As the heart of the season is winding down (or is already down) and you start heading back to the weight room, consider checking your side-to-side strength.
I never really thought about my side-to-side differences until I went through a program titled the Frappier Acceleration program that was run through the local medical center. Before I began the program one of the athletic trainers tested my baseline strength. Many of the tests were done with a single limb.
One of the problems I faced is that prior to the testing, I didn't do any single-leg strength training. Apparently, while the right leg was working away on all the exercises listed above, leftie was taking a break...soft pedaling so to speak.
Well, the party ended for leftie. Each season during general preparation training I return to doing single-leg lifts for all the listed exercises.
What about you? Take the weight you can lift with two legs for 12 to 15 repetitions, and divide that by two. (Consider the weight of the platform on the leg press machine. If you don't know the weight, estimate it.)
Begin with your strongest leg - how many reps can you do? Can you do 12 to 15? More? Can you add more weight and still do 12 to 15 reps?
How about the other leg? What happened there?
Anyone willing to share their strength discrepancies from left to right?
This is one of the first things we do with new clients at our gym. We check all the joints for range of motion and strength. I can tell you that my right leg is significantly stronger; my glute max and IT band are both much tighter on the right. I think the primary reason is that I use the right leg to keep beat in spinning class. And the anterior muscles of my right arm and shoulder are waaaay overdeveloped, which means decreased range of motion with that arm. Also, I've always had trouble with my right shoulder (subluxated when i was born shoulder-first), so my left arm is better at doing most things--not because it's stronger, but because it's got better range of motion.
Another thing to check for? Look at yourself in a full-length mirror. Which hip is higher? Which shoulder is lower? That side is tighter through the torso, and is likely to be overdeveloped.