I hear these little tidbits from time to time, and I'm never sure how "hard and fast" they are, but I thought I'd ask others for their input here.

There are strength ratios I generally try to follow when I'm training so I stay "balanced", but I'm not sure I've got 'em right.

For example, I do my alternating dumbbell curls with 25 pounds a side
so I do my overhead single dumbbell extension with a 50-pound dumbbell
so my bis and tris are balanced.

I try to keep my SLDL the same as my ATF squat, and I have aimed to be able to squat my own weight.

I try to keep my hamstring curls the same as my seated leg extensions, although my hamstrings are losing this battle. I'm not sure if I should be concerned.

Are there any guidelines any of you try to follow for balance?

To be honest I have never given this subject any thought but it does make sense.Just outta curiousity do you compete or do you plan to in the future?

I've personally never paid attention to it. I just figure that I want to work each group for as much growth as possible.
I do of course use the same weight for same bodyparts on different sides of my body. (left, right biceps)
If I notice that some bodyparts are lagging behind in development I try to work those harder. My chest gets the least amount of work because it developed fast for me. I try to put emphasis on my back and shoulders right now.

As far as your example: I do bicep db curls with about 55 lbs. and Triceps extentions (db single arm) with the same amount. Quads are much stronger than hams. Back is slightly weaker than chest.

Nah - I keep telling people I'll compete when I turn 50, hopefully folks will forget by then...

I'm just a sucker for balance and proportion. I like to avoid injuries, too - I have learned to do extra work on my upper trap and rear delts to pull my shoulders into the correct position, and I've had to fix a bunch of old injuries in the past with lifting, so I got to thinking about how I guage my progress and thought I'd toss the idea out there.

Hiya Built,

I'm not to the point yet of trying to achieve balance and proportion. I'm still working on building strength and size - and not acheiving very much, very quickly, hahaha.

What might be useful to you is something I found while researching different exercises is how different muscle groups respond to training, based on their composition of slow or fast twitch muscle fiber.

It *may* be that you would want to use a lower weight and way more reps on a muscle group that contained more slow twitch fiber. That might help balance the quicker growth in a fast-twitch muscle group. abcbodybuilding.com has some interesting things to say about it in their anatomy section.

I'm going to try applying what I picked up there in my own program, but I also would value your opinion on the subject

Very, very cool! Thanks Idaho - I'll look into this.

I remember reading something on muscle balance say for instance the quads vs hamstrings. I'll see if I can dig it up. From what I remember though it wasn't a 50/50 balance, for example the quads lifted x% more than the hamstrings. Again I don't remember the exact numbers or where I read it, but I'll look for it.

Thanks mle.