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What is your weakest Link?

Driven2lift

Driven2lift

Legend
Just curious to see what AM members consider to be their weakest muscle group,

Or even maybe something limiting progress (shoulder issues as an example)

You may end up getting some helpful input from others here in response so drop a post below.
 
My shoulder issues definitely hinders my upper body strength.
 
Do you guys have issues commonly after certain lifts?
 
Shoulder workouts and chest workouts will kill my shoulder. Anything that involves rotating my shoulder. When I DB bench, my left arm wants to come into my chest.
 
Yah any kind of bench is the worst. I use a lot of light weights these days. I should take some time off but im addicted.Just got to movies,going to see Hyena Road
 
Shoulders have always been a weak spot for me as well. Neglected them early on in college and its hurt me since. Chest has always been an issue too but I think this stems from the shoulder problems.

It's not so much that my shoulders are too weak anymore but I've had a few injuries that have never really been perfect since (years and years now). From time to time I have to totally abandon Ohp motions.
 
Calves and squats. Right now my wrist is giving me the fits. Never hurts during my workouts only after. Thank god this was a deload week, it does feel better than it did 2 days ago so I'm happy about that. Overall my squat is my weakest lift. I can leg press like its nothing but the squat has always been a trouble spot although since learning the valsalva maneuver my numbers are increasing very well even in a maintenance/deficit
 
My shoulder and my knee. Shoulder will get irritated after db presses and lat raises. I've found that stretching for about 10 mins before every workout has helped a little, but not completely.

I get a sharp pain in my right knee kinda on the top right of the kneecap (if that even makes sense). It has definitely hurt my squats. My right leg kinda flares out coming out of the hole. Haven't found the solution yet. Stretching, foam rolling, mobility stuff hasn't helped much.
 
Gotta say my traps, ive always done high volume to try to get them to grow but ive recently started doing heavier weight for less sets so well see how that goes
 
Shin splints are really holding me back at the moment. Not in the gym but with sports and running.

I'll go calves for muscle group. I've seen definition but not much size.
 
Elbow pain has really hindered my tricep growth, strength is good but can't do most free weight tricep exercises.
 
My biceps don't really grow.

However, I can't deadlift and don't really squat. I had a spinal fusion and can't bend enough to deadlift and don't want to risk squatting
 
My weak points are my legs and calves.. fortunately I've finally figured out my squat form, but deadlifts do give me specific issues with my sciatic nerve.
 
My weakest points from a pure muscle/appearance standpoint are calves and upper chest.

Calves are in great condition -- but don't have all that much girth to them lol. But I can live with it.

Upper chest isn't terrible, but I just have a miserable time focusing on it. Whenever I do incline, my front delts want to take over. So I try to vary things as much as possible to keep the focus/tension on the upper pec, but sometimes it just doesn't get all that much.


And the thing that pains me (not physical pain, but just makes me sad lol) the most is I have a hip imbalance. Because of that, my left shoulder looks like it's slightly rolled forward. It's a total nightmare with any arm work (including bench and presses) because I have to try really hard to draw that left shoulder and shoulderblade back to keep it tucked and have pressure go where it's meant to. But most importantly, when I drop down into a squat or a crouch (I was a catcher in baseball for years when I was younger), my quads aren't parallel -- one is even with the ground and the other isn't. So I do as much solo leg work as I can and when I do outright squats, I can't go as heavy as I used to because it's unevenly distributed and I'll blow out a knee or a hammy.

Pretty sure it goes back to when I blew a hamstring out playing slow pitch softball (of all things...) a little over 5 years ago. Sad, because I weighed less and was squatting, benching, etc. significantly more than I do now.
 
Lower back (degenerated disc), bad shoulders after 37 years of lifting, I just work around them and keep lifting at age 50 on my next b-day.
 
Chiefsnation23 said:
Shin splints are really holding me back at the moment. Not in the gym but with sports and running.

I'll go calves for muscle group. I've seen definition but not much size.
Click to expand...

