Inggasson

Hello!

I've been steadily adding mass, but the big problem is that as I've gained weight, my symmetry's gone all to shot and my GF pointed out that my lower lats "look wonky", meaning much larger to the right than the left.

It baffles me a little as I pride myself on having pretty strict form. Here's my workout and some pics to demonstrate.

Training day 1 is chest, abs and biceps
Training day 2 is shoulders, back and abs
Training day 3 is legs but also includes deadlifts

Shoulders - dumbell overhead press, 2 sets of 8
Arnold Press, 2 sets of 8
Seated lateral raise, 3 sets of 8
Prone Flye (rear delts), 3 sets of 8
Back - Superset Upright Row/Wide-Grip Pulldown behind neck, 3 x 8
Superset low cable row/dumbell or barbell shrug, 3 x 8
Close grip Pulldown, 3 x 8
And then, on legs day, I do 4 sets of bent-legged Deadlifts, with a belt, mostly to hit the hams straight after doing squats.

This pic compares 6 months ago with 3months ago...


Another of 3 months ago...


And there were taken today...




Any and all help much appreciated!

mearl

Looks normal to me just looks like your posing and putting more pressure on one side than the other, just posing wrong IMO...

Inggasson

In almost literal terms, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders! LOL. If it is just a posture thing, hopefully I can correst it easily enough.

Thanks for the quick reply!

mearl

No problem at all just thing its either

A: your posture
B: your posing

mearl

Oh if ya have you hair shorter may sort it

Joke

bigdeadweight

i agree, looks mostly like its the way you are posing

shauno

when you do rows stick to barbell/two handed movements.

im not the biggest beast by far but seems logical to me that training lats with dumbells will result in more stimulation on one side as opposed to using a barbell

itraininthedark

when using a barbell mate, how do you control a stronger muscle compensating for a weeker muscle?? Dumbells IMO are a btter choice to keep good symmetry.. good forms even better.

shauno

when using a barbell, if using good form you will only get as far as your weaker side allows.

using a dumbell i could for arguments sake perform 5 more reps with my stronger side which in theory would lead to more development on the stronger side.

raely do you see coleman, dorian, ruhl,arnie use a single arm rowing action on there back day.

nearly always its a seated row/pulldown/tbar row

Greekgoddess

Shauno, that is an excellent piece of advice. Out of six exercises for my back, only one is done with d/bells. I had a problem with slight curvature of the spine caused through years of poor posture. With good form, using bars instead of dbells and training all my back I have evened up and now have good symmetry and posture.

Inggasson

I spoke to the guy who runs my gym and he's helped me to alter my back/shoulder workout to address the issues you guys have helped me recognise. Give it a once-ver and see what you think?

Overhead Dumbell Press - 2 x 8
Arnold Press - 2 x 8
Seated Lateral Raise - 3 x 8-10
Prone Flye - 3 x 8
Superset EZ Bar Upright rows/Chins - 3 x 8
Superset Prone 2-armed Dumbell Row*/shrugs (week one barbell shrugs, week two with dumbells)
Barbell T-Bar rows - 3 x 8

*The prone 2-armed dumbell Row is an odd one because I really have to focus on balance and timing to make sure each side gets equal effort. I kneel on a "tall" flat bench with my head resting down on it and a dumbell in each hand at full arm extension, which I row upward simultaneously. Can REALLY feel it!

itraininthedark

makes sense..