I apologize for the article title... I feel like Beyonce would appreciate it though!
We all have muscular imbalances and if we don't do corrective work they will typically get worse. In short a muscular imbalance between limbs can just be your right leg being stronger than the left. Doesn't seem like a big deal but if you continually favor one side chronic injuries can occur.
A simple solution can be implementing single arm and single leg exercises into your workouts! Dumbbells are huge for upper body work to ensure each arm is lifting the same amount of weight. DB bench, rows, overhead press, etc are all great options.
For the lower body, I have two exercises I believe everyone should be implementing in some variation or another: the Single Leg RDL and the Reverse Deficit Lunge.
Single Leg RDL
This exercise does it all! This Romanian Deadlift variation can shore up any muscle imbalances between legs as well as strengthening the gluten, hamstrings, and low back. As a bonus this is a great exercise to improve balance. I like 3-4 sets of 6-12 reps! Video here and below.
Reverse Deficit Lunge
For whatever reason, the reverse lunge seems to be easier on the knees (purely anecdotal evidence). The deficit provides extra range of motion! This exercise is killer for building the quads, glutes, and again improving balance. For this exercise, I like 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps. Add weight with dumbbells, a kettlebell in the goblet position, or a barbell in the back rack! Video here or below!
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