The golden ratio-opposing muscles

Merkavar

at the moment I'm more focused on weight loss and attempting to maintain the puny muscles I have. But I thought about this and was curious.

Are there generally accepted ratio for health when it comes to muscle strength.

What I mean is say I can do a 20kg bicep curl I should be able to do 15kg with my triceps. Similar for legs up vs down if that makes sense.

Now I'm talking for health and posture not for looking a curtain way for a body building show etc

If there are ratios it could give me an idea on what to focus on. Like do an extra set of tricep extensions or focus on my ham string a little more.

Any thoughts?

hill8570

If you're weak all over (as you imply), it's kind of silly to be doing isolation exercises. Pick out a full-body strength program that does compound lifts (Stronglifts / Starting Strength / New Rules of Lifting are all well-thought of).

Merkavar

hill8570 wrote: »

If you're weak all over (as you imply), it's kind of silly to be doing isolation exercises. Pick out a full-body strength program that does compound lifts (Stronglifts / Starting Strength / New Rules of Lifting are all well-thought of).

I was asking more because I was curious rather than to put it into practice tomorrow.

But even for someone starting out it seems like something that couldn't hurt. Like I said more direction, sure work out all over but say a particular muscle is lagging way behind some how, why leave it for 6 months and then fix it?

Cherimoose

It's rare to have a major imbalance between opposing muscle groups, unless the person has had prior injuries.

To answer your question - no, there are no official standards. I too recommend following a standard, pro-designed strength program, without modifying it. Your body will most likely end up with a good balance of strength between opposing groups after several months. Your main issue right now should be learning & practicing excellent form.. preferably by videoing yourself, or with the help of a personal trainer. If you have difficulty maintaining good form, that could be a sign of an imbalance that needs correcting.

dbmata

Don't overthink it. Use a full body training program, and relax.

After a few years of lifting, then you can start majoring in the minors like you're mentioning.

ahamm002

It's unlikely that you have a strength imbalance in your upper body if you're just starting out with resistance training. In order to prevent yourself from developing any imbalance then do compound exercises instead of isolation exercises. So instead of curls and extensions perform rows, pull-ups, bench-press, incline bench-press, and overhead-press.

You can then do assistance work with higher reps to hit your biceps/triceps a bit extra if you feel the need to. But at this point you should really focus on the big compound movements.

Edit: I think it's kind of rare to have an imbalance in your arms. Most people develop imbalances between their chest/back, shoulders, or legs.

hill8570

Merkavar wrote: »

hill8570 wrote: »

If you're weak all over (as you imply), it's kind of silly to be doing isolation exercises. Pick out a full-body strength program that does compound lifts (Stronglifts / Starting Strength / New Rules of Lifting are all well-thought of).

I was asking more because I was curious rather than to put it into practice tomorrow.

But even for someone starting out it seems like something that couldn't hurt. Like I said more direction, sure work out all over but say a particular muscle is lagging way behind some how, why leave it for 6 months and then fix it?

Because it's hard to test a muscle in isolation. Once someone has been doing a full-body program for a number of months, they have enough self-knowledge that assistance work (which is basically working the weak areas) starts to make sense.

Sam_I_Am77

For somebody that has been inactive for a while it's not wrong to start with a basic strength & stabilization program that uses more dumbbell and cable exercises to build some basic strength and improve neuro-muscular control, it's something that can typically be done in 4 weeks. The OP may or may not be doing that, but it's not appropriate for everybody to get under a barbell and squat right away. If certain muscles aren't active enough they won't squat correctly, so there's little point in doing it. The OP may not have imbalance but if he's been inactive for a long time, he may not have the muscle strength to correctly perform exercises.

Regarding imbalances... from an athletic standpoint I want to say that S&C's / Trainers want an hamstrings to quadriceps ratio better than 60% as to help avoid various non-contact injuries (ACL, MCL, ankle sprains). I don't know that there is or isn't one for biceps : triceps, honestly I don't think anybody really cares from a performance standpoint. In relation to performance, if an S&C is concerned about an athlete's triceps strength he would likely have the athlete do a bench press or push-up test.

Merkavar

My exercise program involves a mixture of cardio, pin load machines, free weights. Focusing on different areas each day, leg, arms, shoulders and back etc

ahamm002

Merkavar wrote: »

My exercise program involves a mixture of cardio, pin load machines, free weights. Focusing on different areas each day, leg, arms, shoulders and back etc

Please tell me you're not devoting an entire day to arms? You'll get bigger arms by doing compound chest/back movements (at least initially).

dbmata

So you're saying, you don't have a program?

I'd suggest you get on a proven program for newbies, stat.

jacksonpt

A while back I saw an excel file put out by Dan John (I think) that allowed you to enter your numbers for the big lifts and told you how "balanced" you were. I'll see if I can find it, but it was probably a year ago now.

jacksonpt

Here it is - download the excel file from his site and put in your numbers based on your current ability.

http://danjohn.net/2013/04/strength-standards-sleepless-in-seattle/strength-standards/

dbmata

nice doc. Thanks. Good website overall too.

jacksonpt

I like his stuff, and his attitude.

Sam_I_Am77

jacksonpt wrote: »

Here it is - download the excel file from his site and put in your numbers based on your current ability.

http://danjohn.net/2013/04/strength-standards-sleepless-in-seattle/strength-standards/

That is really cool and I like how I match-up in his grid. I wonder what he bases these metrics on?