Dealing with a very stubborn asymmetry in the squat

Hello Doctors,

Thank you for reading my text, it’s much appreciated. I’m in need of some professional advice on what to do next.

I’ve been dealing with a very stubborn asymmetry in the squat for the past 10 months or so (ever since I started squatting), and I just cannot get rid of it.
I have upped my body weight from 65kg to 93kg since summer, so my strength has gone up, but the asymmetry remains.

Whenever I squat something challenging (anything past my warm-ups), my hips are doing something weird that I just cannot control. I’m not sure whats happening exactly, but it seems like my pelvis is doing some weird corkscrewing/tilting motion, and the right side is higher, and to compensate for this my hips moves over to my right side. I understand that this is incredibly, if not impossible to diagnose over the net, but you guys are my last hope.

I have found a small “fix”, where I can keep things decently symmetrical, and that is to use a narrower stance and cue myself to stay as tight as possible. I also use a 9mm shim inside my right shoe to prevent some of the shifting to the right. I don’t even know if I have a LLD, because no x-rays has been done. The narrower stance and shim makes my squat feel powerful, but this is probably because my squats become very questionable depth wise.

I must link a couple of videos to put things into context, I hope that’s OK. Two videos of me squatting 120kg with a narrow stance, a 9mm shim inside the right shoe, and trying to stay tight:

Behind. First set

Side. High? Last set

^Thesefelt extremely good and powerful when I did them, and it was the heaviest 3x5 I’ve ever done, but I was very disappointed when I saw the depth :frowning: I can reach below parallel on my warm-ups but when the weight feels heavy, it get’s difficult and very inconsistent to get deep.
And as you can see, there’s some asymmetry going on in my squat.

Anyway, the week after, I lowered the weight to 110kg and widened my stance. But holy moly did it feel AWFUL to squat now. I had tried a narrower stance in the past, and every time I do it, I feel very shifty.

Rear/oblique. Still iffy depth!?

Behind

Still iffy depth and much worse asymmetry with the wide stance. Felt about 10x worse/less powerful. Even my warm-ups had asymmetry with this stance :frowning:

So, to me it seems like I have something “mechanically” wrong with my body, and just getting stronger isn’t really solving this part. I have been trying to get x-rays done to check for scoliosis and/or a leg length discrepancy, but the doctor won’t give me a referral. I know you have coached and seen many squats, and is this something you’ve seen before? Do my symptoms relate to trainees with scoliosis? Could it be a long left femur f*cking up my mechanics?

Do I keep use the narrow (powerful) and force myself to bury it / dive bomb it to achieve depth, or is the wide (weak) stance a must to reach depth? I have really long femurs btw.

Thank you so much for reading through this mess, any input and guidance is MUCH appreciated.

Take care.

I think you are really blowing this “issue” out of proportion, based on the way these squats look. You are obviously welcome to get evaluated for LLD if you’d like, but slight asymmetries are common, and not necessarily worthy of intervention. I didn’t see any mention of pain or other symptoms in your post, so I’m not sure whether I’d really worry about it.

Your rear oblique squats, by the way, were plenty deep.

Thanks for the reply Austin. I have no pain, only frustration. I should mention that light weights can be done with good symmetry (because it’s not challenging).

I’m struggling to get stronger in the squat now, because I feel like I suck at handling intensity without turning asymmetrical and having my hips shift. Slower reps = bigger asymmetry, and in my case, I feel like I have a “technical fail” before a “strength fail”, if that makes sense.

My #'s feel underwhelming, I have done 115kg x 3 x 5 with good symmetry a few weeks back (1.25 x BW), but anything past that weight and the asymmetry is getting “out of control”. I have been trying hard to up my numbers, but that sadly means that I’ve allowed myself to do TONS of grindy reps over the months and allowed myself to be pretty asymmetrical. Probably a combination of an underlying structural abnormality and bad motor pattern that follows suit.

So I got two questions:

  1. Given this information, do you think its appropriate for me to change to intermediate programming? (More volume at a lower intensity to drive progress, which would probably mean less ugly reps in my training overall).

  2. Is it possible to get really strong in the squat if you never handle over, let’s say 85% of your 5rm?

  1. Yes, because you’re just spinning your wheels out of frustration working on what is probably a non-issue anyway.

  2. How, exactly, do you plan to measure squat strength in this scenario?

  1. I would have to look at the trend and not absolute #'s. If the level at which I can squat with good symmetry goes up over time, I know I’m getting stronger. This is diffuse and not something I actually want. I want to be able to do 5rm and feel like my strength is the limiting factor, not my twisting/shifting hip.

Is a 5rm building more muscle than 85% of the weight done for 3x5? Or is it just a test of strength?

The 3 sets of 5 would build more muscle, because volume (assuming sufficient effort) is the primary driver of muscular hypertrophy.

Thanks for your time Doc,

Impressive 610 squat btw