT A FIX FOR BETTER POSTURE.
Remember that last sentence. Exercising alone is not a substitution for fixing your muscle imbalances, you still need to fix your posture habits with targeted movements(which I’ll talk to you in the last section below).
The healthy back institute has a great article on how to exercise with a herniated disc you can check out below…
Now, I have so tips to gift you that you will NEED to go along with your herniated disc and other muscle imbalances…
3 Added Tips For The Road Ahead
From me to you, I want you to be a better version of who you once were without lower back pain. With these tips, I have the confidence you’ll feel safer, and in great spirits. Along with everything you’ve seen about how to fix muscle imbalance in back, there are 3 tips you MUST see if you want long-term relief…
Here they are:
TIP #1: Breath At ALL Times
As you’re going through these routines, I want you to really hone in on your breathing. Yes, you breathe out of all things. It’s more important than you might predict.
As you breathe, you get oxygen into your lungs, and you release the carbon dioxide. Think of the carbon dioxide as a group of criminal invaders being released from your body, and the oxygen as the security system. Let the bad out, bring the good in…
This technique will help you with so much more, and in the ladder pages within this system, you’ll learn why. You’ll want to read as much as you can…
and use the 4-7-8 technique too.
TIP #2: Drink Water
We all take drinking water for granted, ad yes even myself still to this day. What happens when you drink water or preferably water with lemon?
A couple of things:
- You hydrate
- Your body is able to pass rich nutrient blood flow to every area of your body especially to your area of pain.
- You gain more flexibility and strength
- Your spine and discs get lubricated so they can move much more easily and allow you to bend.
I like to drink about a liter of water in the mornings nowadays but if you’re a beginner, you can start with a cup. The morning is the most important time to drink water since your body was in rest mode for the night and you need your flexibility and body natural motions back.
Keep drinking water throughout your day and night.
TIP #3: Invest In Long-Term Natural Treatment
I remember always being cheap about my health and I NEVER got me anywhere. Yes, it got me faster treatment and what I thought was helping me was actually destroying my body…
To the point where I couldn’t take another drug pill anymore and I couldn’t just try any old conservative treatment and think that “I was going to get away with it”. Struggling to see my family in the shape It gave me fears and I felt uncomfortable…
On the outside, I was like “I’m doing it short term, but on the inside, I was like “I hope my friends and loved ones didn’t think less of me because I couldn’t help them and be at my best on holidays and our time together.
I had enough of repetitive treatment, and it wasn’t until a close friend of mine in college at the time told me about a treatment that went well in hand with exercising and that it would help me improve my posture through fixing my muscle imbalances…
And so I gave this NEW opportunity a try and once I gave the green light, literally in minutes my pain, and inflammation went away, and my muscle imbalances became stronger and more powerful than I could ever get just from a standard back pain exercise alone.
I planned to stick with the program for weeks now that I knew it worked well and you wouldn’t believe how much my muscles improved and as a result, I was able to walk more, exercise longer, go out more, and feel like a nothing could stop me!
I’d like to share what this program was if you’d allow me to? I made a review about it for you to check out HERE.
“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.”
~Napoleon Hill
The Remove Back Pain System
After learning about exercises, and how to effectively use your joints, it’s time to come back to muscle balance. In order to allow you to do any activities, and go away from the lower impact activities, its imperative to condition your muscles from bottom to top. Working around your pain is key. So I want to show you all the exercises for lower back pain and sciatica before we individually target each area of your lower back.
For LBP: Continue with the Remove Back Pain System by learning about all the exercises for lower back pain here.
For Sciatica: Continue with the lower back pain and exercise article here.