how to keep arm size balanced

Use your left hand for everything else.

wturber wrote: ping gog wrote: hey what excercise that a person can do to keep the left hand the same size as the right hand from constantly playing with the right hand it gets bigger than the left hand can how can a person keep balanced can anyone help? Table tennis rackets aren't so heavy that they influence arm size much.  So I'm surprised that you are seeing any difference.  But if you want to keep your arm sizes about the same, I suggest doing some dumbbell workouts or other exercises that work each arm independently with a standard amount of resistance (cable machines, elastic bands, etc.)

If you are right handed your right arm will always be a little larger than the left table tennis or not.  That's natural, why would you want to have excess muscle and weight that you don't use?

The thing about people is that you can't see them side on from both sides at once :). No one would ever notice other than the owner of the arms. Has anyone ever had a person come up to them and say dude... one of your arms is bigger!@. When 99% of the population have one bigger arm :P

Edited by bluebucket - 11/08/2011 at 9:05pm

Just do weight lifting regularly.  The muscle gains from it is 2, 3x the gain you get from playing TT or even tennis, so in a couple of years, it will dominate and you will have 2 big balanced armed.  As of excess muscles, you must work really hard and take the "right" stuff to get them.  If you just workout normally, you will never get there.  Another thing, you start losing muscle weight in your late 20s or ever earlier, in most industrial countries, lifting weight is one of the few things that help you fighting the lost.

Baal wrote: Use your left hand for everything else.

I'm willing to buy the arm size change for players who train seriously for many, many years 20-30 hours a week.   My assumption was that the OP was not in this category.  But I could be wrong.

Yes, cross-training and weight training - specifically core strength routines are important for TT players seeking to be elite or near elite.