
Common Muscular Weaknesses - luu
https://exrx.net/Kinesiology/Weaknesses
======
01100011
The site recommends crunches and leg extensions... crunches are not a great
exercise for functional ab muscles, and leg extensions are generally verboten
due to stress on the knees from the open chain loading.

It's good to be thinking of this stuff though. I highly recommend
Athlean-X(his free youtube videos, can't say anything about his programs) and
Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program. Between these two, I've gotten into
a little weightlifting and I'm loving it. My posture is better than it's been
in 40 years.

Just do yourself a favor and go slow. Muscles adapt quickly but joints take
time. Lay off the creatine until you have some experience. The 2 best
supplements you can take are protein and sleep. Don't forget to hydrate and
don't overtrain.

If you get a trainer, get a good one. I got a bro who encouraged me to go too
far too fast and now I've got a messed up shoulder. Done properly,
weightlifting is one of the safest sports.

If you're a keyboard jockey like me, chances are you have weak external
rotator cuff muscles, weak serratus anterior muscles, and tight pec minors.
Look into correcting all of that first, before you start shredding your
shoulder joint with bench presses and bicep curls.

~~~
H1Supreme
> Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength

I like this gist of his program, but as someone who did it years ago, there's
a few things I'd change.

First, remove cleans, and add barbell rows. Lots of people make this
adjustment. I don't find the exercise to be beginner friendly. Second,
deadlifts will be there own focused day almost immediately. Outside of one's
probably first month, doing squats + bench + deadlift is nearly impossible to
do in one workout.

On a personal note, I don't like his squat technique. In particular, bar
placement. New people should do high-bar, exclusively. Mark's hybrid squat,
and low bar squats, put a huge amount of pressure on your elbows and
shoulders.

~~~
ubercore
The squat style has a lot to do with body types I think. His squat style
completely cleared up lower back and hip pains I was having with high-bar. I
think people should try both and see where their bodies are most comfortable.

~~~
lostapathy
I agree. I have encouraged several people with squatting problems to squat low
bar and it sorted out there issues very quickly.

------
ohaideredevs
I really wish there were places that could legitimately analyze muscle
imbalances and suggest corrective exercises. The internet only works for the
most common ones, such as pelvic tilt, and sometimes you mis-diagnose
yourself.

A lot of the "great" information online _is_ bro-science, and doctors
generally don't care at all, so neither is optimal.

P.S. The military uses fancy position sensors to track muscle imbalances in
Pararescuemen. I really wish there was some access to that facility:

"To improve, the trainees must first be shown where they are deficient. So
when they arrive, they enter the Dari Motion Capture system, something similar
to what Hollywood uses to fuse actors with their CGI characters. Dari doesn’t
use on-body sensors, just cameras that capture the biomechanical motions of
subjects."
[https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a26256665...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a26256665/air-
force-human-performance-lab/)

~~~
ChuckMcM
One of the interesting things my trainer did before we started was three
sessions of analysis. Measuring flexibility, symmetry, strength, and recovery.
We then put together a plan to fix issues identified from that to get to a
solid baseline, so that when we work all the muscles together to get better
systemic performance they participate in the motions as designed.

This was stuff that he learned getting a kinesiology degree SJSU and followed
up with the personal training coursework. And for a data set of one, it has
helped me tremendously.

So the bottom line for me is that while there is a lot of questionable stuff
out there, there are also people who have actually studied and worked on the
mechanics of how all this works, which lets them create exercises that achieve
a specific result. For me, I'm not interested in being a weight lifter or
showing off how strong I am or big my biceps can be, I just don't want to end
up driving a mobility cart around Walmart to pick up groceries when I'm 80!

~~~
miranda_rights
Is your trainer in the bay area? I'd be interested in a trainer that is good
at those things; or if anyone else has a trainer in San Francisco that does
those things, please comment!

------
MFLoon
In response to some of the endorsements of Starting Strength/Stronglifts on
this post, I'd like to advocate for an alternative source of strength training
information, Barbell Medicine,
[https://www.barbellmedicine.com/](https://www.barbellmedicine.com/). SSLP/SL
are both solid options for a complete beginner, but Mark Rippetoe's overall
approach is somewhat outdated and less evidence based than BBM. They're quite
similar (they were actually formerly associated, but have since split), but I
find BBM's approach somewhat more sensible and nuanced; Rippetoe tends towards
dogmatism in some of his beliefs about biomechanics.

No association other than being a happy customer (of all three mentioned
actually, you can't really go wrong, I just think BBM is the best of the
three).

