Improving strength on one side

Andy_Craddock · Post by **Andy_Craddock** » 14 Jun 2014 10:25

This may sound a bit long winded but please bare with me.

I had a mini stroke in 2003 and resulted in me having a left sided weakness and having to basically learn to walk again properly.

Obviously now I can get around ok, however I am constantly overcompensating with my right leg to help my left. I started questioning everything when I was climbing hills better on my fixed gear and couldn't work out why.

I used a therabike at work which measures symmetry. When I was in higher gears I was 40/60 but I could get to 50/50 if I tried. However when I put it in the easiest gear I could not get more than 32/68 no matter how hard I tried. Now this makes sense that when I am in a spiny gear basically my right is doing all the work and my left is going round. I have started to experiment and climb in bigger gears, but there are some climbs when I could really do with having a few more gears. I ended up climbing the beacon hill climb in 32x23 yesterday just to get up the thing

Ok so I know this is not going to make me climb like the mountain goats such as Mark "moaning" Patton and Sean "I could read the paper when I climb" Mungoven but it is bothering me at the moment and id really like to improve it.

Are there any cycling specific exercises I can do help strengthen this. If it involves sessions on the turbo I really don't care.

Any advice?

John · Post by **John** » 14 Jun 2014 14:45

Try riding with just one leg clipped in. It means you have to pedal really smoothly.

Also see: http://www.livestrong.com/article/51518 ... -strength/

Mark Patton · Post by **Mark Patton** » 14 Jun 2014 18:26

Stop your moaning and go do some hill reps

dweben · Post by **dweben** » 14 Jun 2014 19:06

Take up mountain biking

Andy_Craddock · Post by **Andy_Craddock** » 14 Jun 2014 21:50

Thanks john for the only constructive comment!

Paul not my cup of tea!

Mark, pot kettle and black

Pedlo Mudguardo · Post by **Pedlo Mudguardo** » 14 Jun 2014 22:31

Rollers help develop an even pedalling motion especially with a high cadence.
I had a meeting with a guy from Selle Italia earlier in the week to learn about their new saddle fitting system. The process involves lots of body measurements including the thigh diameter. My right thigh was much bigger than the left which is apparently very, very common reflecting my own leg imbalance. This is something I'd suspected for a long time judging by the state of my right knee compared with the left. I think it's normal to have a dominant leg and a total 50/50 would be tough to achieve without a huge amount of effort.

Elite have a roller system that measures your left and right power output but it'll cost you the price of a new bike.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » 14 Jun 2014 23:03

One leg squats and 1 leg squat jumps up stairs. Agree rollers too should help.

A full biomechanics check with someone who understands strokes and who can assess you whilst cycling would be useful perhaps, will pm you a recommendation.

Andy_Craddock · Post by **Andy_Craddock** » 14 Jun 2014 23:28

Cheers Nic, maybe I need to get myself some rollers again.

I know most have a weekness and if expect around 55/45 but 32/68 is bad!

It was interesting yesterday I was riding with Neil and talked about it, he said my left calf looked bigger when cycling but when I stood on tip toes it was clear my right was bigger. It just shows I'm having to do a lot more work on my left to balance things out.

Thanks Tim, would really like to get something sorted.

George · Post by **George** » 15 Jun 2014 19:41

Don't think I can offer any useful advice, but I would like to say bloody well done for coming as far as you have after such a scary event.

Andy_Craddock · Post by **Andy_Craddock** » 15 Jun 2014 20:06

George wrote:Don't think I can offer any useful advice, but I would like to say bloody well done for coming as far as you have after such a scary event.

Thanks George.

It does make me appreciate things now

Andy_Craddock · Post by **Andy_Craddock** » 25 Jun 2014 16:36

Well went to see an osteopath today and really interesting. I'm glad it wasn't all in my head, there is definitely issues with me!

It works out that from my TIA the signals don't get to my leg properly and as a result it doesn't work how it should. Thankfully I'm quite sure now it's not the symptoms coming back but has been exasserpated by me currently trying to work on quicker rides, some muscle ( little one I can't think of) has been slightly weekended from this type of riding. Got some exercises and other tips to try and hopefully get it sorted for ride 100

Very informative and thanks for the reccomendation Tim.