Muscle imbalance in legs that is affecting technique

Hi docs,

I have been to a orthopedist and a physiotherapist about knee pain that was a result of a bad case of flat feet, and they have both told me that I have an imbalance in my legs (my right leg is stronger and the muscles are slightly bigger visually, which is weird since i’m left footed). I recently noticed in my training that when ever I set up for an exercise there is a slight imbalance when I re-watch the footage, for example in the bench press my right leg is slightly further back and not symmetrical compared to my left leg, which is affecting my technique because when I use leg drive, the bar ends up going up faster on my left side for some reason. Another example is that in the squat, my right leg seems to go slightly lower than my left leg, which has resulted in me getting an inflammation the right side of my hips.

My question is, what can I do to fix the imbalance in my legs, and to fix the asymmetry in all of my lifts?

This is probably wrong.

There is unlikely to be a connection between your leg symmetry in the bench press and the speed that one side of the bar goes up compared to another.

What do you mean by “inflammation”? How do you know this to be the case? How do you know that this is related to some “slight” asymmetry? I would be very cautious about tying these two things together as a causal relationship, as I remain skeptical that this perceived asymmetry is a real issue.

Unless you’ve had some sort of prior traumatic injury that caused the asymmetry (by way of a fracture, surgery, etc.), then I remain unconvinced that anything special needs to be done to “fix” it, compared to simply continuing to train and manage loading/fatigue as needed along the way. I think this is more likely to be a problem that was given to you by the ortho and PT.

1 Like

Truth is I don’t really know anything about this, this is just what the ortho and PT have said.

This is what one of the coaches at my gym has said, but looking back on it I guess it doesn’t really make sense to link it to the leg asymmetry, maybe it is just a technique issue.

I don’t exactly know what the right word is for the “inflammation” as English is my second language, but I have been to the ortho about constant hip pain on my right side and that is what he told me, or at least that’s what came out when I put the word in google translate (He gave me etodolac to take twice a day for 10 days and I have just gotten back to training). The truth is, I don’t know that it is related to a asymmetry, it was purely a guess and now looking back I realize I shouldn’t have tied those things together.

I have had many injuries over the years, I have broken and fractured a few bones. In my legs I think I had my foot twice, but I can’t remember which and if it was the same one (The first one was 9 years ago, the second about 6 years ago).

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to help me.