~~~
starpilot
Just go with anything. Strength regimens basically all work, as long as you
eat enough and increase the weight, just as all diets work when you eat less.
People have gotten incredibly strong lifting rocks. I used to lift barbells,
then switched to more functional strength of carrying 40 lb packs up mountains
and climbing vertical faces.

~~~
MFLoon
> Strength regimens basically all work, as long as you eat enough and increase
> the weight

Agreed, but I'd also contend that for a total beginner (which is the context
SSLP comes up in), choosing a well structured program that will allow you to
experience consistent progress will greatly increase their chances of sticking
with the habit.

~~~
EForEndeavour
Not to mention minimizing risk of injury.

------
wespiser_2018
I've been working a 5x5 barbell program, which has me squat 3 times a week,
for the last year. I've never felt stronger, or faster in my life! (I'm 32).
Exercise has had a very positive effect on my feeling of wellbeing, and I am
glad to see that the big 5: bench press, shoulder press, row, squat, and
deadlift, at least address the major sources of muscle weakness!

I would strongly recommend anyone interested in lifting to try a program like
StrongLifts, or one of the alternatives, by themselves or with the help of a
trained professional!

~~~
goostavos
Just as a minor complaint, "Stronglifts" is just Mark Rippetoe's intermediate
program lifted directly from his Starting Strength book and shamelessly
rebranded.

If people are just getting into lifting, you can't do better than Starting
Strength[0] for background info and mechanics on the main lifts.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Mark-Rippetoe-
ebook...](https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Mark-Rippetoe-
ebook/dp/B006XJR5ZA/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=starting+strength&qid=1558545534&s=gateway&sr=8-1)

~~~
modeless
Starting Strength is good to have around for reference, but the nice thing
about Stronglifts for me is the app. It's high quality and makes the program
very easy to follow.
[https://stronglifts.com/apps/](https://stronglifts.com/apps/)

~~~
sn9
Starting Strength also has an app, which includes access to the book and
videos.

------
blunte
"Ass to grass" squats will develop the posterior chain and the abdominals very
well. The quads also grow, but in proportion (because the deeper the squat,
the more the power shifts from quads to hamstrings/glutes). The abs are active
the whole time stabilizing the weight. That one exercise is more effective
than a dozen other isolated exercises.

It also develops neuromuscular control which most people lack. Being able to
drive steady, strong, coordinated impulses from the brain to the muscles is
critical for being strong, balanced, and capable of doing "anything". The only
way to get that is by doing it - using many different muscle groups in a
coordinated effort.

An added bonus of doing exercises like that with relatively high weight is
that you even out the weak areas. With squats, most people will find abs to be
the weakest link at first (if they're paying attention).

------
djtriptych
Just here to promote yoga, which besides being a full body workout, grants the
practitioner the ability to identify weak links through the flow of
prana/inner breath.

~~~
craigzucchini
While Yoga may be a great way to improve flexibility, among other physical
benefits, prana is no more than a quack belief if I were to be generous.
Unless you're thinking of something remotely testable/measurable/not rooted in
a religious philosophy/not tied to breatharianism

~~~
djtriptych
It's a mistake to limit your own understanding the universe to what can be
measured by science, while surrounded by perceivable phenomena that science
can't explain.

It's at the very least arrogant to reject wholesale the common experience of
millions of practitioners over thousands of years. Yoga is not dogmatic. Try
it and see for yourself.

As for my specific claim, science has neither proven nor disproven the
perception of prana, though you might consider that it has been described in
many unconnected sources across the written record of history.

~~~
craigzucchini
Again, I disagree. It's arrogant to say "Hey, X thing I believe in can cure
you of Y disease because so many people think it can and you're just ignorant.
Nevermind the fact that it's totally untestable or perferms equally to
placebo, as long as you feel better it's working!". It's pretty not arrogant
to say "Hey, you have a condition that science has at best a limited
understanding of, but it might work based on the clinical trials and
controlled studies that have been done. It's the best we have to go on, or you
could pray."

I think you also mistake "understanding of the universe" for a perceived
experience. Just because you did mushrooms at Shambala once doesn't give you a
better understanding of anything except maybe why you made some stupid choices
in the past.

Why would Yoga be dogmatic? It's exercise.

~~~
djtriptych
The tradition of yoga is far more than exercise. Many parts of it, including
the exercise, deep breathing, and meditation, are indeed testable and
outperform placebo.

Your concept of self is something that certainly happens but is largely
outside the realm of science.

Doing mushrooms certainly might impart an understand of, at the very least,
the experience of being high on mushrooms. Or perhaps which parts of your
perception are merely the reflection of a specific neurochemical balance.

------
AlexMuir
i highly recommend AthleanX YouTube videos. This guy really knows his stuff
and there’s a back catalog to keep you going for years!

