I thought I was doing everything right; I hit push, pull, legstwice a week, yet I looked fat. After going to the gym for almost 2 years, I couldn’t hold a plank for longer than a minute. I was facing a problem that almost every gym-goer faces at some point: muscle imbalance. 

Muscle imbalance occurs when certain parts of the body are stronger than others, giving you either visual and/or performance imbalance between different muscle groups. This problem also gets you stuck in a trap of sorts, as having relatively weaker parts deters you from training them even further. But this issue has a simple cure: train everything.

When you’re making a workout routine, make space to train every part of the body, irrespective of how much you like training that particular muscle. Don’t be under the impression that certain parts “aren’t important” or will train themselves as you do other exercises, as these excuses are often the very reason for muscle imbalance. 

In addition, when your workouts become less frequent during exam season, or when you're busy with other commitments, I highly recommend trying out circuit training for the few times you go to the gym. This ensures that you don’t keep training the same set of muscles every week, and you instead tone all of them.

So that’s it, stay away from the endless cycle of muscle imbalance by incorporating every muscle in your routines. Now go out there and crush it!