Left side bigger than right side

Question

I started doing serious push-ups in July (60 a day). It's been almost 4 months and I got good results. My chest, biceps, triceps have become bigger, much more defined.

However, my left side chest, bicep and tricep are noticeably bigger than the right side ones. I am right-handed and always favor the right side when working.

I don't understand how this happened. As far as I know I don' have any disease. The last time I was seriously sick it was the flu (last winter). Other than catching a cold from time to time, I have never been seriously sick.

Pleas help me understand!!

P.s.: I am forty.

Answer 1

I am right-handed and always favor the right side when working.

That's pretty much the reason for the asymmetry in your body. In fact, most people have these kinds of issues when they train. Simply because our dominant hand tries to compensate for the weaker hand.

You can fix this by balancing the amount of work according to how much the difference there is between your muscles.

For e.g., in the bench press, use dumbbells instead of barbells and end your session with a few sets (1-2) with your weaker side. Repeat this until you feel symmetry in your body.

Answer 2

The reason can be many reasons, including genetics. An important factor to consider is that hypertrophy is what causes muscles to grow.

Ideal reps for hypertrophy are lower than for endurance. 6-12 reps at heavier weights are ideal for hypertrophy, while 15+ reps at lower weights are best for endurance. During hypertrophy, the size of the muscles enlarge due to specific training modalities.

Ii is possibly that your dominant arm being used more has negated the hypertrophy effect and cause more endurance, but without knowing you specifically, this is mere speculation, although possible.

It could also be nothing more than genetics, or possibly childhood development. Possibly during childhood development, one side built more muscle fibers than the other.

Fortunately, there is a solution. If you care more about symmetry, then you can work the larger side less than the smaller side and work the smaller side normally. As a fitness trainer I do not recommend to train the smaller size more and the bigger side normally, because you could risk overtraining. Instead, decrease the usage of the larger side. While this is likely to result in slower gains, they will be safer and more symmetrical gains.

Tips:

• Do not use different weights on different sides of a barbell. This could result in injury.
• If you use two dumbbells, you could increase reps, but if you use different size dumbbells at the same time you could risk an injury or a muscle imbalance.
• One-arm exercises are the best way to do more on one side.

Hope these tips help!