Asymmetry

One aspect of what we do here at Readiness Regimen is work asymmetrically in different ways: asymmetric muscles in isolation, in combination, asymmetric types of assessments, etc. There is a big reason for this: all of us are asymmetrical on the inside (anatomically) and use our bodies asymmetrically throughout life.

Our hearts are slightly to our left side, our lymphatic system is heavily on one side of our body left to right, our right lung is larger than the left, our liver is almost entirely on our right side, etc. In addition, almost everyone has preferences (repeated) for using certain combination of muscles and joints. We typically write with only one hand, throw with one arm, and kick with one leg. Even if you’re ambidextrous in your estimation, an outsider would likely see you use some patterns far more frequently than others.

Typical movement programs keep everything symmetric – sets, weight, repetitions, sides, etc. – unless you’ve recently had an injury that causes different muscle sizes, strength or stability. But months and years after that, you’ll still have some asymmetries.

This was my life for 15 years. And my left shoulder didn’t improve. Then, I learned about some rehab/pre-hab techniques to help improve my shoulder and they certainly worked well to a point. One of the reasons they worked: I had to keep working on “evening out” my left shoulder patterns with my right. And once those patterns were close, I stopped improving.

Readiness Regimen is the next step. It deals with mostly subconscious positional and postural muscles and patterns that remain asymmetric because of the underlying anatomy and my years and years of being right-handed.

It can be your next step as well.