I’ve been working out with quite a strict regime for about 9 months now but have come across quite a problem: my right arm is growing muscle at twice the rate of my left arm!
I cannot think of anything I do as either part of my exercise or in day to day living that I do not do with both (I am reasonably ambidextrous). Indeed, most sports I do (kayaking, windsurfing and kitesurfing) tend to need equal strength in both arms.
I’ve even tried doing more weights on my left arm than my right, but that doesn’t seem to work either.
Has anyone else had this problem, or know an easy way to solve it?
Well, from personal experience and from anecdotes, i can say that the initial growth, when you’ve recently started out and when you realize that your muscles are starting to pout, can be kind of irregular. But it pans out with time. Also, it sort of depends on how you lift. High weight with few repetitions gives maximum muscle growth while low weight with many repitions gives maximum agility, if you’re doing the second it could be that one arm is more used to regular work.
Rule one is to do more isolation movements, where each arm does it’s own lifting…like alternating hammer curls…most exercises with dumbells, instead of barbells. That’s a rule of thumb for your issue: isolation exercises using dumbells in place of barbells.
Philster has it right on: dumbells are the cure for preventing your less-favored arm from looking like a poliated T-Rex limb. Make sure you’re using the same weight on each arm when using dumbells, and resist the temptation to use heavier weight with one arm than the other (whether it’s the weaker or stronger arm).
Just to add some hope: Your muscles will come along with maturity. The more you lift, and the bigger the muscles get, the smaller the difference in size becomes. Right now your difference in size is more than likely due to the CNS not being trained as well in your left arm as your right. Over time, your CNS will adapt more and catch up with your right and the difference will fade away. It’s a fact of lifting, just give it some time.
Specifically, do isolation movements, like the others have said. But, do a lot of big compound movements too, such as deadlifts. In my personal experience, those big movements seem to train your whole CNS very well because your whole body is involved, including arms believe it or not.
If you actually have muscle asymetry, such as your left tricep or bicep being shorter in length than your right, then there is not much hope. But the difference still fades away with growth.