Muscle Imbalance

[Beardskull13]

Coach Rippetoe,

2-3 years ago I suffered an injury from grappling resulting in a bulging disc in my neck which affected the nerves running down my right chest, upper back, tricep, and forearm. I went from being able to press a fair amount of weight to being able to do approximately 1 1/2 pushups before collapsing onto my right side.

I went to see a weenie Physical Therapist and he didn't do shit for me.

I've been working on correcting the imbalance the past couple of years by barbell and DB pressing and have worked my way to approximately a 225 bench press and 155 press. However, my right side is still noticeably weaker then my left. Before the injury, my right side was always a little stronger then my left.

My question is, moving forward, even though I've gained an appreciable amount of strength back in that arm, it is still 2-4 reps behind my left. Should I continue to incorporate DB pressing or should I be focusing on the barbell? I worry that it will never get as strong as my left which I feel is limiting my progress. What, in your opinion, is the best way to solve this problem? Thank you for your time.

Andrew

[Will Morris]

Coach Rippetoe,

2-3 years ago I suffered an injury from grappling resulting in a bulging disc in my neck which affected the nerves running down my right chest, upper back, tricep, and forearm. I went from being able to press a fair amount of weight to being able to do approximately 1 1/2 pushups before collapsing onto my right side.

I went to see a weenie Physical Therapist and he didn't do shit for me.

I've been working on correcting the imbalance the past couple of years by barbell and DB pressing and have worked my way to approximately a 225 bench press and 155 press. However, my right side is still noticeably weaker then my left. Before the injury, my right side was always a little stronger then my left.

My question is, moving forward, even though I've gained an appreciable amount of strength back in that arm, it is still 2-4 reps behind my left. Should I continue to incorporate DB pressing or should I be focusing on the barbell? I worry that it will never get as strong as my left which I feel is limiting my progress. What, in your opinion, is the best way to solve this problem? Thank you for your time.

Andrew

If you indeed suffered a nerve root injury, you may never regain full strength in that arm. That doesn't absolve you from training heavy, but, any nerve injury responds much better to heavy loads and low reps than it does working innervated muscles to fatigue. Keep reps low and heavy and keep moving forward.

[Beardskull13]

If you indeed suffered a nerve root injury, you may never regain full strength in that arm. That doesn't absolve you from training heavy, but, any nerve injury responds much better to heavy loads and low reps than it does working innervated muscles to fatigue. Keep reps low and heavy and keep moving forward.

Thank you for your reply.

When you say I may never regain full strength, do you mean I may never regain full strength compared to where I was before the injury or compared to the strength of the other arm?