Unbalanced muscles from fencing

[BoutAfrica]

I have very unbalanced muscles because of fencing. As i am right handed, my right arm, leg shoulder are bigger than my left. I go to gym regularly and it has sorted it out but my problem is that i think my hip is now being pulled skew. Is this common? how do i correct it?

[sloper]

While you've corrected your thigh differences somewhat, you may still have imbalances in your hips and glutes. Here are some ideas if this is the problem.
If you do one legged squats in the gym (a great exercise) make sure your hips stay even when working your back leg. If I'm not careful, when I'm lifting with my left (back) leg my body will turn to the right because my left glutes aren't strong enough to support the squat. So I drop the weight to what I can lift keeping my hips square.
A lot of Pilates exercises focus on glutes. Look for leg lifts and turn out exercises and keep your form perfect. If you can take a Pilates class with an observant instructor, you can probably pinpoint the imbalances right away.
A great exercise with a rockerboard is stand on the board with one foot forward and rock from front to back _keeping your hips completely level_. A mirror helps at least at first to keep from hiking the hips up as you rock. It's really hard to do, though. Frustrating and fun at the same time (kinda like fencing).
You can also do off hand foot work with very good form. Lunging is especially good for your glutes. After all, lunging on your front foot is what caused this imbalance in the first place. Like with the squats, just make sure your not tilting your body inwards. Use those outside glutes. (Go easy on speed and length with your off hand lunges at first, though. Because you already know how to lunge, it can be easy to lunge too hard and hurt yourself.)
Also make sure your quadratus muscles are not too tight especially on the back side. A stretch I like is to stand sideways on a step with my back foot hanging off and then reach down with that foot towards the next step. Adductor stretches are good, too, like the butterfly stretch sitting up against a wall.

Hope this helps,
Susan

[nahouw]

sloper has given you some really great advice.

I always start as a warmup for my footwork routine to do advancing and retreating with lots of lunges with my off-hand; I also do this as a cool-down after my routine.

In the gym, use the abductor, adducter, hip flexion and leg press machines -- these will help you strengthen and keep in balance. Pilates are also excellent -- they help you to keep everything working together, and also by stretching your muscles.

Balance board exercises are great -- I use them for skiing. You can do a google search for "balance boards" and locate a company -- (I can't recall the name of the company where I bought mine right now) -- they should also have a website that gives exercises to do with it.

Also, I use a balance ball, and do free weights will sitting on that -- it will help develop core strength, especially good for fencing because of the arm movements and the need to keep your core strength.

[BoutAfrica]

Yes, thanks for the advice. I do do all these things but it is quite hard to to keep it up when you'r fencing 6 times a weak. So it just does'ent balance out. But i find that fencing left handed wprks well.

[sloper]

but it is quite hard to to keep it up when you'r fencing 6 times a weak. So it just does'ent balance out. So it just does'ent balance out.

I get what you're saying. One of the reasons I've been able to work on my herd of muscle imbalances is that I don't have a lot of people to fence right now so I have the time and energy to do so.
However, consider that if you do take some time to work on your weaker muscles (say, half a hour 2 days a week for a month or two), you will start to use them more when you are fencing so they will get worked more regularly and the imbalances won't get worse.
Also, I've yet to find a corrected muscle imbalance that hasn't improved my fencing in very practical ways. For example, the left glute thing: stronger glutes have helped me fence more upright which in turn has improved my footwork efficiency (read speed) and even my point control. So it's not just an aesthetic or general health concern; it's a functional one, too.

Susan

[Silenius]

Taking time to fence non-dominant is really the best solution to this problem as far as I know. The muscle problems you are facing are well worth the time it takes to correct them. I have developed a minor chronic back problem as a result of letting this imbalance go uncorrected.

I have also learned from a physical therapist that many of the muscle tightness and soreness can be a result of inconsistant use. Fencing 6 days a week means you probably dont have this problem, but for those of us who only get to train a couple days a week it is. Apparently if you work your muscles hard one day and then not at all the next, eventually that can cause problems. Its best to do something in those off days, and non-dominant training is an easy thing to do by yourself.

I also noticed an interesting related problem when I bought a suit. It seems that my muscle imbalance resulted in having one arm of the jacket needing to be longer than the other and the pants having to be tailored strangely. So if nothing else, keep those muscles balanced to keep yourself fashionable.

[ThatReallyHurt]

I haven't been fencing for very long, but one of the more experienced fencers in my club mentioned this problem to me. He says it's always a good idea to do some exercises and practice with the weaker side. He's a big fan of doing lunges with both sides during footwork and warmups (distance exercises, that sort of thing). He's been fencing for about six years and claims to have no problems...