Identify & Fix Muscle Imbalances & Injury Risks
6/24/20261 hr 40 min
In this episode, I tackle muscle asymmetries and imbalances — when the differences between your two sides help you, when they hurt you, and what to actually do about them. I move past the popular "10% rule" and walk through my three I's framework: how to investigate asymmetries across morphology (muscle size and shape), quality (fat infiltration inside the muscle), and functionality (strength, power, and movement); how to interpret the data using context rather than blanket numbers; and how to intervene with a practical five-step correction program built around unilateral training and plyometrics. I cover testing tools from tape measures to MRI, the research on grip-strength asymmetry and aging, and why lower-body asymmetries warrant more attention than upper-body ones. This is for athletes, coaches, and anyone who moves and wants to reduce injury risk or perform at their best.
Sponsors
Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/perform
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/perform
David: https://davidprotein.com/perform
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:30) The Three Types: Morphology, Quality, Function
(00:09:09) Laterality: Skill vs. Force Dominance
(00:13:21) Why Asymmetries Develop
(00:19:47) The Bilateral Force Deficit
(00:24:43) Investigate: How to Measure Asymmetries
(00:29:27) Morphology: Tape Measures to MRI
(00:30:41) Tissue Quality & Fat Infiltration
(00:36:21) Functionality: The Unlimited Field of Tests
(00:42:30) Interpret: When Do Asymmetries Matter?
(00:43:25) Muscle Size: Is the Asymmetry Even Real?
(00:51:02) Push vs. Pull & the Limb-Length Myth
(00:58:44) Movement Screens & the FMS
(01:01:30) Strength, Power & Injury Risk
(01:04:25) Grip Strength Asymmetry & Aging
(01:09:46) Symmetrical Sports & the Energy Leak
(01:15:53) Red, Yellow, Green: The Real Thresholds
(01:19:35) Intervene: Correcting Asymmetries
(01:20:46) Why Plyometrics Work Best
(01:23:50) The Five-Step Correction Program
(01:31:59) The Volume Game
(01:33:50) Resources & Final Takeaways
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAndy Galpin· Host0:00
The science and practice of enhancing human performance for sport, play, and life. Welcome to Perform. I'm Dr. Andy Galpin. I'm a professor and scientist and the executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. I want you to imagine for a second that I could increase your best race time ever by seven or eight seconds by only increasing your ankle range of motion by a single degree. You don't have to actually run that exercise because that's been done scientifically, and it turns out to be true. To put this in context a little bit, that seven seconds might be what it takes for you to finally cross below that twenty-four minute mark if you're an elite male running your best eight K time. Or maybe you're a woman and you're trying to finally get below twenty minutes in that six K. But remember, that's only for a single degree change. Imagine how much you could improve if we got two or three or even four degrees difference in that ankle range of motion. See, this is not just about ankle range of motion. In this particular case, what we're talking about is reducing the asymmetry or the difference in range of motion between the two legs. Most of you have seen this classic Vitruvian man, right? Leonardo da Vinci's perfect symmetry between the human body, and it's romantic for us to think about that. And in fact, in the early nineteen hundreds, we thought that the symmetrical human was the perfect thing to be. If you looked at an athlete, you would pick the one who's the most symmetrical to be the most successful in all sports.