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Structural imbalance is the bane of potential gains in muscular hypertrophy, strength and athletic parameters, this is true no matter what level of fitness you are currently at.
If an overweight beginner has a humped-back posture this is going to adversely effect the way their body deals with movement until the issue is rectified, likewise, if an athlete has negated an untreated ankle issue for years, this will inhibit their ability to perform athletic movements required for performance, such as a squat or sprint-stride.
The Bench Press seems to be a gold standard to measure upper body strength, but our upper body can also horizontally row in the opposite direction, pull upwards for a pullup, press downwards, and pullover. Its important to have a full scale of movements to measure strength, so we can fairly assess our body’s capabilities.
If you’re feeling aches, pains in an area of your body, or find you struggle with some exercises, contact Jay Shreddinger at Elite Fitness Performance for free advice, and we can go from there!
As a wise man once said, your body is like a chain, and any weakness in that chain renders the whole thing faulty.
The Inverted Row
Can you bench press your bodyweight ten times? Good. But if you can’t do a strict inverted row ten times, then your relative strength sucks, and so does your back development probably.
Every time you do an extra set of bench presses without also adding an extra set of horizontal rows, you’re becoming more structurally unbalanced. Not only will your body start letting you down,
it’ll actually refuse to build size and strength in the exercises or muscles you care about most.
Your muscles need to be strong in all directions, and arguably it’s the ones you see the least that need the most attention.
Below is a video of an inverted row perform expertly.
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