leg strength imbalance in ny

[david]

i have a visible difference in muscle development between my left and right legs.

i also feel a difference in the amount of power i can develop with each leg.

the greatest visible difference is in the quads, particularly the outside.

so, i'd like to have this checked out. could be a leg length discrepancy, could be a number of things.

can anybody recommend a person to see about this? i'd like somebody with cycling specific experience.

been thinking of going out to boulder to see andy pruitt, but that's quite a trip.

i live in new york, so the east cost would be nice.

thanks.

[Tom]

All I'm doing is paying a little more attention to it and instead of just riding along I'm trying to teach my right leg to participate and turn smooth circles. It is starting to make a difference.

When it works, it's amazing how fast you can go with how little effort when both legs are pedaling.

[EDS]

You could try seeing one of the fitters in the area. I know Signature will set you up on the bike and due a spinscan (via computrainer) and video analysis of your pedal stroke. the spin-scan will identify if there is a power difference between the two legs and the video analysis will help determine if there are any inefficiencies that can be corrected.

PerformanceLabs and a bunch of others can probably do the same.

[david]

All I'm doing is paying a little more attention to it and instead of just riding along I'm trying to teach my right leg to participate and turn smooth circles. It is starting to make a difference.

When it works, it's amazing how fast you can go with how little effort when both legs are pedaling.

tom, thanks for the response. i've been doing what you're doing. but my legs still have an imbalance. plus, when i'm doing hard work, i need all the stregth i can get and i end up using my more powerful leg more than the weaker leg. the imbalance only worsens.

i'd love to get a proper diagnosis and some remedies. if it's structural, i'd like to be able to fix it. if it's mechanical, i'd like to know what i need to work on.

[Ozz]

good topic....I have the same problem....my left leg is all mucked up.

I have done better since I got some new insoles in my shoes and stopped the over pronation of my left foot.

I also do one-legged drills on the trainer to try and work on the strength. I am sure I still have technique problems though.

It would be nice to read other opinions and ideas on this.

[gone]

I have the same problem. It turns out in my case that my left leg is .3 CM shorter than my right. I have a shim under the cleat in my left shoe which helps but even after one year with the shim the muscles in my left leg are visibly larger than my right. Like others, I try to use my right leg more but it's one of those things like "stand up straight" - I do it when I think about it but that really only amounts to about 15-20% of a ride. I expect there are probably other forces at work such as pronation but have never investigated the cause further.

[LesMiner]

I wonder if there is such a thing as a dominant leg? Something like being left or right handed or which eye dominates over the other. Which hand has the greatest strength? So would leg muscles be the same? Both my legs are the same length but my right knee articulates back and forth. Greater the load the more articulation. My left knee remains steady. Maybe the difference in your legs has come from training? You could be over developing one leg over the other. Maybe it is more how you ride rather than length differences or fit of the bike.

[davids]

This is a bigger club than I thought - I've got a very tight right hamstring, and it effects the motion of my leg, whether I'm riding or walking. I was fitted with ALINE insoles this winter, and they've made a major difference in balancing my legs when cycling. I still need some orthotics for my day-to-day footwear.

And what I'm finding is that, as I ride more, the rest of my body is adjusting - I never realized the extent to which I was compensating for the 'hitch' in my pedal stroke/gait in my hip, my lower back, my upper back, and even my arms.

It's a learning process, and I feel like something is constantly aching as I work to smooth and balance my pedal stroke. I've sort of resigned myself to this being the year of re-learning how to use my legs...

I set up an appointment to discuss this with my GP, and get a referral to a sports orthopedist. My GP checked me out, and agreed that I've got tightness, and uneven gait, etc. But she said it wasn't serious enough to warrant the amount of money a good ortho would cost me. You may be willing to spend more than I was - I was going to spring for the $5 co-pay...

[gone]

I wonder if there is such a thing as a dominant leg? Something like being left or right handed or which eye dominates over the other. Which hand has the greatest strength? So would leg muscles be the same?
I certainly think this is a possibility. I do have the leg length discripancy, I had it measured at an ortho using X-rays, but I am left handed and my left arm/hand are stronger than my right so perhaps it follows that the leg would be as well.

[david]

You could try seeing one of the fitters in the area. I know Signature will set you up on the bike and due a spinscan (via computrainer) and video analysis of your pedal stroke. the spin-scan will identify if there is a power difference between the two legs and the video analysis will help determine if there are any inefficiencies that can be corrected.

PerformanceLabs and a bunch of others can probably do the same.

good thoughts. i use a computrainer at home and can see a difference in right and lef side spin scans.
the left side seems like a more level power stroke, the right, my weaker side, is peakier. interesting, but i'm not sure how reliable or what to do with it.
from a visual standpoint, i've had fittings from great people and nobody has detected a significant oddity in my mechanics.
so i feel like i need a different set of eyes or some way to identify and quantify the contributing factors.

