How To Fix An Uneven Chest (Easy #1 Trick)

Do you have an uneven chest? Are your pecs crooked and imbalanced? No worries, ever since I was a teenager one of my pecs was always smaller and higher than the other.

But after 6 months of focused training, my left pec has massively improved in shape and size. And I’m going to show you how I did it:

Guidelines To Fix Crooked Imbalanced Chest

Use a wide grip. Although a wide grip takes away from the triceps, your chest will handle more of the load and get more stimulation. If you start to feel any discomfort, bring your grip closer together.

Put on mass. If you don’t have a lot of muscle mass, there’s no need to worry about your chest looking uneven. As far as anyone can tell, your uneven chest isn’t genetic. It isn’t until you put on more muscle mass that you can tell if you have bad muscle insertions. Insertions are how your muscles attach to your body.

Not everyone can fix their uneven chest. I’ll be completely honest with you – some people have bad muscle insertions. And no matter how hard they try, their chest will never actually be symmetrical.

However, that doesn’t mean that your chest can’t appear symmetrical.

The good news is that when you put on more muscle mass your chest will look more symmetrical. I’ll use myself as an example:

(Left) Before I focused on fixing pec imbalance. (Right) Same shirt, 20lbs difference.

So long as you build mass on your chest you will look fine.

Here are two more pics for reference. Despite any imperfections, both men have phenomenal physiques.

(Left) Bad muscle insertions. (Right) Common uneven chest.

You have to look very closely at the person on the right to notice his chest is uneven. My point is that since you’re looking for the imbalance, you’re going to be the person most aware of your personal imbalances. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Just focus on chest development and gaining mass, then go from there.

Without further ado, I will show you the #1 bench press modification to fix your chest imbalance:

The ‘Double-Take’ Bench Press

When you bench press you will do something I like to call a ‘Double-Take’.

Essentially you will bring the bar down to your chest, then push the bar back up 1/4th of the way, bring it back down to your chest, then push it all the way up to complete the rep.

This movement is considerably more difficult than your standard bench press. So you’ll have to lower your working weight.

I find that 4 sets of 6 reps at 80% of the weight you’d regularly push on the bench press is a great place to start.

For example, let’s say you normally rep 225lbs on the bench press. That means that performing Double-Takes at about 180lbs will be a great place to start.

Consider getting fat grips to strengthen your grip and take stress off your joints (optional).

How Double-Takes Fix Uneven Chest Imbalances

You force stimulation to both pecs. The biggest cause of muscle imbalance is lack of stimulation. Chances are when you bench press, one side is doing more work than the other. But when you Double-Take you force both pecs to do the work.

You can tell how much your weaker pec is lagging. Since you’ll have to use a lighter weight than usual, you’ll realize how far behind your weak pec is in terms of progress. And because the muscle stimulation from Double-Takes is undeniable, you’ll realize how much you’ve been under-utilizing your weaker pec.

You get better at stimulating your entire chest. After performing the modification for several months you’ll be able to stimulate your weaker pec much more easily when you perform standard bench press exercises.

In Conclusion

To finish off on a personal note: There’s a lot of advice out there saying you should use dumbbells to fix asymmetrical muscle imbalances.

I personally believe that dumbbells are inefficient. And I prefer to find modifications for bar exercises to fix imbalances.

That’s not to say that dumbbells don’t work. But I can promise you that this simple modification alone will do wonders for your chest development. Whether you have an asymmetric chest or not. 

To recap: Fix your chest imbalance by performing Double-Takes for a few months while putting on mass.