Nice work on the single leg, and core, keep it up. Looking at your vid, I had a similar problem. The muscular imbalance or alignment may have caused the issue, but I’d bet that pattern of weight shifting is ingrained now. I used the smith machine for squats, staying really tight in the upper body so there wasn’t much room to shift, and basically relearned what a balanced squat felt like.
Bottom-up squats, again staying really tight and forcing myself into correct form near or in the hole helped a lot. This also helped me find my strongest position and improved my form overall. I know a lot of people are anti-belt, but it helps me brace straight and correct the pattern. I also got a wide spuds belt (for strongman) and the difference with that is undeniable.
Looks like your left leg is longer than your right. No amount of single leg or core training will fix that, at best it will be a short bandage for the problem.
You try to do a good job of staying evenly balanced and it really makes it easier to see. You are very uneven before you even start. Pause the video at about 22sec and you can clearly see your right leg is almost straight and your left is still rather bent.
Thanks badwolf for the insight. I measured my legs and the left leg is about 1cm shorter than the other. I’m going to the gym tomorrow and I’m gonna put an insole into my left chucks. Gonna see how it goes. Hope it will fix this problem, cause I won’t give up on squatting that easily!
Thats great. A short leg is no reason to stop squatting. Its hard to tell on video but your right leg is the short one. How did you measure your legs ? Its actually much trickier than most people think. If you put something in to make the left leg even longer it will make it worse. And if your going that route(which you probably should) you really need to get a professional to do it since it needs to be done in a specific way
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
Looks like your left leg is longer than your right. No amount of single leg or core training will fix that, at best it will be a short bandage for the problem.
You try to do a good job of staying evenly balanced and it really makes it easier to see. You are very uneven before you even start. Pause the video at about 22sec and you can clearly see your right leg is almost straight and your left is still rather bent.[/quote]
With the way his pelvis is tilting, there is no way you can tell he has one leg shorter than the other by watching the video. His one leg straightens earlier because of the sideways pelvic tilt, though it is a possibility he does have one leg shorter, it can not be discerned from this video.
You have been only been doing these corrective exercises for a few weeks, it will take quite a while of sticking to it (much longer than 3 weeks) to make it go away.
If you are having better ability to drop into the hole with sub max weights and come back out with more even movement laterally, then you are making progress, and should continue moving along the path you currently are.
Make sure you are stretching each side as well as performing strengthening exercises for each side.
[quote]BacktotheBar wrote:
You have been only been doing these corrective exercises for a few weeks, it will take quite a while of sticking to it (much longer than 3 weeks) to make it go away. [/quote]
This. It will take longer thant 3 weeks to fix imbalances.
[quote]BacktotheBar wrote:Make sure you are stretching each side as well as performing strengthening exercises for each side.
[/quote]
Also this. Stretch out your hamstrings and hips, is there a significant difference in flexibility? Tight hamstrings/hips can cause your leg to be shorter.
It’s good to hear you’ve made some progress. I have to agree with the 2 posts above, keep working the single leg and corrective stuff. I’ve been using the 1 arm farmer’s walk lately, and totally recommend it.
Here’s an article about training for symmetry. Colucci outlines an awesome, simple routine for legs with single leg and two legged work.
I’ve also been wearing my belt way, way more, trying to push my mid-section into it evenly.
[quote]badwolf42 wrote:
Looks like your left leg is longer than your right. No amount of single leg or core training will fix that, at best it will be a short bandage for the problem.
You try to do a good job of staying evenly balanced and it really makes it easier to see. You are very uneven before you even start. Pause the video at about 22sec and you can clearly see your right leg is almost straight and your left is still rather bent.[/quote]
With the way his pelvis is tilting, there is no way you can tell he has one leg shorter than the other by watching the video. His one leg straightens earlier because of the sideways pelvic tilt, though it is a possibility he does have one leg shorter, it can not be discerned from this video.
You have been only been doing these corrective exercises for a few weeks, it will take quite a while of sticking to it (much longer than 3 weeks) to make it go away.
If you are having better ability to drop into the hole with sub max weights and come back out with more even movement laterally, then you are making progress, and should continue moving along the path you currently are.
Make sure you are stretching each side as well as performing strengthening exercises for each side.
[/quote]
that may be true until you actual watch the video then it becomes quite obvious.
Okay, so I was considering going to an orthopedic doctor to get my legs measured and, if needed, buy some insoles to eliminate these differences, but after watching the video again and again, thought that this is definetly a muscle imbalance problem and not “a one leg shorter than the other” problem. Though, just by looking at my legs, one leg is maybe 1-2cm longer than the other, that much, in my book, doesn’t make that much of a difference and can be corrected by exercises.
So, my gameplan will be to stick to the “21st century core workout” which is really challenging for me to do and do the symmetry training routine as all I was doing was RLDs, Bulgarian split squats, Lunges, one leg calf raises all in the range of 3x8. Now, as I got the program, I’ll give it a spin for 6 weeks as it is written and just pray that I will finally overcome this s**t.
One more question, by the looks of the video it seems that my right leg is weaker than the left one, or is it the opposite? I need to get it right, as it says in the program:
“Begin each set of unilateral exercises (the leg extension, lunge, leg curl, and standing calf raise) with the weaker/smaller leg and perform reps until near-failure, then switch to the stronger side and only complete the same number of reps, even though it should seem “too easy.””
Alright, guys, thanks for the advices, back to the grind, hope I’ll update this thread with good news!
Good thinking, and don’t worry if it is not completely gone in 6 weeks either, just look for improvement. You will find out which side is weaker quick enough, but usually it is your non dominant side.
Don’t sweat the leg length thing too much, but it doesn’t hurt getting it checked.
The reason you can’t actually tell by checking yourself or just looking at the video is that your hips need to be reset before leg measurement are taken. It could very well be the opposite side that you are currently thinking because your hips my be jacked up one way or the other laterally,jacked up anteriorly/posteriorly as well as twisted one way or the other.
that may be true until you actual watch the video then it becomes quite obvious.[/quote]
You can’t tell, I watched it. If you think you can you are flat out fucking wrong.[/quote]
I’m sure glade you didn’t present any evidence and instead used the much more effective way to get your point across by using foul language. not that it matters much but this is how i can tell.
after the walk out when he is just standing before any downward motion is made there is an obvious shift of weight to the right side with no lateral hip translation
there is no hip drop or knee valgus initially. coming out of the hole the left hip and low back moves to try to keep the left hip level with the right. that movement is circular and upward as you would see in the a ball and socket.
and as i mentioned before the miss timing finish of the legs.
Aww poor baby, someone cursed at him on the internet. Think you might get over it one day? Do we need to call in a counselor?
I explained why you can’t tell just above. You are making too many inferences about it without enough information and angles of view to make those inferences. His hips need to be reset and legs measured before you jump to that conclusion. Until then you are basically guessing.
Aww poor baby, someone cursed at him on the internet. Think you might get over it one day? Do we need to call in a counselor?
I explained why you can’t tell just above. You are making too many inferences about it without enough information and angles of view to make those inferences. His hips need to be reset and legs measured before you jump to that conclusion. Until then you are basically guessing.
[/quote]
wow way to win the internet! now i know the best way to present an argument is to quickly escalate it to the use of profanity and then if any reasonable response is offered i need to jump in and try to belittle the poster as much as possible. just go back to googling responses so you can pretend to be a good pseudo-intellectual expert.