As a Physical Therapist and Strength and Conditioning Coach, when I screen my clients’ muscle performance, I am focused on 3 things:
1) Are you weak?
2) Are you symmetrical (between your and left sides)?
3) Do you have great muscle ratio balance (between agonists and antagonists)?
Weakness
With regard to muscle weakness, I’m not measuring the amount you can lift. I am looking for gross deficits in your strength. For instance, can you externally rotate your arm against my minimal to moderate resistance or does your arm collapse to your side?
FYI: Gross weakness can be directly linked to problems in the muscle. But I also need to screen and rule out other possible catalysts like nerve entrapment, vascular compromise, hormone/thyroid disorders, and gut and pelvic health issues.
Symmetry
Limb strength symmetry is super important to avoiding injury. For the general population, I want less than a 10% difference between right and left limbs. For athletes, I expect less than 5%. The closer the limb symmetry, the better your chances of you dodging injury bullets!
Tip: Find a 5-star physical therapist or strength coach, and ask for an athletic strength screen. Get your body blueprint and training roadmap, and go train.
Muscle Ratio Balance
Did you know your quadriceps and hamstrings should be in a certain strength ratio? What about your external and internal rotators, your shoulder flexors and extensors? Yup, and any major imbalance can lead to joint overload and injury.
Tip: When you train, know your basic muscle balance ratios. aAdd better balance your goals to unload your joints and improve your performance.
[add muscle ratio chart]
The big take home…
Taking muscle weakness, symmetry and ratio balance into consideration when training means you’ll be able to fix glitches in your body matrix, dodge injury bullets, and improve your overall performance. In other words, you’ll be training smarter!
Don’t guess your strength. Know your strength. We absolutely love shoulders, knees and backs at MovEvolution. Get strength tested at MovEvolution.com !
Heal. Move. STRENGTHEN. Evolve.
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