Balancing

jminis

jminis

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Here's the dilema, a few years back I had to get knee surgery and as a results my right quad has never fully caught up with my left (size wise). I'm looking for suggestions or insight on ways of going about balancing out the two legs. All suggestions or preferably experience is appreciated. late J
 
lifted

lifted

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
are u still doing squats? what exc. are u doing?

my advice would be to stick to heavy isolation exc. for a while.
u can merely just maintain w/ them more than u can w/ compounds IMO. perhaps using leg ext. if they are really disproportionate, then just lay off on total max weight and even though u might lose some muscle in the left, but u would have a better chance at sizing them up better.

i dunno, when i started lifting, my left arms was almost a whole inch smaller than my right. I tried to even them out as much as possible. and still to this day, they are still like this. not as much, but still the same.

btw, what did u have done on ur knee? I might have to be getting something done as well. I have a "floater" or rather piece of dead cartilage swimming around in my knee cap. every once in a while it will get lodged in funny and i wont be able to straighten my leg, or bend it. its not to pleasant.

--good luck..........
 
jminis

jminis

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Jergo I hurt my knee playing basketball. I went up to dunk it and felt a pop. Needless to say I came down and could barely walk, what happened was I actually broke a piece of bone off the front of my kneecap, ouch. The X-ray looked odd when I saw it.:(

When I show others my quads they can't really tell but I can, you know how that is. It's not lacking that much I really just want to balance them out. I'm doing about 2 sets of squats after warm ups with about 4 second positive and negatives. With the last set doing a rest pause. What I was thinking was doing one legged squats or leg presses, and only doing moderate weight on leg extension on the bigger quad just to keep it active. I was thinking of doing this for about 4-5 weeks and seeing what happens. If I notice nothing then I'll take another approach but I think I can make it work.

later J
 
Alpha Dog

Alpha Dog

Obese Member
Awards
1
  • Established
I was in the same boat (or in the case of my quads, canoe). Had ACL reconstructive surgery in May of 2002. Anyway, what worked best for me was lots of lunges, one legged leg extensions, and one legged squats on a horizontal squat machine. It took me about eight months to get my balance back. Good luck J.
 
jminis

jminis

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
Thanks bow I might throw in some lunges but I just love squats. It seems like they're the only thing that make my legs grow but I guess you gotta do what ya gotta do. Anyway I've been putting this off long enough so it's time to get to work:rolleyes: later J
 
Trapark666

Trapark666

New member
Awards
0
Bump to Bow on this one. About ten years ago I tore the ACL and PCL at the same time and was in a brace for twelve weeks. I think lunges and single leg extensions seemed to be the best way to get my balance back. I can still tell the difference in them but no one else can unless I bring it up. Good luck.
 
jminis

jminis

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
I think what I'm going to do is try out the single leg squats. I'm not going to hold one leg up or nothing I'm just going to completely favor the right leg on all the lifts, mainly just using the left for stability. I think I'm also going to incorporate the lunges so wish me luck. Thanks for the suggestions later fellas, J
 
LakeMountD

LakeMountD

Doctor Science
Awards
1
  • Established
are you white? cause if you are we knooow you didnt tear it trying to dunk ;).. hehe just kidding.. actually i had really bad knees from football.. i just used lighter weights to build up the damaged area then started doing regular exercise to balance things out.. i started out with a lower weight then as my left knee began to get stronger they started balancing out...
 

Matthew D

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
I would go with the lunges also.. also, you might be able to add one extra set for your lagging body part, but you will have to gauage that for yourself. The only thing is it will take time to balance them out.. and like bow said his was 8 months or so
 
jminis

jminis

Well-known member
Awards
1
  • Established
LakeMountD yes I am white:D I'm 6'2 and I can actually jump unlike so many of my white bro's:D Guess I'm one of the lucky ones, hehe. But thanks for all the suggestions bro's I'm going to hit the one legged squats and def the lunges and I honestly think I can get the right leg back up to snuff in under 2 months. Honestly I think the hardest part of it all will be not allowing myself to give left leg a solid work out.
Later J
 

Similar threads


Top