Unfortunately we do not choose our parents and must live with the genetics given to us. Fortunately, this does not mean we cannot change or make the improvements we would like to see on our physique. We certainly can. Whether you genetically possess lagging body parts or as a consequence of sub-optimal training methods, this article will help you overcome that and turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Key Points
- Utilize isolation exercises to target weak body parts.
- Perform these isolation exercises using a weight that allows you to perform them with proper exercise execution. Leave your ego at the door.
- Use a low volume, high frequency style of training.
- Focus on one lagging muscle at a time.
The Cause of Lagging Body Parts
Weak or lagging body parts are a function of genetic limitations combined with poor exercise execution and programming.
The way you teach your body to perform certain exercises from the first day you walk in the gym is exactly how your muscles will respond to that training.
In other words, if you work out incorrectly from the start, it will show up later on in your imbalances and lagging body parts.
Our genetics determine how our physique will look. However, we have complete control of how we choose to build and grow our physique through correct training techniques and programming specific to our goals.
If you simply choose to go to the gym, unconsciously get through your workout and move some weight from point A to point B, your results will mirror exactly that.
Solution
Imbalances require imbalanced programming, placing a greater emphasis on the weak points.
Here’s the thing.
When you perform multi-joint compound exercises that stimulate many muscle groups at once, your most dominant muscle groups will unconsciously take over.
This means that the bigger, stronger muscles will get the most stimulation and growth, while the smaller, weaker muscle groups will remain unchanged.
It is no surprise that your dominant muscle groups are the ones that you are able to activate in an instant while your lagging body parts are the opposite.
“So how do I change that?” I thought you’d never ask.
Begin incorporating isolation exercises into your training program in order to build up the weaker muscles.
Isolating a muscle will allow you to create a stronger mind muscle connection, thus providing the required stimulus for growth.
Proper exercise execution is absolute key to growing your weak points.
That means spending some time consciously applying effort into initiating the movement with the target muscle and using it in its full active range of motion.
The muscle that initiates the exercise will end up doing most of the work.
Repeating this task will not only stimulate and make the muscle grow, but it will also wire your brain to subconsciously begin using that muscle more in other exercises as well.
When you start performing isolation movements with correct exercise technique to target your lagging body parts, you will notice that they are in fact extremely weak.
Kick your ego to the curb and use whatever weight is necessary to properly activate, stretch and contract that muscle. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until that muscle will strengthen and improve.
Volume & Frequency
Next up is volume and frequency of training.
Since lagging body parts are smaller and weaker relative to you, training volume necessary for growth will be low.
In other words, if the muscle is small and weak, it won’t require a ton of work to exhaust it.
Since the training volume is low, recovery will be somewhat quick which allows you to increase the training frequency for those body parts.
For example, if you want to bring up your biceps, training them 3x a week with a total set volume of 8-10 will yield better results than training them once a week with 20 sets. Completing 20 sets is an overkill and quite unnecessary for a small lagging body part.
Using precise exercise execution, it should not take more than 10 sets of total work to exhaust your biceps.
Final words
While on a mission to improve lagging body parts, reduce the heavy compound movements to only 1-2x per week. Use the rest of the time targeting your weaknesses.
Focus your isolation work solely on your lagging muscles, since compound lifts will be dominated by the stronger ones.
Address only one weak body part at a time. This type of focus will help wire your brain to activate and fire the target muscle strongly.
Once you have mastered exercise execution with one lagging body part, you can begin applying this method with a different lagging point in your body.
