Why do some body builders develop very uneven lookup abs?

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Sometimes the muscle on the right side is much bigger on the left side, for example.

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4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Body builders actually work really hard to avoid asymmetry in their physiques. But this can be hard to accomplish for muscles like the abs where isolating just a portion or side is a problem. Getting bigger doesn’t always go smoothly and one side or the other of your body will want to be dominant and grow quicker or bigger. Fixing abs or back muscles is not like developing arms or legs where you can just do extra reps and exercises on the underdeveloped side.

Anonymous 0 Comments

People are asymmetric. That includes in the abs. Just like you can have a lopsided face. The actual trace of your specific ligaments between the muscles of the rectus abdominis may simply not line up.

You could work out muscle and stretch the ligaments a little bit, but only a little bit.

You’re kind of stuck with the body structure you grew into.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If it’s size, it’s likely to be training differences, where one side has been targeted more than the other, probably unintentionally.

However, ‘uneven’ abs where the muscles are asymmetrical is most likely to simply be a result of genetics. The muscles ‘attach’ at points that can’t be changed by exercise; the places that the muscle fibres originate (begin) and insert (end) determine what shape the muscle will be and are determined by the genetic structure of your body. No matter how much you work a particular muscle, you can’t change where it attaches to the bone, a tendon, or fascia, and so your power over its shape is very limited.

There are a few medical conditions that could affect the appearance of muscles (scoliosis for example I imagine could have an effect), but the symmetry of abdominal muscles is effectively fluke. It doesn’t generally have any impact on their output, power or effectiveness.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The 6 pack abs muscle is called rectus abdominis. It’s a single muscle. The shape of it cannot be changed. It looks even in some people, looks off in others.