How do you guys bring up lagging body parts?

[Cheeky Monkey]

Can anyone share some strategies that worked for them?

Thanks!

 

[_Endure_]

I personally don't believe in working just one said bodypart to try and bring it up to snuff. Your whole body works as one. Obviously you want to hit your muscle groups being said. I would incorporate more full body and compound lifts and your entire body will respond. My personal favorite are overhead squats and superset with deadlifts. You will destroy everything.

 

[Resolve10]

Short answer: Increase volume of lagging muscle groups.

More nuanced: You can do this in a variety of ways, but it must also be quality of volume. You have to determine why the muscle is lagging. Simplest approach is to increase the volume on the lagging group while decreasing the volume (more to a maintenance level) on other muscle groups. This could mean a variety of things depending on your split, but I usually up the frequency of the target group (so say you train 5 days per week you could do M-Upper, T-Lower, W-Arms, Th-Lower, F-Upper, if say Arms were lagging).

Now again you must keep in mind why they are lagging. If it is due to poor activation of the target muscles (say you can't get a pump, you never feel that muscle "activating", you just can't seem to progress on the weights with them) then just piling on volume may not help, but a more targeted approach to improving quality would be in store.

You could also prioritize the muscle in a session. Train it first if it is normally later, etc.

That is far from comprehensive, but that is my usual "approach" when in doubt.

 

[Hyde]

More total monthly volume for it.

My back gets bigger if I increase frequency of use much better than having a back day. I assume this is because if I do one back movement well every time I come in the gym I can manage more intensity than the trash work that gets done by the end of a back day.

Sorry to say it, but things like volume cable or band rows at the end of a session are just junk work that’s only better than nothing (I do it but I’m not fooling myself into believing it’s for growth). Almost more for maintenance of size and established work capacity. It’s the heavy rows and chin-ups, or strongman event work where I was really forced to work brutally hard that I have seen my back the biggest.

For something like calves, they’re biggest when I just do them consistently

Same for my biceps, and really everything. More quality volume either via increased frequency of stimulation or adding sets/reps.

 

[BloodManor]

I started jerking off with my left hand


But my chest was lagging behind my arms I felt so I added in more direct chest work with better form to help bring it up.