Everybody has preferences on just about everything. Whether you are a meat and potatoes kinda guy or you’d be more partial to a spinach salad, the truth of the matter is that you know what you like. This holds true in exercise as well. I myself am a puller in my upper body and a pusher in my lower. If your scrathing your head a little that’s ok I’ll go over what I mean. A push exercise is any movement that requires an extremety (arm or leg) to extend so that when you do the pushup, as shown above, you apply the force on the extending part of the motion. The reverse is true when referring to a pulling motion. Here’s where the dilemma starts to come into play. If your like most people you’ll stick to what you know and like. If your good at bench pressing 400 pounds and find yourself struggling to perform 2 pullups, then you may be setting yourself up for some serious muscle imbalances. This is most noticable between the quadricep and hamstring muscles of your upper thigh. The pusher is the front of the thigh (quadriceps) and the puller is the back of the thigh (hamstrings). As we walk, climb stairs, or jump for joy we focus on using the quadricep muscle. It is usually the strongest muscle of the body and often beats up on the hamstrings. This imbalance of strength can lead to knee, hip, and back problems. (Yes weak or tight hamstrings are often the cause of these ailments.) The solution is a simple well rounded workout and stretching program that gives the hamstrings a chance to shine. Yes the hamstrings are painful to workout sometimes (especially if they haven’t been used in a while) but take it easy at first and slowly build their strength.

You’ll see me talk about muscle imbalances in almost every blog. I’ve made it a personal mission to find and fix these trouble makers before they make you miserable. The whole reason for this post is to make sure that you understand that even though you prefer one exercise type over another does not mean that you should focus on it. In fact you should focus on what you are most weak at to create a zen like harmony in your body.

I always love to hear from you so shoot me an email at jdidlott@therpmsystem.com