Critical Mass

Building Symetry with your weak body parts
By Critical Mass

Not everybody has a nearly perfect body like Dexter Jackson, Flex Wheeler, Gary Strydom, Dennis Wolf, or Big Guns. Those gentlemen have it all in spades.

When I walk into the gym, or see muscleheads around town, I notice the potential thats still left in their physiques. I've seen powerlifters who need upper back development. I've seen skinny guys who think the only muscle in their arm is their bicep. And the list goes on. I would like to share with you a few ideas on how to look at your own body and assess what parts are lacking and how to bring them up.

Tall Guys

Tall guys should focus on 2 glaring deficiencies where their physique may need improvement.

1. Legs
Because you are tall, you will need to work harder, and be more patient when it comes to leg growth. You may have a lot of muscle on your legs by virtue of their length, but by that same token, they will appear skinny. Because of this, you should never miss a leg day, and never miss out on the intensity that you should be using in your leg workouts. You don't have the convenience to stop everyone on the street and say, "hey man check it out, my legs really have more muscle than they appear to have...... it's just that I'm so tall." No man, forget it, you need to pay special attention to your leg workouts because you are genetically pre-disposed to having long, skinny legs. Overcome it. The good news is that you have a lot of room to grow and put on muscle without fearing the "too bulky" factor.

2. Shoulder and Back width
In bodybuilding, you want to appear as wide as you are tall for a nearly perfect "X" frame. Of course, this is a fight to get as close as possible because our bodies are just not built like that, but it's especially harder for the taller lifter. With this in mind, pay special attention to Military Presses and Dumbell Lateral Raises for Shoulders, and Pull Ups and Barbell Rows for your lats. These exercises are paramount for adding width to your frame both from the front, and the back.

The width factor my also apply to those who may be shorter, but were not blessed with naturally wide bone structure at the shoulders.

Hardgainers

Among many other things, true hardgainers are going to have problems with their forearms, calves, and traps. Let's take traps and neck for example. Look at someone who has lost a few pounds from being sick. You can tell it in their neck and shoulders. Look at natural bodybuilders on stage. They have very depleted traps. From my observations, those who are in a starved state or on a strict diet have a hard time keeping their traps high. Your body loses weight in this area quickly. Well, the hardgainer has a hard time staying in a calorie surplus every day of the week. Go ahead and train your traps, but keep your calories up on a daily basis and you will see them stay higher. Same goes for forearms. You might need to train your forearms and calves 3 times a week in order to get them to grow. But again, much of this will depend on you staying in a positive nitrogen balance by eating plenty of protein, and staying in a positive calorie balance daily.


High Biceps

Sometimes people have longer arms than their bicep. Their bicep doesn't stretch all the way down to their elbow. This kind of sucks. When someone who has this problem hits a side chest shot, you can see that they have half of an arm. To help fix this problem, you want to do lots of standing curls and preacher curls to help grow the length of your bicep. This is a long train coming. You can also do many hammer curls and reverse grip curls to grow the top of your forearms and help fill in the gap. Actually, this will most likely happen before you grow the length of your bicep down further to your elbow.

These are just a few thoughts that I wanted to share with you. Now get to the gym.

IceDragon

Another great article, thanks CM.

One thing I've often noticed is that my left bicep is always smaller than my right (probably down to me being right handed), but even though I try to make sure I do the same kind of weights, reps and whatever on both arms with dumbells, I still haven't seen a difference. Is it just time that will change that, or is it worth me trying a unilateral workout to concentrate on it?

Critical Mass

I have the same thing going with my biceps. I have never been able to grow it to proportion, rather, it's gotten stronger than my right from all the extra attention. So now I have a smaller, stronger left bicep.

Sens

Nice article.
I'm 6'1" ish and i'm constantly reminded of how skinny my legs are. I thought it was just me.

Critical Mass

I just can't miss leg day. My jeans are just getting to the place where they sit on my upper quad sweep and I like it. Man, I don't want to lose it.

Big Guns

From carrying your kids around.

Great Post CM!!!!

MAGreen

I like your comments about lengthening the biceps. I see so many people doing very short movements in their exercises. The do pull ups but they only do down six inches before pulling back up again. They do curls but only let their arms down a third of the way before curling back up again. I think they’re trying to maximize how much weight they can use or how many reps they can do. I’m not sure where they’re learning this but I think it encourages shortening of the muscles. I like your advice and would add a suggestion to complete a full extension, a full range of motion on each repetition.

Critical Mass

Thank you for the comments. Yes, thats a nice addition to this thread.

Big Guns

I just re-read thiss post...thanks for the kind words. My shoulder are my weakest. They are not big....because I didn't take care of them and never really trained them consistant. They look beeter know because I am leaner. I do not have great genetics...except for my lower quads, and if I had trained my legs more than I did...they would be huge, but being a ski bum I didn't give 2 shits about big legs....just pounding bumps.

Find your weak points and train them will more vigor and be consistant and they will grow....even calves! Do not give up on calves...they are a muscle and WILL grow, but you need to train the snot out of them


Great post CM

Boki

my weak point is my chest and shoulders, man they drive me crazy, my calfs are good, haha i used to walk on my tippie toes when i was a kid all the time, they are vascular also