I got shin splints from time to time and it was because of my shoes. Then I went to a specialty running store and they looked at my gait then prescribed me a shoe. The first time they f-ed up and I got stability running shoes, my shin splints were even worse. Then I got a plush pair of Nike Vomeros and haven't had problems since. It was definitely worth the extra money to get a supremely cushioned pair of shoes. Recently I just switched to Saucony Triumph Iso because the newer Vomeros don't fit my feet right. So I keep track of my mileage and when the cushioning starts to break down/shoes start to feel sloppy/mushy which seems to be around 300 miles for me, I get a new pair. Hope this helps.
 
My weakest link are definitely my forearms. Seems like I have to use wrist straps way too much. Last year I started doing cleans for the first time and man oh man, my grip was the first thing to go. Can't use straps on cleans! My form probably wasn't helping me any too.
 
Skinny knees, lol. I've heard several times that my calves look abnormally large and that my quads/glutes are too big and it's because they drive down into relatively narrow medial area. It does look a little disproportionate. .
 
kisaj said:
Skinny knees, lol. I've heard several times that my calves look abnormally large and that my quads/glutes are too big and it's because they drive down into relatively narrow medial area. It does look a little disproportionate. .
Click to expand...

That's a good thing lol!

Small joints = greater taper!!!
 
Tight hips, really holding my lifts back. I've got hyper lordosis and work on it constantly, but this damn desk job is fighting my efforts. Only thing I can really do to fight this, on top of mobility work, is extra core work.

Besides this, from an aesthetic point of view, my upper chest needs more volume/size.
 
Gutterpump said:
Tight hips, really holding my lifts back. I've got hyper lordosis and work on it constantly, but this damn desk job is fighting my efforts. Only thing I can really do to fight this, on top of mobility work, is extra core work.

Besides this, from an aesthetic point of view, my upper chest needs more volume/size.
Click to expand...

Jobs hurt the gainz man.

When I have to sit at my desk for a while, I just try and stretch out a little. I usually just go outside and get some fresh air and stretch to keep the blood moving. Maybe it's just a reason to get up, but either way..

Does the mobility stuff help? You foam rolling and all?
 
Audioph1x said:
Jobs hurt the gainz man.

When I have to sit at my desk for a while, I just try and stretch out a little. I usually just go outside and get some fresh air and stretch to keep the blood moving. Maybe it's just a reason to get up, but either way..

Does the mobility stuff help? You foam rolling and all?
Click to expand...

Yep I do the couch stretch (the lunge/proposal stretch for the psoas) and have a firm rumble roller I use for rolling out. I also have the Mobility WOD stick (short barbell) that I use to roll out my hips and legs everyday now. It's pretty new, just got the stick a few weeks back. I need to setup something that will allow me to use the bar on my hammies too. Something to prop the bar up. It's sooo much better than a foam roller.

Using the new bar and hitting tons of core work looks like it's starting to help. I do design work, so I tend to get sucked into my computer for long periods of time. I need to set an alarm to remind myself to get up and walk around / stretch the hips out as well as the upper back/shoulders.

I've also purchased a standing desk at home and I might get something similar for the office that will let me sit/stand whenever I feel like.
 
This anterior pelvic tilt is also the weakest link in regards to endurance for me. My lower back is always the first thing to go when running, or doing anything that involves endurance. It's super frustrating.

I think I'm going to start working the QL's (Quadratus Lumborum) often, as a workaround until I can fix my lordosis properly.

[video=youtube;eixkcrX_Qh8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eixkcrX_Qh8[/video]
 
Most underdeveloped would have to be medial delts, upper chest, and calves, but that's because I never really started trying to hypertrophy them until recently. I always focused purely on strength and neglected a lot of hypertrophy work for these areas.

As for what holds me back, I have terrible low back pain so I haven't been able to deadlift in like 2 years, which kills me. Deads were one of my favorite exercises to do. Several chiropractors, pain doctors, and multiple imaging scans and nobody can really pinpoint the problem yet, which is the most frustrating part.
 
Medial and anterior delts for sure. Starting to grow a little, think I need more hypertrophy work though. Biceps aren't great either, but I've been doing a lot of compound lifting and not much arm work.
 
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