Hi. I’ve been lifting weights for a little more than a year now and T mag is one of my favourite reads.
I’ve noticed a muscle imbalance in my lower back, the left being larger than the right.
I mentioned this to my doctor earlier this week, and he confirmed that the left lumbar region was more developed than the right. He checked my back and said that i had “slight scoliosis”.
The doctor said to exercise my “right lower back” more, in order to even out the muscle imbalance.
What exercises are there that would help me to exercise one side of the lower back more than the other? Can anyone give me any suggestions? Do side deadlifts work for this?
Any help given would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
You can try doing some single leg back extensions for starters. Work the weak side first and only do as many reps on your strong side as your weak side will allow.
do you change up your alternating grip on deadlift? after reading the deadlift thread i change my alternating grip on every rep… dont know if this really has anything to do with anything but i was noticing some strength imbalances in my deadlift when i used my less-used alternate grip… now its evened out
A lot of people have this same imbalance and while exercising your lower back in a unilateral fashion my seem like the quick fix, you have to take a step back and see where the scoliosis comes from.
First thing I would suggest would be to check the tension and range of motion of your Piriformis. It’s likely tighter on the Left side and is causing a lateral, downward force on your pelvis.
In order to hold your spin neutral under load, your Quadratus Lumborum on the Left side has to work much harder and therefore becomes significantly larger.
Past that, you may want to examine why one piriformis is tighter than the other. There could be a weakness in the arch in your Left foot or weakness in the external rotators in your hip.
whoa…thanks for all the replies… A single legged GHR is a bit out of the question though, lol.
Yes, I do alternate my alternating grip for deadlifts.
Rob Coates…especially apreciative of your post! I really do need more information regarding your recommendations though, as I have no clue how to check for those things you mentioned. Besides providing me more info, I’d would be very grateful if you could recommend me any books or articles on this matter?
Once again, thanks to everyone who posted a reply!
although I don’t subscribe to the hokie factor, yoga poses are some real good indicators of your flexibility. Yoga Poses & Asanas - Basic to Advanced - Yoga Journal has some. Look at some of the poses that are unilateral and compare your side to side abilities. although right side dominant, I found I am weak and tight in my right hip. set ups, weak side first are seeming to help, but we will see.
