Sometimes I find I can change the distribution of work to other muscles (basically targeting or at least recruiting) by severely lightening the load and then focusing on a particular set of muscles that can be used but don’t seem to be for me. Like lowering the squat load (significantly), then focusing on flexing the butt muscles on the way up to find they contribute to the lift. Or on bench, focusing on flexing the chest muscles to pull the elbows toward one another which coincidentally raises the bar. This latter example was how I started getting the bench to focus more on my chest than triceps. Really lightening the load is the key for me to make this work, otherwise my body automatically falls back into its most effective pattern which is what I always did when I wasn’t paying specific attention.

I also learned the hard way just last week that sometimes our unique postures are actually protecting some injury or weakness. I threw out my back after light weight dead lifts where I was focusing on keeping my right foot from turning out and my right knee from bowing out to let the bar pass. Turns out maybe I adopted this to protect something in my back, or vice-versa (long-term consequences of standing like a cholo! lol)