Hello everyone
Greetings from India
Hope everyone is safe from COVID
I had a stroke in 2010, left side paralyzed. I have been working out pretty hard (to the best of my ability)
I am at my strongest (35 years old, 108 kg, fat, maybe 20% but strong, ohp 80kgx 5, squats 190x2/3 , presently doing Hungarian oak leg blast by CT ,did 7minutes yesterday, , d/l 200 x 1 , 3reps on trap bar)
Anyway, i have been noticing my left thigh and calf and 2" and 1" smaller than the right respectively.
Calves 16/17& thighs 26/28 inches
I am trying to lose fat at the moment. Hopefully get down to 97/98 kg , I look good at that weight.
Need advice from better minds:-
Should I continue my attempt to only lose fat right now, or start concentrating on my weaker side right away?
How to go about while concentrating on my weak side? Stop /reduce working in the right or just pre exhaust the left side a lot?
P.s. going to complete 17 years lifting in March, done 7-8 cycles in total, but not comfortable using a.t.m. nothing about ethics, just never been able to lose fat while âonâ , and concerned about reaction with vaccine
This depends entirely on you, many people are lopsided anyways. I also donât see a reason to wait for one vs the other; you probably wonât build muscle while in a deficit, but getting the muscle stronger and recruiting more motor units (mind-muscle connection) couldnât hurt.
I wouldnât stop work on your dominant side. Are your legs similar in strength when doing unilateral exercises?
No, not really.
I manage to do sideways step ups with the weak side but it doesnât look as good, and I have always (post stroke) felt that I unable to flex my left side as hard as the right
The thing about âwhy botherâ is exactly what I wanted to ask. Iâm not planning to go to a competition, so is it really a problem? As in could it start hurting, posture/imbalance etc wise few years down the line?
This is going to come from the loss of mind-muscle connection with the side injured (not sure if this is the proper term) in a stroke. some efforts can be made to correct it, but the other side will likely remain dominant.
Potentially, I think this would be the case if the impaired side is much weaker than the other, but if this isnât the case - I donât see that it would be a huge problem. Keeping posture in mind certainly couldnât hurt though