Left Leg Dominance

[vne220]

I had left knee surgery when I was 16, some sort of patellar lateral crossover. Never had any problems with my left knee/leg after that, but my right knee/leg has given me problems over the years and is generally weaker and smaller in circumference. I really notice this when I do leg presses and extensions and when I am water or snow skiing. The question is: How do I train to decreases the difference and bring my right leg up to speed? No current injuries or diagnosed problems with either knee, just the strength difference.

Thanks in advance for the great advice

 

[hehateme000]

honestly u could burn ur right leg more by doin 1-leg presses....but i think when u work out ur legs to exhaustion ur right will go out first so that right there is working out ur right more

 

[brad34]

I had my ACL replaced many years ago and suffered with that leg being small and weak, I completely isolated that leg during workout. I found dumbell lunges seemed to work rather well. Remember if your one knee is weak, you will favor it which in turn will put more stress on the good knee, not a good situation.

 

[pump1967]

I had left knee surgery when I was 16, some sort of patellar lateral crossover. Never had any problems with my left knee/leg after that, but my right knee/leg has given me problems over the years and is generally weaker and smaller in circumference. I really notice this when I do leg presses and extensions and when I am water or snow skiing. The question is: How do I train to decreases the difference and bring my right leg up to speed? No current injuries or diagnosed problems with either knee, just the strength difference.

Thanks in advance for the great advice

i had injured my right mcl years ago and noticed that my right vastus medialis never could match the size of the left one even after training one leg at a time on extensions and presses.found out later that my right leg is a half inch shorter than my left leg.when standing,walking doing squats i could tell especially squats.i tended to press harder on left leg which would cause my body to torque to to the right .a friend noticed this when observing my squats and i also could tell because when squating in the cage the right end of bar would sometimes hit the back vertical support of the cage,this has always caused lower back pain on the right side as well as problems with patellar tendinitis on right knee.i tried heel lift and it helped for a couple of weeks but doc told me at my age (36) at the time that my body had already gotten use to the difference in height and a heel lift done this late would cause back pain in other areas of back which it ended up doing.what i ended up doing was training uni-laterally with extensions and presses and with squats i was carrrying the left foot a bit forward of the right foot in my stance which helped with wider stanced positions but still had some patellar tendinitis issues with right knee as i still do to this day.after two sets the tendinitis goes away but comes back in the last set or two when training heavy.i recently tried closer stance and have had less issues and just ice knee when done and it bothers me for a few days then i am fine.i've missed 8 weeks in gym recently cause of surgery and that time off didn't even help with knee so i just train through the uncomfortableness with it and have been fine.i could give up doing squats but refuse to let a little pain come between me and my favorite exercise.

 

[musketeer]

sounds like one legged squats (with one leg up on a bench) would have a place in your routine.

 

[vne220]

Thanks everyone....gonna hit it next leg day