I've done strength-training previously, including some of NROLFW last year, and began the program in The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove in May. Thus far I really like the program and I'm seeing clear strength increases; in addition, one thing I've discovered about my body, thanks to the program's emphasis on unilateral lower-body movements, is that I have a pretty serious imbalance in strength (and perhaps flexibility/mobility) between my left and right legs. My left leg is significantly stronger than my right, so whereas I can do something like a single-leg bent-knee deadlift pretty easily on my left, it's VERY difficult to do on my right at all, let alone with the same weight load. This is true in every unilateral exercise.
So, I'm really happy that the program does include so much unilateral work, and I can see that my right leg is making good improvements thus far--but I'm wondering how long it may take for my right leg to catch up with my left? And can I expect that I'll ultimately be able to completely fix the imbalance?
Additionally, now knowing that I have an imbalance, should I include extra work for my right leg? All of the exercises I'm doing are challenging to both legs, but would an extra set of reps for the right help? (Usually I'm limited to doing 2 sets of reps for each exercise due to time constraints in my schedule. And the program has 8 exercises per session in it, generally two or three of those are unilateral lower-body exercises.)
I'd be interested in any advice that may be helpful in fixing the imbalance in a smarter or more speedy way.
If some of the imbalance is because of structural/injury the imbalance may never be fully corrected.
I've done some imbalance correction by adding the extra set for the weaker and in general avoiding exercises where the dominant muscle can compensate for the weaker (i.e. machines)
Can you tell if your weakness is merely strength or if it is a combo of strength, endurance, range of motion? Sometimes you have to fix the underlying endurance or ROM issues before you can really address the strength. I had a shoulder injury that limited most of my right arm exercises for years and it wasnt until I gave up on heavy weights and spent a concentrated amount of time on (*yawn*) high repetition and some range of motion and stability issues that it came back. But once I addressed those it came back fast. Because it was the little teeny stability muscles that were limiting the exercise, not the big muscles.
For the shoulder I ended up having to do things like high rep and dropsets to help build the endurance and then stability stuff like just holding a weight overhead without moving it, supported hand and shoulder stands (until I had enough strength and flexiblity for full).
The imbalance isn't due to injury, I've never been injured. I didn't even suspect there was a real imbalance until I began doing unilateral work--I just thought my right knee was a little "creaky." I really don't know why my right leg is so much weaker than my left--the only reason I can think of is possibly because I have used my left leg as my push-off / step-up leg in everyday activities for so long.
I think the imbalance is mostly strength and perhaps ROM, it doesn't feel like there's an endurance issue. I get pain in my right knee just at first when doing an exercise--for example, during the first set of bodyweight squats in my warmup before doing heavier work, I have to ease down carefully to get past the place where my knee hurts, then it seems to warm up and is fine. But when I am doing any single-leg exercises, even when there is not pain, my right leg is just much weaker and does feel like the range is limited. Though, I'm not sure that as far as flexibility goes it's my knee that is the problem--it sort of seems like maybe it's my hip or somewhere else higher in the chain.
Last year when I began strength-training, I couldn't even do full bodyweight squats, so there has been a LOT of improvement in both legs. But wow, I'd really like my right leg not to feel like such a limiter.
I think you should keep working on it, and do maybe an extra set on the weak leg, and maybe increase weight slightly when you can to give it an extra challenge. It may be weak because it's never been challenged. I had a weak leg also, and I kept on my plan and tried to not think about weak legs, weak knees & things that leg "couldn't" do, and started treating it like an equal.
I eventually stopped thinking of it as the weak leg & now a year later it's close to being stronger than my other leg in strength...but it's STILL my wobbly leg leg when it comes to balance (1 leg squats or deadlifts). I'm beginning to think that one is a mental leg block!
Just thought I would report back that this week I've been seeing major improvements in my right leg...and actually, in both legs. It's like they've taken a leap forward in strength and flexibility. The program I'm working is still plenty hard, but I'm feeling so much more capable of doing it.
Thanks for all the help! I feel like I have some hope that eventually my right leg won't be so gimpy
Time to correct significant leg imbalance?
