Muscular Imbalance
What exactly is a muscular imbalance?
Muscular imbalance is defined medically as any deviation in normal facilitation or inhibition of muscle resulting from a physical, mental, or chemical stressor and often leading to further related imbalances and joint dysfunctions that may take months or years to manifest.
Basically, when two opposing muscle groups do not have comparable strength levels, a muscular imbalance occurs. Uneven strength levels cause a lopsided type of force to occur on the joint, leading to many complications later on, such as poor posture, and joint instability. An example of this, may be when the hamstrings are more powerful then the quadriceps muscle. The uneven pull on the knee can open it up for injury and other conditions.
What causes muscular imbalance?
As far as the causes for this issue, there are many culprits and they affect many people.
The big key is to try to identify what these imbalances are, and then to follow a course of action to correct them.
What type of problems, can these types of imbalances lead to?
As was illustrated before, postural defects and poor joint stability can occur. Issues like the aforementioned are initially cosmetic, however further on in life will become not only painful but debilitating as well. When an individual has not trained his or her antagonistic muscles, the body will do things to compensate, i.e. move body positions or try to utilize other muscle groups not intended for those purposes. These issues will, take away from one’s strength, possibly lead to various types of trauma that can range from constant nagging injuries all the way on up to full blown muscle tears requiring both surgery and rehab. Not to mention the fact that poor posture, will lead to various degenerative conditions in the body.
What can an individual do to correct a muscular imbalance?
The first step is to understand what your problem is. This can be done by consulting with a professional. They will be able to firstly get a diagnosis, and secondly a course of treatment and action to correct the issue.
This course of treatment will usually include stretching and exercise to correct the imbalances.
