Man reveals what happens when he only heavily trained half of his body for months
A fitness YouTuber documented his ambitious plan to heavily train only one half of his body for two months – and this is what happened.
When it comes to training your body, the consensus is that you perform the same amount of exercises on the right and left side in order to create optimal results.
However this tried-and-tested method appears to have been disregarded by the internet generation, most notably by a bloke known online as 'The Crooked Man' who has been training only one muscle, his left trapezius muscle, for the past couple of months.
And the results are of course shocking.
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The 'one trap lad' isn't the only content creator using their body as a live experiment in the name of fitness either, with YouTuber Jeremy Ethier documenting his experience training one side of his body heavily and one side lightly for 60 days.
Here is what happened.
Ahead of starting his new training regime, Jeremy underwent a full body MRI, took his body circumferences and flipped a coin to decide which side would be undergoing heavily training.
He also recruited a gym newbie by the name of Dennis to broaden his experiment and show the impact of the routine on a person who wasn't experienced in the world of fitness.
It didn't take too long for the difference in training programmes to show its impact on the men's bodies either. By the halfway mark, Jeremy noticed that his left side (the heavy side) was growing stronger but more vulnerable to injury.
"As much as I've been team heavy throughout this experiment, I'm starting to notice its downsides," Jeremy said of the two training styles.
"If lightweights do actually provide similar or even more growth, they can be a great option to work around pain and injury."
However using lighter weights can also have its downsides, with the content creator noting you need to put in more effort to notice similar results.
"Your bigger, more powerful fibers grow your muscles the most, but they’re only called into action if needed. With heavy weights, big fibres are activated right from the very first rep. But with light weights, they sit on the sidelines until the smaller ones fatigue," he explained.
"And the problem is by the time you’re 15 plus reps deep, most people can’t push through the pain and just stop their sets."
So what are the final results?
After 60 days of following the unique training regime Jeremy and Dennis underwent the same body scans to examine the changes to their physiques.
Jeremy gained two pounds from the experiment, just over half of which was pure muscle.
He experienced gains on both sides of his body, however it was the right side - aka, the lighter side - which prevailed.
This was especially noticeable in his chest, with Jeremy noting: "My lighter weight side grew just very slightly more in almost every single muscle.
He continued: "My chest actually had the biggest difference, with the light side experiencing double the growth."
However Jeremy did note the differences in muscle growth were minor, adding that he could've continued training this way for a year without obvious differences.
But he did say there was a pronounced imbalance in his iliopsoas - a muscle which helps stabilise the hips and back - which grew on the left side where he was lifting heavy weights and shrank on the right.
This actually led to an injury when he returned to his normal workout routine.
So which side is the winner? Well both, or neither.
"So 6 to 15 reps with a moderate weight, that is what I believe is the sweet spot. It’s light enough that your joints don’t get beat up, but heavy enough that every set doesn’t feel like a mental battle," he concluded.
Brenna Cooper