My right lat is growing much faster than my left. What should I do?

Q: My right lat is growing much faster than my left. What should I do?

A: It’s not unusual to have one side of your physique developing a little more than the other side, but a big difference is unusual.

I suggest you work each side independently—for example, one-arm dumbbell rows and lat work on a machine that allows you to work one arm at a time. Even so, you should use the same weight for each side and the same sets and reps, even if you’re stronger on one side. That will prevent your better-developed side from doing more than half of the total work, as it is probably doing in conventional two-sided lat work. Your stronger side will be able to cope with its workload more easily than your weaker side. That’s okay. Your weaker side has to catch up, and your stronger side may need to weaken a little—and perhaps atrophy a little—to even things out.

If after a few months the substantial imbalance remains, I suggest you visit a chiropractor because you may have some structural issue that could be addressed to correct or at least minimize the cause of the imbalance.