Golf, tennis, baseball, so many of our favorite sports require repetitive movements on our dominant side. Overtime, this can lead to imbalances in your muscular length and strength, and naturally, you will continue to use your stronger side more. If not corrected, the imbalance can lead to altered reciprocal inhibition (when a muscle is too tight, so it's agonist muscle takes over), synergistic dominance (when a muscle is too weak, so another muscle helps out or takes over the movement), and potential injury. When muscular imbalances exist, many of our supportive tendons and ligaments may be at higher risk of overuse injuries.
To help prevent this from happening to you, we have a few tips from your coaches.
PRO TIPS
Activate the underactive muscles with strengthening exercises.
Warm up before playing your sport. Perform active stretches to loosen both sides of your body.
Train BOTH your dominant and non-dominant sides. Make mirrored movement patterns before and after playing to build equal strength on your non-dominant side.
Stretch after playing! You will feel the stretch more on your dominant side as these muscles are likely to be shortened due to repetitive use.
