Left/Right Imbalances

Bill,

My right leg is significantly stronger than my left and I have a reoccurring injury that I finally realize is most likely due to this strength imbalance. The imbalance is because I had reconstructive knee surgery back in high school. I’m going to start doing exclusive single leg work. Should I add extra sets to the weak leg or use the same amount of weight for both legs based on what the weak (left) leg can handle?

Since the body tends to function best when there is minimal discrepency between the left and right sides of the body, this can be a pretty significant issue not only in performance but your orthopedic health as well.

Rarely is it as simple as just doing more sets on the weaker side. If that were the case then in most cases of general weakness doing more would be better, and in this day and age I think we all know that more is not always better.

Since, in your estimation, this is related to a previous injury and is a recurring problem, it's pretty obvious that something is feeding the imbalance. In most cases, the issue is not where you're feeling the pain or are experiencing the weakness.

There is most likely an imbalance elsewhere that developed over time due to altering your typical movement pattern to avoid pain or compensate for the dysfunction.

Without assessing you directly, specific corrective programming isn't possible but the first thing I'd compare is your hip and shoulder range of motion and your thoracic spine (upper back) rotation (from a tall sitting position turn from side to side). Look for any significant differences between sides and focus on correcting them first.

You can get a pretty clear picture by videotaping yourself doing an overhead squat, split squat, standing unilateral hip and knee flexion (stand on one leg and raise the opposite bent knee upward), and a single leg squat.

A lack of mobility/motion will show up as asymmetries in motion and/or posture or a loss of balance. Work to correct these asymmetries first as they will assure that appropriate movement patterns are being used and further imbalances will be avoided.

Once normal patterns have been restored it's just a matter of balancing strength.

To do so, focus primarily on unilateral exercises with a normal volume of training on the "weaker" side and a reduced volume of training on the "strong" side (matching the reps per set performed on the weaker side) to avoid detraining.

For instance, if you perform 3 x 8 of lunges, perform the first set starting with the weaker side and alternate sides until you've performed 3 sets on the weaker side (the strong side gets 2 sets to maintain fitness).

Bill

P.S. Don't forget to work on your thoracic spine and shoulder mobility as well.