Hi everyone, Im new here and have some questions about weight and cardio training. My story might be kinda long so bear with me please. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Ok, so I was born with a disability called Hemihypertrophy. Its a rare condition in which one side of the body seems to grow faster than the other. In my case, my right leg is much larger than my left. The majority of bulk is bone and muscle. I dont have a tape measure with me right now, or I would let you know how much of a difference it is, but it is a big very noticable. Over the years I have been teased to an extreme, and now as a young woman I am not comfortable in my own skin. Shopping for jeans and pants is like the hardest thing ever, and I never wear shorts or skirts. So I am tired of feeling this way about myself. I want to look normal and be confident. I have considered plastic surgery, researched steroids but gave up because I felt hopeless to being stuck like this forever.
For about a month I have been cardio training to tone up my butt and thighs, but I really want to start weight training to bulk up my smaller leg. I have been doing cardio interval training 40 min a day 5 or 6 days a week. I have read that cardio can deplete muscle growth. So would it be a waste of time to try and bulk up my smaller leg while doing some intense cardio? Also I dont know anything about steroids besides the fact that they can be harmful, some info on them would be helpful as well. I also would like to tone my larger leg. There feels like there is so much muscle in it, Is it possible for it to get smaller? If that makes any sense.
My goal would be for my legs to looks alike as much as possible, I know it wont happen overnight, and I will have to put really hard work into it. I know diet and protein intake have a lot to do with muscle growth too. I am not an expert by any means and am just looking for some good info to help my body get the way I would like it as fast as possible. Thanks for reading, and like I wrote before any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again...

My family's very good friend has this same condition so I know what you mean how it can effects ones self esteem, it took her 42 years before she worked up the courage to ware shorts and still has never worn a bathing suit.

As for how to try and get them into balance you'll want to do single side isolation exercises such as lunges and single leg extension/ curls, work your larger leg with lighter weight more often to try and keep it not cause a little bit of catabolism in that leg.

so maybe a good workout would be

Mon-Large leg+small leg
lunges 15-20 for the large leg 8-12 with a heavier weight on the small leg
single leg extensions 15-20 for the large leg 8-12 for the smaller leg
single leg curls 25-30 for the large leg 10-15 for the smaller leg
Tues-Large leg
same work out as Monday but just the larger leg
Thurs-Large leg
same as Monday but just the larger leg
Fri-Larger+smaller leg
same as Monday

Do the rest of you body in a similar way that you were doing before the only thing your going to change is how you work your legs, I really hope this helps you!

i hope you can found the info that you need because i was to bug about being fat so i know how you feel so if theres any thing i can do to help you msg me i will try my best to help you good luck girl stay strong

With hemihypertrophy, of course you already know this, your right leg has grown at a faster rate than your left. because of the overgrowth, both the skeletal structure and muscular structure are larger than your left leg. bodybuilders experience this when they have a "lagging" body part. but all muscles function in this manner:

"The emerging theory behind skeletal muscle hypertrophy is that a bout of exercise causes protein degradation or damage (myotrauma), which leads to a period of enhanced protein synthesis or supercompensation when the bout ceases (Zatsiorsky, 1995). This increase in protein synthesis not only repairs the damage from the bout of exercise, but also makes the muscle stronger and therefore more resistant to future damage. The steps involved in muscle hypertrophy are:

Mechanical Stimuli --> Cell Damage --> Cell 'Clean Up' --> Cell Repair --> Cell Growth"

To put it simply, all muscles are the same, but you have more on your right leg. So here's the game plan: Add muscle to your left leg to catch up with the right leg, BUT limit muscle growth to your right leg so the left leg can catch up.

I agree with iron fully. performing single sided exercises and working your right leg with lighter weights can help greatly. The only thing i want to add is that you need to perform exercises both legs at the same time so functional strength of your two legs dont match each other. Performing squats at a weight where your left leg can cope, enhances and builds muscle on your left leg yet it is at a weight low enough where your right leg isnt worked enough to grow in size. Performing squats will equally strengthen both legs and allow your left leg to catch up to your right leg without cause your right leg to further.



Think about it this way. say you have 2 runners running a relay race. you have a faster runner in front of a slower runner, but the slower runner has to give the faster runner the baton so the faster runner can run. if the faster runner runs too fast, the faster runner wont be able to get the baton. so what does the fast runner do? it slows down to the same speed as the slower runner so it can grab the baton. your right leg is the fast runner. if both runners are running at the same speed (is both legs are being being trained with the same weight on a squat exercies) then they will be at the same level and they will progress together. (sorry for the dumb analogy. thats how i learn best)

Perform bilateral exercises that put both legs at the same level. Perform exercises that emphasize and train your smaller leg so it can catch up. Also, if you're able to, read up on lagging body part in the bodybuilding frame of reference to better understand what exercises can benefit you in your goals.

In regards to steroid usage, i'm not sure what your state of health is. I know that hemihypertrophy greatly increases chances of liver and kidney adverse reactions and chances for cancer and tumor development. They use of steroids may place great strain on your internal organs that may harm you more than help. Also, steroids do not discriminate where they effect. Any muscle trained will be aided by steroids to increase in size and strength, even your right leg which is something you do not want. the use gear that causes localized growth would actually work better to better aid you in your goal of increasing the size of your left leg. You may want to look into and read up on igf's ability to promote localized growth. BUT please exercise and have both legs at a state where they are remotely on the same level and have your diet in check before trying anything. I hope this helps you in some way. My apologies for the length.