uneven muscle tone on left and right side - Exercise & Fitness Message Board

iridescentsea · 03-25-2004, 09:55 AM

I regularly work out, nothing very strenous, biking, swimming, hiking. I realized that the right side of my lower body especially my thighs and buttocks has less muscle tone compared to my left side. My right thigh is very slightly thinner and my left buttock is slightly smaller than their left counterparts. It is probably unnoticable to other people (at least my husband claims he never noticed it) but I can see the difference. I sufferred a collapsed arch on my right foot years ago, perhaps I unconsciencely favored my left while working out.

Any input will be appreciated.

Evl316 · 03-25-2004, 10:02 AM

What side dominate are you? Left or right handed?

iridescentsea · 03-25-2004, 10:22 AM

I am right handed.

Straightsailor · 03-25-2004, 11:00 AM

I'm not too sure how you feel about going to a gym... But i would suggest working out your legs with weights, but only stick to excercises that work both legs at once, for example Leg extensions or squats... And concentrate on your muscles, try not to let your good leg work harder than your not so good leg... I used to have this problem with my biceps, but I did excercises that worked both at once so my weak arm was forced to do a lot of work, and my stronger arm wasn't able to work at it's full capacity thus not getting bigger while the weak arm did

Good luck...

never2L8 · 03-25-2004, 03:12 PM

I may be misinterpreting what Straightsailor is saying - sorry if that is so. I feel you are better off working both sides independantly, the rule simply is to exercise the weakest side first and then only do that same amount of weights/sets/reps with the stronger side. Any exercise where the two sides are joined, such as via a barbell or fixed bar machine, will allow your strong side to compensate for the weak. For the legs, you can do each leg seperately on all leg exercise machines simply halving the weight you use for two legs and then only using one leg at a time. For upper body you can do the same or use dumbells.

In your case I think that if your husband has never noticed it, you shouldn't worry about it. We all get a bit paranoid about how we think we are flawed and worry that people will think we are weird or something. The truth is that most people hardly notice our existence, let alone check out our proportions, features, flaws, etc.