Hi crew. I have a background at playing tennis since I was born, at almost pro level. I have a little size unbalance in my right side musculature, but a very noticeable strength unbalance (lets say im like 30lbs stronger)
That became a limiting factor to my upper body lifts, specificaly benching, as a I tend to overcompensate too much.
Any tips to improve while not sacrificing barbell training, or is it better to first adjust things and then return to normal BB training?
Thanks.-
I typically would not specifically address this, though I am curious what you mean when you say it’s limiting your bench press?
My right side creates a higher force output. Period.
So sometimes I feel a set RPE easy based on the effort I perceive (probably by that little right side compensation) and I raise the load like saying “ok this was like a 7, so I raise around 3% maybe to hit an 8” just to find for the right side is ok but to much for the left.
So that creates that typical “slash symbol” (this symbol “/“) lift where barbell goes higher first to one side compared to the other.
It’s like rigth side relatively creates 100% force while left side creates 75%. So I fail some lifts at higher RPEs
In terms of mass size is like right side is 100 and left side is a 90. Not that much, but I have such historically neurological adaptations that is hard to coordinate sometimes, it’s like almost instinctive to focus first on the right side and create a uncoordination. Maybe it’s a size problem but who knows
My all time PR is 140kg TNG when I was a bit chubby (105kg) early this year. I’m 181cm.
I started doing powerlifting during the covid pandemic, after just having a gym bodybuilding or more team sports like oriented training. I put like 40kg for bench in like 3 months, but let’s talk about that another day.
Right now I’m weighting 95kg after I return doing team sports (Nowadays I play rugby) I my last single was around 120kg @9.