Muscle Size Discrepancy

jon_claydon said:

Hi all,
I'm sorry if this topic has been done to death before and i've missed it while searching but i was wondering whether anyone could help me. I've noticed that the muscles of my right leg are much larger than those of my left. In particular the calf and quadriceps muscle. Now this could be due to bike set up but i expect it is more likely to be due to the way i ride, possibly favouring one side over another. Does anyone know a way of 'evenening' up the muscles? Or how to tell whether it is bike set up? Additionaly is fixing it just a matter of riding with one leg out of the pedal and the other doing the work? Or is there something else that someone out there has tried that worked for them?
Cheers
Jon

Probably natural. Ride alot, spin smoothly, check for leg-length difference. You could obsess about it over the spin-scan on a Computrainer, you may notice that power output is equal.

Or, sometimes when we count cadence, we always use one leg..this leg pushes harder because in your mind you are counting it! So, switch legs often when counting strokes. Beyond that, don't worry.

As mentioned change how you count cadence or sync your breathing with your legs if you want to emphasize the other leg.

Definitely check for leg length differences - the bigger side is probably the short one. Having to reach more for the pedals would increase calf size in particular.

I have muscle-size imbalance too, but I wouldn't say it was significant - my left leg being slightly bigger than the right. This is more noticeable in the quad muscles, esp when pumped with blood after a good workout.
Chances are, you're probably the only one who really notices it and it could well be reasonably common, does anyone else have this ?

jon_claydon said:

Hi all,
I'm sorry if this topic has been done to death before and i've missed it while searching but i was wondering whether anyone could help me. I've noticed that the muscles of my right leg are much larger than those of my left. In particular the calf and quadriceps muscle. Now this could be due to bike set up but i expect it is more likely to be due to the way i ride, possibly favouring one side over another. Does anyone know a way of 'evenening' up the muscles? Or how to tell whether it is bike set up? Additionaly is fixing it just a matter of riding with one leg out of the pedal and the other doing the work? Or is there something else that someone out there has tried that worked for them?
Cheers
Jon

If the muscles in your right leg are *much* larger then it may not even be a result of your cycling, as cycling will only cause modest hypertrophy of your slow twitch fibres, and then probably only when you first start riding. If it isn't causing you any problems then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

L.

A slight discrepancy is physiological, it's a pity we are not symettrical. Even some pros have the left slightly smaller than right leg or viceversa. The power and the power-delta are more important parameters.

I have the same problem. My right is bigger than the left. My right leg during the pedal cycle feels vastly different than the left leg i.e. it feels more connected to what it's doing. I do consciously but of course not 100% of the time try to focus on my left leg while riding. I also do 1 legged pedalling with the left leg predominantly. Is this size and feel thing a result of a leg length discrepency? The way the leg engages I feel so. Is it because of a strength issue? Too much kicking of the soccer ball with my right leg as a youth? I think that this issue you have brought up is an often overlooked aspect of cycling. If you could bring the leg in question to the level of the "good" leg then cycling effeciency could be improved. I have also noticed that the "disconnected" leg will start to show signs of overuse in the shin and calf area as well as the hamstring area if I don't do strength training to these areas about every other week.