~~~
tgb
I have such a hard time taking him seriously, he comes off as a salesman. His
video titles are so click-baity they'd make Buzzfeed blush. And I can't trust
that he's putting correct information over pumping out new videos with eye-
catching claims. Are there really 2 episodes per week worth of useful training
information to share? I don't know that he's necessarily wrong about much
(he's probably better informed than many other youtubers, whatever that says),
but he just feels slimy. Why do people trust him?

~~~
ubercore
He definitely plays the youtube game, perhaps too well, but his advice is
consistent and well explained. I just take it as the cost of free; he presents
it the way he does to maximize youtube profit, I have to wade through click-
baity titles and repetition, but there's some high quality information
underneath it all

------
ThrustVectoring
I think a lot of these kinds of problems arise because people generally do not
learn how to relax muscles and selectively engage only those necessary for the
movements they make. The human body has more degrees of freedom than it needs
to accomplish the tasks of daily living - you can, for example, awkwardly walk
with everything below the hip locked in place (it looks like a penguin
waddle). If you can't do things one way, you can often contort yourself to do
them another.

How does this cause muscular weaknesses and imbalances? If a strong muscle is
pretty much always tensed up, you plan out motor sequences that avoid using
the opposing one. This muscle will naturally wind up becoming weak, but that's
not really the fundamental problem. It's more that you use too much of the
wrong muscles to do things.

The process for learning these skills is not particularly well documented in
my experience. I _think_ this sort of thing is the core idea behind both
Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Method, but I haven't read/experienced
them in depth and aren't certain about it. Both of these are mostly
transmitted through (sometimes literally) hands-on tutoring. I personally
picked this up through getting into Blues idiom dancing, and probably got some
of the previously mentioned stuff second or third-hand. "Progressive Muscle
Relaxation" is also probably relevant?

------
copperx
A long time ago, I read this, and it got me thinking about muscular
imbalances: "Somewhere inside every man's body, there's a weak link, a weak
muscle waiting to fail."

[https://www.mensjournal.com/features/everything-you-know-
abo...](https://www.mensjournal.com/features/everything-you-know-about-
fitness-is-a-lie-20120504/)

------
mirimir
OK, seeing "exrx.net" I was thinking that TFA would be about side effects of
prescription (Rx) drugs. But it's not, and is a great overview.

However, from personal experience, if you're taking a statin, and experience
muscle weakness, _get it checked out_.[0]

> Very rarely, statins can cause life-threatening muscle damage called
> rhabdomyolysis (rab-doe-my-OL-ih-sis). Rhabdomyolysis can cause severe
> muscle pain, liver damage, kidney failure and death. The risk of very
> serious side effects is extremely low, and calculated in a few cases per
> million people taking statins. Rhabdomyolysis can occur when you take
> statins in combination with certain drugs or if you take a high dose of
> statins.

Basically, some drugs can interfere with destruction of statins in the liver,
and so dramatically increase effects.

0) [https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-
ch...](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-
cholesterol/in-depth/statin-side-effects/art-20046013)

------
brandonmenc
Since everyone is recommending sources of exercise and nutrition information,
I'll throw in my vote for Renaissance Periodization [0] - multiple PhDs on
staff who both research and compete in strength sports.

[0]
[https://renaissanceperiodization.com](https://renaissanceperiodization.com)

------
raamdev
One of the most amazing books that I've read about simple ways to correct
muscular imbalances, including those that result from too much sitting, is
Pete Egoscue's Pain Free at Your PC [1]. His other book, Pain Free [2] is also
extremely effective and informative.

Pete’s knowledge completely rewrote the way I think about my body, pain, and
imbalance.

1\. [https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Revolutionary-Stopping-
Chro...](https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Revolutionary-Stopping-
Chronic/dp/0553379887)

2\. [https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Your-PC-
Computer/dp/0553380...](https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Free-Your-PC-
Computer/dp/0553380524)

------
la_barba
Without knowing who the audience is, its not very responsible to recommend
people do certain kinds of training for "fixing" physiological issues. If you
have access to medical services, please make sure to get an evaluation done
before trying anything on your own. An acquaintance who had shoulder problems
and read comments on a random forum (not unlike what people seem to be doing
here) about using stand up presses to strengthen shoulders. Turns out he had
some scapular issues and had to get surgery done to fix it. Luckily, the
presses didn't make it worse, but they could have. Yes, if you're an healthy
adult, you might be just fine, but you never know who ends up reading your
post.

------
brailsafe
This looks like a really good resource. I find some of the descriptions a
little hard to parse in lamens terms, but the Gifs of exercises if you follow
the links are really helpful. Found myself saying "Hey I have this problem and
it looks like I'm doing some of the right exercises".

In particular, I have shoulder issues as described in the second or third last
section, along with hip flexor weakness leading to splayed feet. I don't have
access to the same machines they point to, but I like that there are good
ideas for low overhead exercises. Shoulder exercises have always been quite
difficult, as my shoulders click as I do anything that brings my elbows behind
them and become painful quick—barbell squats out of the question.

------
sharadov
That's why I like the push-pull workout, since it focusses on building overall
strength, also I've found don't just do the same exercises over and over, vary
the workout, so you hit all muscle groups.

------
devinplatt
If this interests you you might want to check out:
[https://www.prehabexercises.com/compensation-
patterns/](https://www.prehabexercises.com/compensation-patterns/)

That's probably the best single page I've seen on the web for an overview of
compensation patterns.

Of course, if you've never seen exrx you should definitely check out their
exercises pages too! Great reference website to get no frills info on
exercises complete with short gif demos.

------
mindgam3
Recommendation for those looking to build serious functional strength and
avoid injury: Convict Conditioning. Emphasis is on calisthenics (body weight
training) not pumping iron. Can’t recommend it highly enough.

[https://www.dragondoor.com/convict-conditioning-
downloadable...](https://www.dragondoor.com/convict-conditioning-downloadable-
e-book/)

