Hey guys,
Haven’t been posting much in the last few months cause I’m stuck with dial-up. Strength training has hit several snags. Doing squats I maxed at 260 for 5RM and 285 for DL.
For the last 2 months I haven’t squatted or deadlifted close to that because my right knee would hurt like a bitch.
Anyways, today I was sitting on the crapper admiring the new size of my left leg. I glanced at my right and noticed ITS A HELL OF ALOT SMALLER!!! I busted out the tape measure and found it to be 2 inches smaller around the largest part of the thigh.
HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN DOING SQUATS???
My right leg is dominant and one problem with squats is I shift the weight to my rightside when my form crumbles.
Needless to say, I’m fucking pissed that this happened, it’s like my right leg didn’t even grow AT ALL! Yet it’s my stronger leg! What the fuck is this shit?!?!?!?
That is pretty weird that it is your stronger leg that is smaller, all I’d suggest is do a lot more single leg exercises, should help them balance out.
My guess is that since your right knee has been hurting you, you’ve been using your left leg to compensate for it, possibly without knowing it. Single leg work will help, but getting your knee back to a point where you can work your right leg heavy is also important.
Thanks for the input guys.
I have started to mountain bike alot, maybe 3-4 times a week for 30-40 mins on intermediate trails. Would have anything to do with the imbalances?
[quote]funkhauser wrote:
Thanks for the input guys.
I have started to mountain bike alot, maybe 3-4 times a week for 30-40 mins on intermediate trails. Would have anything to do with the imbalances?
[/quote]
I doubt it.
If the distance from your waist to the pedal is the same, No.
If, however, your right knee sends shivers of pain up your spinal cord every time you use it to push yourself, and you find yourself overcompensating with your left… that could explain a bit of your lost mass.
In either case, here’s a prescription:
heal your right knee.
do single leg work, training your right knee more (not much more, just more).
Take creatine (helps prevent loss of LBM. I believe it can help rebuild it as well. Cell volumization and all that. Just my opinion).
Sounds like your left leg is overcompensating; I’ve had similar problems but mine was due to a past operation. I would, however, get your knee checked out asap. If you continue training on it and you have something wrong, you may well make it irreparably worse.
I’m still recovering from an injury to my left knee. I had to put a mirror behind my squat rack because I was drifting toward my right leg on squats and I couldn’t feel it.
I have the exact same problem, just opposite legs. I had a knee injury on my left leg, it is an inch or two smaller than my right leg. 1 thing I have noticed. When doing heavy squats I tend to drift a little to my stronger side, and have to force myself to stay centered…I was thinking that before I noticed I was doing this, this could have caused the leg size discrepancy.
In an attempt to fix it I am doing split squats with my left leg only.