I came off an injury to my left midfoot playing football last season. I was in an air-cast boot for about 5 weeks in which case always caused me to lean heavy on my right foot. When I took the boot off, it feels like my left leg is almost longer than my right which i believe that my hips our out of line. Aside from this my left leg is much smaller than my right leg, not so much in the tear drop, but in the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris.
My squats have also suffered as a result because I feel it way more in my right leg and sometimes notice a considerable lean as well when I have some moderate weight on the bar. I am losing my mind with this issue because of the muscular difference as well as deterring my squat. Any help would be appreciated on wtf I should do with this?
I have this problem more so in the VMO, isolation work seriously leg extensions, single leg presses, do this for a while of course be careful, but step ups lunges you’ll still feel it more in the dominant leg the only way to fix this is some isolation work. Add an extra set for the weak leg or a vouple of more reps. It’s been working well for me so far.
Thanks for the replies, I have been squatting with lighter weights trying to keep perfect form, and incorporated extra sets for my left leg on leg press and extensions. Also I have been trying to do 100rep bw squats every morning for my left leg only, or should that be a no-no?
[quote]geko6 wrote:
I came off an injury to my left midfoot playing football last season. I was in an air-cast boot for about 5 weeks in which case always caused me to lean heavy on my right foot. When I took the boot off, it feels like my left leg is almost longer than my right which i believe that my hips our out of line. Aside from this my left leg is much smaller than my right leg, not so much in the tear drop, but in the vastus lateralis and rectus femoris.
My squats have also suffered as a result because I feel it way more in my right leg and sometimes notice a considerable lean as well when I have some moderate weight on the bar. I am losing my mind with this issue because of the muscular difference as well as deterring my squat. Any help would be appreciated on wtf I should do with this?[/quote]
I like single-legged squats, aka pistols. Awfully hard to cheat. Start holding onto something (like straddling a doorframe) then try to work up to doing them with a bit of weight. These are easier with a lighter load when you are trying to do them freestanding, since the load acts as a counterweight.
Personally, leg presses never did much for me except give me a backache at higher loads. If there is a great imbalance, add in extension and leg curls for a bit.
Single stiff-legged deads are good too. Keep your back straight.
There are a million squat variations you can do. Start static with split squats and lateral squats (side-to-side). Once you can do these, the next step in the progression is to do them as lunges.
Checked out a chiropractor, he said that my pelvis was imbalanced slightly, and that surprisingly my main problem was coming from my right foot. The arches are the same in both feet, however when I am standing my right arch collapses causing it to bear more weight. He hooked me up with some custom orthotics that I just picked up and am curious to see how they work out, i definitely feel my right arch being supported more to stay in place. Been keeping up with the extra sets for the left leg and am hopeful that it will be catching up soon enough. Thanks for the tips fellas.
[quote]geko6 wrote:
Thanks for the replies, I have been squatting with lighter weights trying to keep perfect form, and incorporated extra sets for my left leg on leg press and extensions. Also I have been trying to do 100rep bw squats every morning for my left leg only, or should that be a no-no?[/quote]
I wouldn’t do it every morning, that would never give it the chance to recover. 100 reps is a lot… How far down are you going? If your strong enough to do 100 full 1 legged squats every morning I’d grab a dumbbell or something heavy.