The secret to building up a lagging body-part

Lagging body parts fall into 2 categories: symmetrically lagging such as a weaker bicep or overall lagging, such as a small or concave chest.
The solution to tackling a lagging body part is the same for both, you need to train them in a different way. Let’s look into this in more detail…

Symmetrically lagging

This is a common problem with many people who start weigh training. After a while (or even at the beginning) they find that one of their sides or body parts is smaller or weaker. Common areas are biceps, chest, shoulders or triceps.

The solution to a symmetrically lagging body-part is to train it in an intelligent way and whilst you are doing this, lay off training the stronger side. Let’s take a smaller/weaker bicep as an example:

If you have a weaker bicep, stop training the stronger bicep. Concentrate on training the weak bicep once every 5-7 days with a dumbbell, increasing the weight every week. Typically you would do exercises such as dumbbell curls and preacher curls to get the weak biceps developing strength and size.

Make sure you give it plenty of rest, nutrition, water and protein. Keep working on the weak bicep and not train the strong one until the weaker bicep can lift a much as the strong side. This WILL happen. It’s just a case of carrying on and being persistent.

Overall lagging

Some people have nice bodies or build nice bodies but one or more areas look weak. For example you can have a huge chest but small shoulders, or big shoulders and arms but a weak concave chest and so on.

The same principle as above applies in that you should stop training the other strong body-parts and concentrate on the weaker ones. Let’s take the example of someone who has strong arms and shoulders but a weak chest:

In this case you would stop training shoulders and arms directly and concentrate solely on getting your chest up to the same standard as the rest of your body. You would train chest hard and heavy once every 5-7 days with exercises such as bench press and dips and resume training the stronger body parts when you see your chest bigger/stronger and in line with the rest of your body.


A great body is about symmetry. To look fantastic from all angles, you need to make sure you have a symmetrical body in every way and this can be achieved by the stop-start principles above. Don’t be afraid to stop training stronger/bigger body-parts - in time you will appreciate symmetry. Health-wsie too, it's better to have a symmetrical body so your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments are all in line and working as they should.