FAVORITISM......

Favoritism is an ugly word...usually bringing thoughts of unfairness, hurt, and anguish.

SO, if favoritism is so bad, WHY do we practice it regularly in our fitness ????

We have favorite routines, we have favorite exercises, we have favorite machines, we DEFINITELY have favorite bodyparts we like to work on.

The problem here is.....all this favoritism is SEVERELY hurting your progress. This favoritism stops your gains by creating huge imbalances in your body. We seem to work our favorite (best) bodyparts more than all the others...which is kind-of odd because the BEST bodyparts are NOT the ones that need the most work. We play favorites with our own muscles until we mess ourselves up.

People will do 5-6 different exercises for chest....but then they ignore their back. They can work out completely enough to work inclines, flat, declines...with barbell AND dumbbells...... flyes, presses, etc.....but yet we will completely ignore other bodyparts like they do not matter at all.
People will do the same things with arms.....people LOVE doing arms, they are fairly easy to do completely, and most of the time the results are very quick....and very "showy". They will do standing curls, cable curls, preacher curls, concentration curls...and that is JUST for the BICEP. To add the TRICEP, it is another 6 different exercises....all for these little tiny muscles of your arm.

They will do WHOLE workout days around their chest or arms....but then ignore back, or legs, or core...because they are harder to do, they are NOT their favorites to do...they don't "show" as well in the mirror.

We've ALL seen the guy who bench presses 3 days a week....his chest and shoulders look great, but his legs are skinny.
We've all seen the person who spends 5 days a week on the treadmill running....and their legs are cut and muscular....but their upper body is flabby.

WHY do we do this to ourselves just because of favoritism ???
If we are complete enough to do 5 different curl variations for "one-little-bicep".....why is it that we cannot be FAIR with our own muscles, our own workouts ???

It seems to ME....that the least favorite muscles (the worst ones, the weakest ones)....are the REAL ones that should be focused on....not the ones that you already do 50 sets-a-week for.

I will write this next sentence in all capitals, because it is important enough to do so.....this is a fact everyone should read two-or-three times over.

THE IS A MECHANISM IN YOUR BODY, WHERE, IF THE MUSCLE IMBALANCE IS TOO GREAT....YOUR BODY WILL LIMIT YOUR STRENGTH TO THAT OF THE WEAKER MUSCLE.

Read that a few times......
Your body does this for protection, so you do not injure yourself from huge muscle imbalances.

You see people doing the "leg extension" machine all the time...where you are seated with bent legs, and you straighten your legs to lift the weight. Everyone loves this because it gives good thigh development to the muscle (even though the movement is wrong for real life movement, but that is another story)....so their front, upper leg looks good. But how much do you see them flip over and do their hamstrings ?? I bet if you paid attention....people would do their 'front leg" (quad).... 3-to-5 times more than "their back leg" (hamstring).

Then they WONDER WHY....when they go out and RUN....they "blow out" their hamstring and get injured.

WELL....you just got injured because of FAVORITISM, because you played favorites with the muscles you like the most.

THIS, hurts our progress so much.....sometimes I'm shocked that some people progress at all, after watching their routines for a while.
If you want your gains to SKYROCKET....you MUST pay conscious attention to your own favoritism....to how you treat certain muscles as "privileged".

We do the same thing with our types of exercises. We like bodybuilding, so we don't run, don't do cardio, don't do calesthenics....because we FAVOR bodybuilding....so we MUST just do that. (wrong)
We love running, so we run, and we run...and never do strength training, or worry about upper body strength...because if we ever get in a life-or-death situation....we will just RUN. (wrong).

This type of favoritism hurts us SO much....in so many ways.....there are almost too many to describe.
We limit our progress, we limit our 'build", we limit our fat burning, we create injuries for ourself....setting progress back even farther.

ALL in the name of favoritism.....a word we all hate....until we get to the gym.

STOP playing favorites with your muscles....it's time to be FAIR from now on.... to them.
You would want to be treated fairly in YOUR life, treat your muscles with the same respect....and they will reward you with the best body you could ever imagine..