​Fitness program to correct asymmetries and change lagging muscle areas

Although genetics is an important factor in determining the basic shape of muscles, your body contours can be greatly changed through muscle training and sculpting. Changing body contours requires clear assessment of lagging areas and refined training of lagging areas using effective methods. If you do these carefully, you can make your physical development more perfect.

After the initial stage of training, you must often bring the awareness of sculpting muscles into the parts of the body that you most want to fully develop. This is crucial for bodybuilders as it is a must to achieve the ideal physique.

We can improve the size and shape of muscles in most parts of the body through training, diet, and rest, but changing the size and shape of muscles in specific lagging areas of the body is another matter. The first thing is to choose good exercises for the muscles in the lagging areas

The following are the correct movements suitable for changing muscles in lagging areas.

Shoulder Width Lateral Raise

Upper latissimus dorsi pull-ups and pull-downs

Back Thickness Bent Row and Mechanical Row

Lower part of latissimus dorsi low cable row and single arm row

Upper chest muscles: Incline bench press and incline fly

The inner side of the chest muscles, chest clamping with a tensioner and chest flying bird in a sitting position

Outside of the pecs: wide-grip bench press and bar extension

Lower part of biceps brachii oblique curl

Biceps brachii muscle peak concentration curl and single-arm cable curler

Lower part of triceps brachii: prone dumbbell extension and bar end extension

Upper forearm: reverse grip curl and weight curl

Outside of the thighs, shoulder support squats and leg presses with narrow stance and toes forward

Inner thighs, squats and leg presses with wide stance and toes abducted

Upper thighs Squats, leg presses and lunges

Lower thighs: lunges and leg extensions

Lateral gastrocnemius, heel raise with toes inward

Medial gastrocnemius Heel raise with heels together and toes abducted

When emphasizing training in lagging areas, do not emphasize contrasting areas. For example, if your upper quadriceps are well developed and your lower quadriceps are less developed, you should target your lower quadriceps more early on.. Once the upper and lower parts are in harmony, train with a balanced training plan.

Generally, the muscles in the following five areas are what bodybuilders want to improve. If special attention can be given, the entire physique will be greatly improved.

Shoulder width: Everyone wants to have broad shoulders, but shoulder width is determined by the width of the clavicle, which is a genetic product. If you want to expand your shoulders, you need to increase the muscle mass of the deltoid muscles on both sides of your shoulders. Of course, a slim waist and hips also help to show shoulder width. To increase shoulder width, you need to use dumbbells, pulleys and equipment to do lateral raises to train the middle deltoid muscles. The movements should be standardized, with both arms slightly bent, raised straight until the upper arms are perpendicular to the torso, and when reaching the top, turn the thumbs downward. To further stimulate this area, perform wide-grip upright rows. If intermediate and advanced trainers want to emphasize the training of the middle deltoid muscles, they should do 1 to 2 lateral raise exercises at the beginning of each training session. Below is a recommended plan.

​Number of practice sets

Lateral raise 4 10

Wide grip upright row 3 10

Shoulder Press 4 8

Rear side raise 4 10

Biceps peak: The shape of the biceps is hereditary to a certain extent. Ronnie Coleman has biceps like Mount Everest, while Kevin Levrone's biceps are like super domes. No matter how hard you practice, the outline of your biceps will not change dramatically. Therefore, you only need to focus on getting a maximal biceps contraction without stressing about your natural biceps peak.

The two best exercises for sculpting the peak of your biceps are: concentration curls and single-arm cable curls. You can do curls with a low or high cable machine so that your elbows are roughly parallel to your shoulders, allowing you to mimic the biceps contraction during competition. No matter which exercise you choose, use the peak contraction principle and try to tighten your biceps every time. Below is a simple training plan for the biceps peak.

​Number of practice sets

Barbell curl 4 8

Concentration curl 4 10

Single-arm cable curl 4 12

Upper pectoral muscle: Although leftTransmission is important, but it's much easier to change the shape of your upper pecs than it is to change the width of your shoulders or the shape of your biceps. Although the upper and lower chest muscles have the same tendon (inserted in the front of the armpit), they can actually be regarded as two different muscles. The lower part is thicker than the upper part. Only by emphasizing muscle growth and shaping of the upper part can the entire chest develop evenly. When the upper part of the chest muscles are maximized, the entire chest will look particularly vivid.

To implement training that emphasizes both the upper and lower pectoral muscles, two aspects should be considered: emphasizing incline exercises and not emphasizing decline and flat exercises. If your lower pecs are well developed, you should also keep them solid while using incline exercises to focus on the upper pecs. Here is a targeted chest training plan:

Number of practice sets

Incline bench press 4 8

Upward fly 4 10

　　Sitting position with chest folded 3 10

Plate bench press 2 15

Lower part of latissimus dorsi: Some people have thicker latissimus dorsi muscles, and some people have wider latissimus dorsi muscles. No matter which type, if you don’t train the lower part of latissimus dorsi muscle, you can’t get the maximum development of latissimus dorsi muscles. . The lower part of the latissimus dorsi can be well shaped through various rowing exercises. Seated tensioner rowing, single-arm dumbbell rowing and T-bar rowing can enable you to fully experience the complete stretching and contraction of the latissimus dorsi, and feel that the weight is always pulling the latissimus dorsi. lower part. Below is a back training program that places special emphasis on the lower lats.

Number of practice sets

Seated Cable Rowing 4 8

Single-arm dumbbell row 4 10

Cable pull-down 3 10

Single-arm cable rowing 3 12

Outer quadriceps: When heavy squats and leg presses are included in the training plan, the upper and inner thighs can be strengthened more easily, but the quadriceps can fully reflect the contours and lines of the thigh muscles. The outside of the head muscles often lag behind. Therefore, foot position is key to shaping the outer thigh muscles. By squatting with your toes forward in a narrow stance you put more stress on the rectus femoris and outer quadriceps. It is not safe to do free weight squats in this position, but you can do shoulder press squats, Smith rack squats, and leg presses. When doing leg extensions, if you can turn your knees slightly inward each time the quadriceps contract, you can put more pressure on the outside of the quadriceps. Below is a training plan that emphasizes the outer quadriceps.

​Number of practice sets

Shoulder squat with toes forward 48

Leg flexion and extension 4 15

Leg press 4 8

Lunges 3 15