Equalizing Your Training Volume

When I first started resistance training as a teen I did what a lot of guys my age did: lots of chest, biceps and abdominal exercises. While I was looking to improve my athletic performance, I also wanted to look good; I needed a muscular chest, bulging biceps and a six pack to match. The problem was I was training my ‘mirror muscles’ which are the one’s I could see in the mirror with lots of volume, but paid little attention to the opposing muscles groups. After all people don’t ask you how much you can lat pull, everyone wants to know how much you can bench. While I was getting stronger in all the exercises and building some size I was setting myself up for problems down the road.

Because my workouts lacked balance, eventually I hit plateaus in my lifts and hurt my rotator cuff muscles. Failure to work the muscles that oppose the mirror muscles results in underdevelopment of those muscles, such as the lats, rhomboids, traps, lower back, glutes and hamstrings. These muscles work together to stabilize the spine and come into play in most exercises whether they are the prime movers or just assisting.

In the end I had to take time off from pushing, add more pulling exercises and perform additional exercises to strengthen my weakened rotator cuff muscles. This all added up to recovered shoulders, improved posture and helped me to become stronger across the board.

To avoid this problem yourself make sure to use equal volume for pushing and pulling exercises. Upper body pushing and pulling exercises can be broken down to vertical or horizontal, depending on which way the resistance is moving in relation to your body. A few examples are listed below.

Upper Body Pushing

Vertical – Military press, Dumbbell shoulder press

Horizontal – Bench press, Push up

Upper Body Pulling

Vertical – Lat pull down, Chin up

Horizontal – Seated Cable Row, Bent Barbell Row

Lower Body Pushing

Leg Press, Squats, Lunges

Lower Body Pulling

Deadlift, Leg Curl

To use equal volume, take two opposite movements; for example upper body horizontal push (bench press) and upper body horizontal pull (Bent Barbell Row). Using three sets of eight reps for each will allow equal volume at 24 reps each. However if you are doing three sets of bench press, three sets of push ups and three sets of barbell rows, now you are doing six sets for horizontal pushing and still only three for horizontal pulling.

Be smart and stay healthy. Don’t just choose random exercises and training volumes without thinking about why you are doing it and what harm it may be causing to you down the road.