Does Your Handedness Affect Your Fitness?

Did you know your hand dominance affects how you move?

It does. Your handedness affects your reactions, which affect your posture pattern, which creates a cascade of muscle imbalances up and down your body. This dominant pattern goes further than just your structure, as handedness comes from the brain. As Viatcheslaw Walssoff, PhD writes: “Handedness reflects the structure of our brain, more specifically its asymmetry.”

This asymmetry affects how we move, leading to non-optimal movement patterns that can progress into weaknesses and repetitive injuries. So what does this mean for you? 

It means that you need to do specific adjustments to help your body find its balance. If you are actively training, you need to train specifically for your body.

If we are right handed, we tend to be rotated to the left slightly, with our right shoulder lower than the left and slightly rounded forward. This twisting will affect the strength of the muscles on the front and back of the torso. And affect your hips. When we are right handed, we tend to put more weight into our left leg.

Interested in adjusting these natural patterns in your body? In improving your performance or avoiding that nagging repetitive injury? In February, we have a Private and Duet special at Pilates in Guelph.  See more information here

Are you a trainer and want to develop the skills to see handedness patterns in your clients? Join me for Body Harmonics Handedness and Scoliosis workshop February 23rd 1:30- 7:30.  More more information here