Uneven muscle strength for squats and form

kellieem

Hey everyone!

I'm finished 6 workouts and I've noticed that I'm off balance in terms of muscle strength for squats. Probably about ten years ago (wow, that's scary how long ago it was! :laugh: ), I tore cartilage in my left knee and was in a brace that kept my leg straight for about two weeks. Needless to say, I lost a lot of muscle mass and have not really built it up.

Anyway, I noticed when I started doing my squats that my right leg was definitely working harder, ie, I was shifting to my right and coming up crooked. I'm really trying to be aware of it and going up as centred as possible. And I can tell that my left leg is not liking it as much, it was more stiff than the right (such a weird feeling!).

So, basically, I'm wondering, do you all think that my left leg will build up the muscle it's missing and they will be balanced? Or should I do some weight training that specifically focuses on building up that leg?

Sorry for the long post!

jstout365

You may want to try working on the weaker leg in addition to doing the squats. You can try working on mobility exercises to also work on range of motion to losen up the left leg.

Here is a site that has some mobility exercises for the pistol squat (one leg out front), but I think the exercises will help with both strength and mobility of the weak leg. Just be sure to do a few on the other leg so the overall balance doesn't get too far off. You should start to see a difference in your regular squat and can then judge how much extra work the one leg needs over the other.

xidia

What she said.

Also, make sure your strong lifts weights are limited to what you can do with good form and even muscle use. I have unbalanced back muscles and have been lifting for 6 months with no accessory work and it is starting to even up...

DaniH826

I can't comment on squats, but when I started lifting, my left arm/shoulder were SIGNIFICANTLY weaker than my right. So in order to force my left side to catch up, I only stuck with weights that I could comfortably lift EVENLY, to give my weaker side a chance to catch up. Same with bench presses.

When I put weights on the bar, I purposefully use my left hand to put the spring on at the end because my natural inclination is to just use my right side for mostly everything, since I'm right-hand dominant and therefore stronger there. But, part of barbell training to me is about balance, and so I'm making my left side do its share of the work now so that it can (at least mostly) catch up.

The thing with squats is that you're putting a load on your spine that the rest of your body beneath that weight has to balance and deal with. So if you have a weak leg, then your stronger leg will automatically try and compensate. Which down the road with heavier weights can very easily lead to injury.

So my advice to you would be to apply patience here and let your weaker leg catch up and wait with the heavier weights until it does. Most of us have some sort of imbalance and asymmetry, and that's okay. But if it's a drastic case like yours, then that's the side you should be working with to get stronger BEFORE you lift anything heavy to speak of. If that was me, I would only be squatting weight that I can handle with symmetry and good form, with BOTH sides at the SAME TIME evenly going up and down through the full movement, without my stronger side over-compensating.

kellieem

Hi everyone!!
Thank you for your responses!! I am definitely trying to maintain good form and keeping balanced when I'm doing all the strong lift moves. I do think it has gotten better, but I'm progressing very slowly (ie I've been at 60 lbs for squats for three workouts). My mom is spotting me and she lets me know if I'm not balanced, which is very helpful! Again, thank you!

jstout365, did you mean this group has the mobility exercises? And if/when I start doing pistol squats, do you think I should do them on the days I'm lifting or on my rest days? And just body weight or with additional weight?? Thank you!!!

Leadfoot_Lewis

Unilateral work will help out a lot e.g. Bulgarian Split Squats, One Leg Kettlebell Deadlifts, Reverse Lunges on a step, etc. I have an imbalance/weaker right leg and these in combination with my normal Barbell Squats have helped out a lot.