[david]

I certainly think this is a possibility. I do have the leg length discripancy, I had it measured at an ortho using X-rays, but I am left handed and my left arm/hand are stronger than my right so perhaps it follows that the leg would be as well.

i believe there is such a thing as a a dominant leg. which is probably okay to an extent. but i don't think that alone should contribute to the difference that i'm experiencing.

[EDS]

i believe there is such a thing as a a dominant leg. which is probably okay to an extent. but i don't think that alone should contribute to the difference that i'm experiencing.

You could try Power Cranks - or just do lots of one-leg drills.

[david]

You could try Power Cranks - or just do lots of one-leg drills.

the power crank idea is interesting.
what i first want to do is get some sort of diagnosis before i dive into a remedy.

[Karin Kirk]

Yes, many people have one side that is stronger than the other. It may or may not be the same side as your "handedness." Interestingly, animals too have a strong side which can be seen in their tracks.

I'm left handed and my right calf is maybe 20-30% larger than my left. My left hip flexor is limited in its flexibility and that makes it hard for me to tighten my left butt cheek muscle. So that is my left vs. right imbalance.

On the fore-aft plane, my hamstrings are long and my quads are short and thus my pelvis is rotated forward (common for skiers and cyclists as far as I can tell).

I never noticed any of this, except when I started having a particular lower back pain that only occurred during ski season. I went to a chiropractor who specializes in sports alignment (In the 'my butt hurts' thread, I also explained this). He watched me walk, bend, stand, etc and captured that with a digital camera. With the aid of cool software, it mapped out all the ways that my alignment was off. It was cool and discouraging at the same time to look at the images of myself up and the screen and see all the different ways that I'm f-ed up.

I got a prescription of about 16 exercises to do every day. They aren't hard, but they put me in odd positions. I started feeling better immediately and the problem was completely gone in a month.

Now I notice all the ways that I favor my strong right calf. When I squat down in the garden, I stand on my right tip-toe and this makes that calf flex all the time. When I reverse this position to give my left calf a workout, I can see how that relates to the inflexibility in my left hip flexor.

So the point of all of this is to say that alignment is complex and I don't believe that it is really possible to self-diagnose or self-treat. I think it would be nearly impossible to determine the true cause without the help of a doctor who does this kind of stuff. That said, I have no idea how one finds such a doctor, because it's not like "sports alignment" is a typical classification of doctor. But if you can find someone like this, I'd recommend it to every serious athlete because it's completely fascinating to learn about the architecture of your body and how to improve it.

[david]

So the point of all of this is to say that alignment is complex and I don't believe that it is really possible to self-diagnose or self-treat. I think it would be nearly impossible to determine the true cause without the help of a doctor who does this kind of stuff. That said, I have no idea how one finds such a doctor, because it's not like "sports alignment" is a typical classification of doctor. But if you can find someone like this, I'd recommend it to every serious athlete because it's completely fascinating to learn about the architecture of your body and how to improve it.

karin,
that is the crux of the problem, perfectly stated.
i am looking for just such an expert, but no leads so far.
thanks for your thoughts.

[Tom]

What Karin says is very true. In my case, though, I think it's just one leg got dominant riding and so when both legs are going at x percent, one's training harder than the other and so it gains more than the other. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My scheme is to slow down a little and concentrate on form. Oddly enough, when I do that I go nearly as fast as if I was just bashing along as before so I don't require much more time to get in my rides. This kind of thing keeps happening to me. The easy and natural way to do something that ought to be mindless ends up being a limiter so I wind up having to think about what I'm doing until the right way becomes mindless.

"Put down the gum and walk away slowly..." You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to be told that.

[david]

In my case, though, I think it's just one leg got dominant riding and so when both legs are going at x percent, one's training harder than the other and so it gains more than the other. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

tom,
i think that's true. the vicious cycle.

[old_school]

Paul Levine at Signature Cycles works with a physical therapist who has considerable cycling specific knowledge. Unfortunately, her name escapes me at the moment, but as of last winter, they were scheduling appointments together at the shop on Thursdays. Give Paul a call, I am sure he can assist you.

PS>Believe it or not, size is not always proportional to strength. My right leg is quite visibly larger than my left, by the left puts consistently out more watts on the power meter ... surprised the hell out of me.

[Karin Kirk]

The easy and natural way to do something that ought to be mindless ends up being a limiter so I wind up having to think about what I'm doing until the right way becomes mindless.


Yes! That's so true in all sports. The way to truly get better is to slow down and think about it. Sometimes the 'right' way feels terribly weird so you have to be very conscious about it. I am a big fan of this approach.