~~~
txru
Strongly agree with the body weight training, but also check out the
bodyweightfitness subreddit [0] for good discussion and advice. They have a
simple and concise starting routine [1] for people just starting out. There
are also some mild critiques [2] of Convict Conditioning.

It's very good for a very practical kind of strength, but you will likely not
get big very fast, if that's what you're looking for. I've been doing it for
two years almost continuously with no injuries.

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/)

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommended_routine)

[2]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/program_r...](https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/program_reviews)

~~~
mindgam3
Sure. My interest is primarily practical strength, and by that I mean "ability
to move my own body through space in practical real world situations, as
opposed to sheer brute force". The end state is more “jacked” than big.
Looking jacked is certainly an ego boost, but the confidence that comes from
being able to stunts like one arm pull-ups + pushups, wall walking etc is by
far the biggest win for me. Not quite there on the pull-ups/pushups but
getting real close after about a year of training, building on a decent base.
I just think gymnastics is bad-ass in general.

I’ll check out those critiques. I will say though that there is a real
philosophy explained in convict conditioning about avoiding injury, proper
form etc that I found extremely helpful after my first try at getting big in
the gym.

[edits: fixed typo, defined what I mean by "practical" to avoid offending gym
rats who can crush me with their 500 pound deadlifts]

~~~
matwood
Bodyweight training is great (I often do it on rest days), but don't think
that people pumping iron doing powerlifting are not 'practically' strong. When
a person is dead lifting 500+ pounds or squatting 400+ they are strong anyway
you slice it.

~~~
mindgam3
Seems a bit nitpicky to zero in on that one word, but okay, I added an edit.
Strength is strength, I just tend to gravitate towards things that could help
me in survival type situations.

~~~
matwood
The reason I zeroed in on the word practical is that it is used as a way to
put down people doing something different than you. Now you’ve used survival
type situations as another way to put others down.

Body weight things are great, but they have limits. The best results are going
to come from a mix of body weight, power lifting, and conditioning. Any
lifting program I have ever done included pull ups, dips, and pushups.
Weighted if possible.

Also, if survival is really the focus, BJJ should be first above all else :)

~~~
mindgam3
Okay, that's a fair point and thanks for clarifying. To be clear, I'm not
trying to put down all lifting - I agree with your point that best results
come from a mix. My only problem with lifting culture is one particular
subculture which emphasizes growth at all costs, steroids etc, which I find
super dangerous and unhealthy. But I concede that I didn't make this clear
with my original wording.

Also agree about BJJ. Haven't tried it out yet but hope to start training
soon.

~~~
matwood
Bodybuilding is definitely an interesting subculture. They are crazy strong,
but just a very different focus. And the health issues are a real problem.
Check out the Ronnie Coleman doc on Netflix sometime.

I’ve been lifting for almost 20 years now and never had much interest in BB.
Power lifting with oly lifts plus a good diet and I was perfectly happy with
my appearance.

BJJ is definitely a super power. My only complaint is I tried it for awhile 10
years ago and let life get in the way so I quit. You mentioned confidence
earlier and BJJ delivers that in spades. It also forces you to be humble. It
helps you remain calm in stressful situations. I find myself at work sometimes
now when everyone is stressed out wondering if I should fake excitement
because I’m able to think calmly. Trying not to oversell it, but it’s pretty
great.

------
perfm0n
maybe it's worth checking out physical therapy as a preventative measure, like
you'd get a physical exam every year at your PCP. I learned more than I cared
about wrt my shoulder going to physical therapy following a rotator cuff
injury.

------
basicplus2
Needs diagrams to show exactly which weakened muscles they are talking about

------
fitnesshealth
Sometime Muscular Weakness is common and it is on your back and that is occur
due to poor posture, lots of works, Stress,etc. Here is some Tips:
[https://www.fitnesshealthforever.com/meditation/yogas-
contri...](https://www.fitnesshealthforever.com/meditation/yogas-contribution-
to-menopause/)

