One arm really weaker then the other

Gummy Panda

Hi Guys,

My left arm is extremely weaker then my right. This could be due to when I was teenager I broke my collar bone on the left side and unintentional over compensated for it with my right arm.

I notice it when doing barbell curls or EZ bar concentration curls. Right arm is happy lifting the weight while left arm struggles to do a rep. If I lower the weight left arm is still weak while right arm is getting nothing out of it.

If I keep the low weight and keep at it will the left arm catch up or do I need to do something to build it up on it's own?

Sorry if this sounds noobie and any help is appreciated.

Funk It

I broke my collar bone on my left side when I was a teenager, and that wouldn't have anything to do with it. Stops me doing dips, but that's about it. The problem that I can see is the word "barbell".

I remember when I was younger and I was benching, I was fairly impressed that I hadn't much bother lifting on my left side. It went up at a faster rate then my right side. Thinking about the mechanics of this, all I was doing was transferring most of the weight to my right side. Nowadays I mainly bench using dumbells as they are more evenly distributed. The same goes for most of my upper body workouts. Its difficult to get everything to balance out, but I find dumbells brilliant for what I want to do.

When you are doing arm curls, always start on your weaker arm, and for a while if you want to start balancing things out, try and finish each set on the weaker arm so it gets an extra rep in every set.

Edit: A little hint if you are ever carrying something with somebody else, lift it higher than them so they have to take the majority of the weight. Ok, I wouldn't advise this in any case, but its an example of the mechanics, If you consider one person being one arm and the other person being the other arm. Hope this puts it into perspective for you.

Edit#2: You get a better range of motion benching using dumbells, than a barbell as well. I'm no expert, but I reckon that its better. Most gyms have dumbells up to ~50kg, I haven't gone over the 40kg barrier yet, and don't look to anytime soon so there's plenty headroom so to speak.

Gandalph

I think there are certain specialists that can carry out tests on you in this area (Sides of the body being stronger than other). One was visiting my gym at one stage and I had wanted to go check them out but completely forgot on the day. Im sorry but I dont even know what name they come under but Im sure they would have the remedy to your problem if its as severe as you say.

Gummy Panda

Thanks for the replies guys.

Funk,

I think you're right about dumbbells. I probably am just benching with my right taking most of the load. I'll change the barbell lifts to dumbbells and see how I get on for few weeks.

Funk It

Let us know how you get on anyways, it will take quiet sometime to adjust, and they might never become "equal", but I think that dumbells might even out the load for you. So stay patient is my advice and find what works for you.

Your probably well capable of benching dumbells, but will throw my two cents in anyways. A lot of people I see are all over the place with dumbell benching, try and keep the up and down motion in line with your nipples (if that makes sense). Wide at the bottom, close at top. I always allow for a slow down (~2 secs) and a faster, more explosive up (~1 sec), its like winding a spring as I think of it. Again, I'm no expert, and if anyone else has any better advise I would be glad to see what else could be done and I would learn myself.