It’s easy to train the muscles you enjoy training.
Maybe you bench press every week but rarely train your back. Or you never skip upper body day, but somehow legs keep getting forgotten.
A balanced strength training routine doesn’t mean training every muscle exactly the same amount. It simply means making sure you’re not consistently neglecting parts of your body, or working other parts too hard.
Look at the whole week
It’s difficult to judge your training from a single workout.
A bench press works your chest, but also your shoulders and triceps. Rows primarily work your back, but your biceps help too. Squats train several muscles at once.
Instead, look at everything you’ve done over the whole week.
Have you trained your chest but barely your back? Quads but not hamstrings? Upper body several times but legs only once, or not at all?
You don’t need perfect symmetry. You’re just looking for obvious gaps.
Your goals matter
Balanced doesn’t necessarily mean equal.
If you want stronger legs, it makes sense to spend more time training them. If you’re trying to improve your pull-ups, your back and biceps might get extra attention.
That’s fine. The important thing is that this is intentional rather than something that happened because you kept choosing your favorite exercises.
Don’t forget secondary muscles
Counting exercises isn’t always enough: If you’ve done bench presses and overhead presses, for example, your triceps have already done quite a bit of work even if you haven’t done any triceps exercises.
The same is true for your biceps during pulling exercises and many other muscle groups.
So before adding exercises for a muscle that looks neglected, consider the work it has already done as a secondary muscle.
Let the muscle map show you
This is exactly what the muscle map in Get Strong is designed to make easier.
As you log your workouts, Get Strong keeps track of the muscles you’ve trained throughout the week, including both primary and secondary muscles.
You can set your own weekly goal for each muscle, and the map shows your progress towards it. That makes it easy to spot muscles that haven’t received much attention, and muscles that have already had plenty.
You can also use the map while planning your next workout to help decide what to train.
Don’t aim for perfect
Your muscle map doesn’t need to be perfectly filled every week.
Some weeks you’ll train more, some weeks you’ll train less. Your goals may mean deliberately focusing on certain muscles more than others. The point is simply to see the bigger picture.
If you’re getting stronger and the muscles you want to train are getting regular attention, you’re probably doing just fine.
