Most people start a weight training program to look better, increase self esteem and hopefully become more attractive to the opposite sex.  Some wish to be attracted to the same sex…doesn’t really matter.  We all want to look our best, but some people are lost in a world of chest and biceps.

There is nothing wrong with training for vanity; however, if you think big biceps and huge pecs make a perfect body you could be missing out on some of the finer details.  We need to train for healthy vanity.  That means eating, thinking and training right.  The focus of this article will be training right.

Guys are the biggest culprits when it comes to training your body as if it was a 2 dimensional object.  These guys all have one thing in common – poor posture.  They have tight chest muscles, nicely rounded shoulders and an amazing forward head posture caused by their muscle imbalances.   These muscle imbalances can lead to faulty movement patterns which can then to pain and join injury (such as lower back pain or shoulder pain).   Joint problems may occur in the elbows and knees if similar training tactics are practiced on the surrounding muscles.  So not only do you look like a first generation human, but you suffer from shoulder, neck and back pain.

To avoid any muscle imbalances you must train correctly.  This means any pushing exercise must be complimented with a pulling exercise (not necessarily on the same day), any flexion exercise must be complimented with an extension exercise.  Stretching the right muscles is equally as important.  If you have rounded shoulders, you most likely have a tight chest.  You will also most likely have an excessively curved lower back.  You don’t usually have one without the other, and if you do you soon won’t.  In this situation you need to stretch the chest and strengthen the back.  Depending on exactly what is happening in the lumbar region you may need to stretch your hip flexors and tighten up your lower abdominals. 

The core is probably the most incorrectly trained body part we have.  Many people will finish their gym workout with a few sets of abdominal crunches and be on their way.  Over time the outer abdominal wall will become the dominant abdominal muscle and the other little ones underneath will become relatively weaker causing more imbalances and possible lower back pain.  If your have been doing crunches for many years and not much else, chances are you need to give your upper abs a rest for a while and finish your workout with some lower abs strengthening and lower back extension exercises.

For the guys who want big arms, but hardly ever train triceps you may be interested that the triceps take up over 60% of the upper arm, so big triceps equals big arms.  So don’t stay stuck in your comfort zones of training the same muscles the same way all the time.  Mix it up a bit and train some of those muscles that have been asleep for a few years. 

If you’ve started a program and edited out the exercises you don’t like, make sure you see an instructor to be sure you remain balanced.  Be sure to train and move your body like the three dimensional object it is.   

© Andrew Dixon 2003

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