Hi there, I have a problem with my left quad… Whenever I do squats, I feel my right quad doing most of the work, and of course, it becomes much more sore than the left one. I understand that in bilateral exercises such as squats, that’s common. But even when I do lunges, split squats, or pistols (one legged squats), it happens the same!
I feel the exercise in my right leg and in my right quad, but when I do the unilateral exercises with my left leg, I don’t feel my left quad working. Well, it’s not that it’s not working, but I don’t feel soreness in it neither. And I have tried to do more reps with my left leg and even isometric contractions to compensate the problem, but it doesn’t work, as the day after I continue to feel my right quad sore, but not my left one… How can it be? Can you recommend me a solution for this? Thanks in advance!
You may have a long standing problem with your right quad that is causing the soreness, there dould be some muscle or ligament damge there that is causing the soreness, just becuase your left is not sore is does not mean it is not doing the same work and benifitting the same.
I am sorry i do not know how you might rectify this but just wanted to offer a possible cause for your imbalance.
Maybe try to do a training cycle with only unilateral work. If you have a severe imbalance, doing bilateral exercises along with maybe one unilateral exercise, your stronger side is still going to get worked harder, as it is doing the majority of the work in the bilateral movement as well as the work it receives in the unilateral movements.
First thing that pops into my head is that you may be posterior chain dominant on the left side and quad dominant on the right.
Have someone check to see if there is any weight shift from one side to the other on the eccentric or concentric movements (even slightly). If so use some slow, lighter weight, high rep squats while concentrating on an even weight shift and work your way back up.
Also some bridging (one leg preferably if they can be done properly on the quad dominant side) might help even out the imbalance.
[quote]AssOnGrass wrote:
First thing that pops into my head is that you may be posterior chain dominant on the left side and quad dominant on the right.
Have someone check to see if there is any weight shift from one side to the other on the eccentric or concentric movements (even slightly). If so use some slow, lighter weight, high rep squats while concentrating on an even weight shift and work your way back up.
Also some bridging (one leg preferably if they can be done properly on the quad dominant side) might help even out the imbalance.
Just my thoughts.[/quote]
I agree with this post. One thing I would add, though, would be goblet squats instead of back squat. It takes a lot of stress off the low back, which, if that indeed is your problem, should help you more evenly distribute the amount of work on both legs.
Thanks for the tips guys! As for the posterior chain dominance in my left leg, it could be indeed. I’ll apply some of your ideas in order to solve the quad problem xD. Thanks again!!
i use to have the same problem in reverse. My VM on the right side did not contract properly. I helped it with cyclist squats and pterson step ups. one and one quarter squats will help if this is the problem also.
i did find though that doing bilateral exercises like this was only effeicent after i did alot of single leg work with a 505 tempo. And then theres always the Ian King recomendtion(i believe it was king) of a 4 to 1 ratio for the weak limb. All or none might work