November 15, 2017 | John Paul Catanzaro
If you place yourself in the eye of a storm, you can have all kinds of chaos going on around you, but you’ll stay centered and in control. If you step out into the whirlwind of tasks, you’ll lose control and quickly become overwhelmed. The way you get to the center is by prioritizing.
Make a list of what needs to be done – get it down on paper – and then number the tasks according to priority. Start at number 1 and work your way down the list (e.g., an oil change may be low on your list, but a car that’s leaking oil becomes a priority). Before you know it, the sheet will be filled with check marks.
The same concept applies to your physique. Rate your physique and prioritize your weak areas in training.
In my article How Do You Rate On A Scale Of 1-10?, I introduce a simple strategy to help you improve your muscle symmetry and proportion: Simply rate the development of each major muscle group on a scale of one to ten and focus most of your training on the lagging muscles.
Feel free to get feedback from others. In fact, I encourage it. In Pumping Iron, for instance, you saw this sort of thing happen in the gym all the time. With cell phones and the internet these days, all you need to do is take a few photos and share it with others for their opinion.
Once you gather a consensus of what’s lagging and what’s not, work more on your weaknesses and less on your strengths. Double the volume for the two lowest rating muscle groups and cut the volume in half for the two highest. In general, there are two ways to bring up lagging body parts:
You can even combine both methods as I outline in How To Bring Up Lagging Body Parts. Do this for a three month period and rate again. Put the before and after photos side by side for comparison. Repeat the process above until you achieve the desired look.
Bottom Line: Rate your physique, get feedback from your peers, and bring up those lagging body parts by giving them a higher priority and training them more than the rest of your body. It’s easy to do, just step into the eye of the storm!