I’ve been doing research on bowleg remedy. A lot of resources pointed out that a major cause of bowleg is weak inner leg. Since powerlifting squat has wider stance, I assume it will strengthen the inner leg and fix bowleg in some degree?
Any thoughts or personal experiences? Thanks.
[quote]cog1 wrote:
I’ve been doing research on bowleg remedy. A lot of resources pointed out that a major cause of bowleg is weak inner leg. Since powerlifting squat has wider stance, I assume it will strengthen the inner leg and fix bowleg in some degree?
Any thoughts or personal experiences? Thanks. [/quote]
You piqued my interest so I googled bowleg cures… There was an overwhelming amount of “surgery required” links. IDK man.
My non medical school thought is that if an exercise could straighten bow legs then would it make a normal person knock kneed? My legs haven’t bowed inwards so IDK…
I assume that you are an adult and that your leg issue stems from years of this weak inner leg problem. I would imagine that the bones grew this way over time and is irreversable by simply doing leg exercises, since your bones are not currently growing.
but in answer to your question, YES a wide stance squat will hit the inner legs more so that a shoulder width stance. Kettle bell swings, Atlas stones loading(strong man stuff), pull thru’s, sumo deads etc. will work that area too. If you go to a gym, they prolly have a good girl / bad girl machine aka adductor / abductor machine.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
[quote]cog1 wrote:
I’ve been doing research on bowleg remedy. A lot of resources pointed out that a major cause of bowleg is weak inner leg. Since powerlifting squat has wider stance, I assume it will strengthen the inner leg and fix bowleg in some degree?
Any thoughts or personal experiences? Thanks. [/quote]
You piqued my interest so I googled bowleg cures… There was an overwhelming amount of “surgery required” links. IDK man.
My non medical school thought is that if an exercise could straighten bow legs then would it make a normal person knock kneed? My legs haven’t bowed inwards so IDK…
I assume that you are an adult and that your leg issue stems from years of this weak inner leg problem. I would imagine that the bones grew this way over time and is irreversable by simply doing leg exercises, since your bones are not currently growing.
but in answer to your question, YES a wide stance squat will hit the inner legs more so that a shoulder width stance. Kettle bell swings, Atlas stones loading(strong man stuff), pull thru’s, sumo deads etc. will work that area too. If you go to a gym, they prolly have a good girl / bad girl machine aka adductor / abductor machine. [/quote]
I used to think bowleg is caused by bone structure deformity too. But after a few online research I noticed that only few people have bowleg because of their bone actually bent. Most of bowlegged poeple still have straight leg but there is a angle at their knee caused by the imbalance of inner-outer muscle and ligament. One popular non-surgery remedy is simply walking backward. It “awakes inner hamstring and glutes”. I tried and it did help a bit. That gave me hope and I wanna try something more…
Unless, it is severe and causing problems, the best thing to do is leave it be and train normally. I am an adult with some leg bowing and was always one of the 2 fastest kids in my highschool and could squat over 500lbs by the time I was 16 or 17. I have never had any knee pain and I’m 32 now.
Dmitry Klokov (google) is bowlegged but still squats with a shoulder width stance, olympic-style squat. I would just focus on finding a comfortable hip or slightly wider than hip stance, toes pointed slightly out (15-30degrees), but when you descend, really make sure you force your knees OUT, don’t let them just travel forward. This is the most important thing to do, biomechanically (especially for me who overpronates on my left foot, which can cause valgus on my left knee or ‘caving in’). Doing this will ensure activation of the adductors/VMO, keep your hips tight, and will also produce more force from your glute med/min/sartorius, and even your TFL.