weird muscle problems.......

I have a few weird problems with my muscles, and I want to ask some questions:

1. Howcome every time I curl, I feel my left bicep start to hurt? The pain is closer to the forearm. I know I am not lifting too much, because I can do it easily with my left arm, it almost feels like I am pulling something right there.

2. Why do the left side of my abs seem smaller than the right? What kind of excercises can I do to make my left ones bigger?

3. Howcome when I do a military press, my right forearm always seem to be "stretched" when I go up but my left arm doesn't?

[Sophos9]

Are you left or right handed, what occupation do you have ?

[Lee J B]

Hi paulc87 ,
Welcome to the board ! ok ...

1 ) I had the same problem with the curl as you at first, however after spending hours in the gym i realised that i was doing it wrong! Make sure that both your arms do the same amount of pulling and work, also make sure that the barbell is straight and not sloping left ... or right. Check out how to do this exercise properly here i think this will cure your problem but if it doesnt come back and talk to us.

2 ) This can be for a number of reasons, including it could be in your body structure meaning it will be hard to change .. but this is unlikily, whats more likily is if you have been doing abdominal training then you have probably without realising been working the left more. For example when doing a situp, you might tend to lean slightly right without knowing meaning the left abs will be doing more. To equal them out just do some twisting ab exercises to counter the side with the problem, check these exercises out here

3 ) For this one im not sure, but i can think of a couple of reasons, these are :

- You are not doing the exercise correctly, eithe because one of your arms feels weaker than the other and so you will lift the barbell more with the stronger arm causing it to slope and therefore resulting in one arm not being stretched.

- You have one arm slightly shorter than the other by an extremely small amount. ( dont laugh, it is a possibility im not joking )


Hope this helps ,

[Fudomyo]

#1 sounds just like the pain I have. That is your brachaialis. It is the muscle under your bicep, that connects to your forarm from your upper arm..

If you do hammer curls, this is what you work the most. Your bicep is the most disadvantaged with this grip, so your brachialis has to do more work for you.

I think it's something like healing your foot. It takes forever since you use it all the time.

Try sticking with a suppinated grip (palms up). And use a shorter range of motion (all the way stretched out is brachialis too).

#2/3 It sounds like you have a curve in your spine. Curve to the right even. That will make your left abs bigger since they are more stretched most of the time, and your right arm will need to be higher since your right shoulder will be tilted lower.

I think the best people to fix this are physical therapists / knesioligists (sp???) who can help you retrain your muscles to hold you in the correct manner again. They use exercise, stretching, and massage to fix you up. I have no idea how you find these people but to call around. It's sort of a mix of 2-3 disciplines.

I broke my collar bone, which has one shoulder in a different position than the other. So I now naturally align my shoulders in a way that aligns my upper back wrong. Which affects everything. Same thing can happen if you hurt your back, ankle, almost anything.

Hope that helps.
Fudo

[Lee J B]

lee is wrong again .... lol

[Fudomyo]

- You have one arm slightly shorter than the other by an extremely small amount. ( dont laugh, it is a possibility im not joking )

Same idea. Almost noone is actually symetrical.

Thank you guys for all your help.

When I curl, I don't use a bar, I just use individual weights. I usually don't like to exercise my left and right arms at the same time because all these weird problems I have .

[Sophos9]

Paul, what work do you do?

I have a friend that is a builder/bricklayer, he had exactly the same problem as you.

The nature of his work meant he was always carrying bricks and stuff on his right hand and nothing on his left

Just wondering

Dave

I really don't do that much work, just running and weight lifting

[sandman64]

I doubt this is what it is, but it may be tendonitis. This is when you tear the tendon (part of the muscle that attaches to the bone). I had a similar problem only it was in my forarm. I felt something like a sharp pain go straight through the bone or inner part of the arm after i laid the weight down. It didn't hurt so much when i was actually lifting the weight, but after I my grip go when I put the weight back down. But it doesn't sound like this is what you have, just saying it's a possibility

[abarlament]

Wow I have the same problem, but NOT when I'm working my biceps! Do you by any chance play baseball? Because ever since baseball let out (I was a catcher, lots of throwing there) a lot of times when I'm benching a lot of weight my right arm just doesn't keep up with the left, I know that's weird since I'm right handed but, haha.