Leg imbalance

One-leg training of various types...

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/1006.htm
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=one-leg+training&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Thanks for the pointer - whilst I agree that one-legged training is a way for forward, I am still not a lot closer to know what works. Looking for people with similar problems, and now they overcame...

My sophemore year of high school I had a leg length imbalance that was really bad and never really realized it. I was having issues with my IT band on right leg and a friend recommended I look into a biomechanic therapist, because it worked for them. After a few sessions she was able to correct my leg length differential with exercises I could do at home.
It involved getting down on all fours and making a box with my legs and hands spread evenly, hands under my shoulder and legs bend under my hips, with my arms straight. From there you put one leg in the center (under the middle of your pelvis) and bring the other leg over it. You lean your body forward over your hands and then arch your back and breath out as your sit backwards onto your heels and then go back to the position over your hands, all while keeping your arms straight. Do two sets of five for each leg and this ensures that your legs are of equal length.
It's also important to have a good footbed, with orthotics being best. If your base isn't good, you'll throw your body out of whack again pretty quickly.
After doing this over the winter between the cross and track seasons I dropped 16 seconds from my 800 time with similar training from the year before and even managed to break the junior record for my school, so I believe it worked.
Hope this helps.

Het NateinAussie when you bring one leg over the other is the top leg in front or behind the bottom knee?

I also have a leg imbalance. My middle leg is slightly shorter.

bump - I am curious about the same thing. I feel like my right leg is so much stronger than the left.

bump for NateinAussie

i had the same problem after i had knee surgery.
i just did heavy lifting with the weak leg and light to moderate lifting with the other leg.
try excercises like single leg squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls, ect. basically any lift that you can split up and use only one leg.

bump.

Nice responses - but the issue I have with doing more weight work on the weaker leg is: how do you know when you've done enough and then go to equal work? Also, I don't think it is limited to just strength as I think that nerves and proprioception comes into play where each leg kind of has its own 'firing' sequence. I believe that's the route problem - disproportionate firing sequence that leads to deterioration of one and domination of the other. Happy to be wrong, but its just a hunch.

I've done quite a bit of pilates over the years and thought that made a difference, but not the solution.

Keep the thoughts coming.

I have the same problem, and have seen all sorts of doctors and therapists. Here is what they say:

podiatrist- the problem comes from my feet and how I land.
chiropractor- the problem is due to my spine being out of alignment.
trainer at the gym- it's b/c my upper back muscles aren't strong enough
orthopedist- doesn't even speculate about what's causing it and prescribes vioxx and celebrex.
physical therapist- has an opinion, but is allowed to treat only what the doctors diagnose.

I can only add a not so good story that won't help really help that much.

My freshman year at college, I had an alright cross country season, 5th man at conferences and 6th at regionals, but once track came around about 3k into my 5k and 10k races my right leg would become unstable, my right foot steps would be all over the place, it would feel like my right leg would almost snap into a straight position right before it would touch the ground. It was very awkward and it cost me embarrassment after embarrassment every single track race.

Sophomore cross country everything was fine, I was successful, scored for my team at conferences and regionals. Of course track came around again and the same stuff happened. Whenever I would run fast on a hard surface I had this problem. This time I stop for the season, got my leg checked out and it turned out I had a bone spur on my femur that was going into my quad. You would think this would hurt, but never in my races was it a localized pain. It was always felt my entire leg was out of control. And of course this problem is very difficult to explain to my coach and teammates so everyone thought I was a scrub.

The summer before junior year I went out to Yellowstone National Park for the summer, got a job and trained like hell. Junior cross country season I was in the best shape of my life, I would have my problem during track workouts and long tempo runs on asphalt. Lucky we have an awesome trail system by my school so I was able to stay on soft surfaces most of the time, and I practiced on my own during threshold workouts because I had a class conflict so I was able to stay away from the track. Needless to say I kicked ass during cross. Made the all conference team and was the number one guy on my team at regionals.

After the cross season I got surgery to remove the bone spur from my femur (the cross section was about the size of two stamps and was thin running down the front of my femur).

So, I redshirted indoor and got on a lifting plan to strengthen my leg. Of course my same problem came back this outdoor season. It just felt awful. So, this past weekend at my conference championships I hit an all time low and complete the double DNF at 10k and 5k. At this point I am still lifting because there are still strength imbalance issues. For some reason, my leg just deteriorated over the course of long races on hard surfaces not matter what shoes I wear and it just gets worse if I try to run through it.

So what I am trying to say is that imbalances and other small problems can lead to huge problems. You just have to expect and manage the discomfort and do what you can. Experiment with different remedies and hopefully one will work. Your situation is a lot different from mine but you just have to keep plugging away to reach your goals. That’s all the advice I can give to you. Goodluck.

I have the same problem.

Went from running 33 10K and 2:36 marathon and then poof, literally overnight I cannot break 40 minutes for a 10K

My right leg just limps along. Some days are better than others, but yes, usually on the roads, after around 4 miles or so I gimp like a cripple.

I have about a half inch leg length discrepancy. I wore an orthotic on just my left shoe to compensate.

I never get hurt. Hammies get tight some, but I have not been hurt for a year now.

Just cannot run fast anymore. I am old now, 41, but this problem started for me when I was in my low 20s.

I have the worst flexibility you could imagine. Perhaps that is the problem.

I did 15 miles yesterday, a long run for me recently. I was fine for the first 13 miles, then I limped considerably the last 2. Very frustrating since it was basically an easy run too.

I prefer to run trail races now. The surface is so screwed up on those trails the limping is not a factor. Plus I found out that if I walk for maybe 20 seconds or so, the leg kinda recovers. Which means your 10K days are over, but you might still be able to run some longer races.

Actually I am 41 years old now. I think I would like to break 35 for 10K this year. But I realize to do that I would need to walk a few times in the race. Not because I am tired, but because I would start to limp along.

Right now I am running in Nike Frees....they feel nice. It does not matter if I run in boots, still at a sustained fast pace I will limp after 4-9 miles.

I am glad to see this post. I have this problem. I was too embarrassed to post this problem. It is embarrassing and extremely embarrassing.

i think that is my problem also.it has bothered me on a run when i felt my body bounce side to side.i hurt my knee and tried to run through it and i think that caused my problem.my right shoe wears out alomost instantly at the houtside heel.only on 1 foot.no one can figure it out.i went from 70 miles to 30 miles overnight.i can only run 5ks maybe.i can run 2 miles in 10 minutes but after that i fall apart.cant break 17 in the 5k.and fall off even more after that.it is definatly a muscle imbalance tight ITB weak glute hip back somewhere.i need help.i look like i am running sideways.

I feel you man, I too suffer from the same exact problem. It's nuts because I come on here and read the same problem that you would think no one else would have. Words can not describe how much this f***ed everything up in college. I also had a good trail system to help get my fitness up during cross when i could actually run well. During track I could not compete in anything above 1500. I am still working on it and after having operations that did nothing I am starting to figure out it has to do with how my hip rotates inward when I run, something I was born with called femoral anteversion, I am pigeon toed on that side when I run and this causes problems with my glute shutting down, so when it happens the leg collapses inwards and there is no control from the hip down. well this is the latest word, time will tell if there is anything that can be done.

Martymoose,

You may want to check out this site about the psoas muscle. The other leg problems on this thread don't sound like the psoas, but yours does.

http://julstro.com/what_happens_exactly.html

When you put the left leg in the middle, put the right over the front of it and let it slide up your left thigh as you move back. It stretches the hips a bit and pulls the legs into alignment and out of lock. Do the opposite for the other leg.
I've been to every kind of doctor and physical therapist available and they all tell me a different thing. Chiropractors are also similar, with one even telling me I would become crippled if I didn't come back on a regular basis (quack quack). This is the only exercise that has ever worked for me and it's been working for year, plus you can do it at home.
I usually perform the exercise just before I run, and whenever I feel like my legs are out of balance.
A way to tell if you are out of whack it to lay flat on the floor and with both legs straight behind you and your arms up and bent towards your head, pull one leg at a time while keeping the other straight as far up towards your head as you can without bending your body. Place a CD cover, book, whatever to mark where the leg came to. Do this about three times on either side to ensure that you aren't cheating too much and trying to see how high you can go. Stand up once you've done this and see how much higher up one side is than the other. This will tell you which leg is most out of balance. You can just which side to do the first exercise on more to correct the appopriate side.

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NateinAussie wrote:

When you put the left leg in the middle, put the right over the front of it and let it slide up your left thigh as you move back. It stretches the hips a bit and pulls the legs into alignment and out of lock. Do the opposite for the other leg.
I've been to every kind of doctor and physical therapist available and they all tell me a different thing. Chiropractors are also similar, with one even telling me I would become crippled if I didn't come back on a regular basis (quack quack). This is the only exercise that has ever worked for me and it's been working for year, plus you can do it at home.
I usually perform the exercise just before I run, and whenever I feel like my legs are out of balance.
A way to tell if you are out of whack it to lay flat on the floor and with both legs straight behind you and your arms up and bent towards your head, pull one leg at a time while keeping the other straight as far up towards your head as you can without bending your body. Place a CD cover, book, whatever to mark where the leg came to. Do this about three times on either side to ensure that you aren't cheating too much and trying to see how high you can go. Stand up once you've done this and see how much higher up one side is than the other. This will tell you which leg is most out of balance. You can just which side to do the first exercise on more to correct the appopriate side.

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Yeah, what some of you describe is exactly what I have. Its so frustrating because you can talk to other runners about it and nobody has a clue about what it is or how to fix it...they typically like to throw out some generic injury like sciatica or piriformis that has nothing to do with it.

In my case, I can run easy every day without much problem, and intervals and hill repeats are doable too. Its just when I run fast on a flat surface where I really start to get trouble. My left leg just goes bonkers on me. So basically I'm doing all of the training that I normally would do, but racing anything above 5K on a flat surface is completely out of the question. I may have to just work on becoming a XC beast.

I think some will suggest weightlifting for these issues, but I got this problem when I was lifting 3 times per week (squats, lunges, hamstring curls). Running is more complicated than just strengthening muscles by lifting weights, because as the other poster pointed out - you have to get your muscles to fire properly. I've been working on glute firing exercises, and hopefully in time this will take care of things.

Any advice on these problems would be welcome.