Big difference in turnout between legs

[Marjolein]

I'm trying to do a lot of floor barre while stille giving my upper body a bit of a rest after an accident last week. While doing a turnout exercise while lying on my back, I noticed there's a huge difference between my legs. Lying on my back and holding up my leg, I can turn out my right leg nearly 90 degrees. My left leg can only do slightly over 45!!! Flexed of pointed feet makes no difference. I guess it's normal to have some difference, but this seems such an extreme difference. Could this be just a strength problem or can my left leg simply not turn out a much? I'm very very flexible and my left leg is actually much more flexible than my right. My grand plié in second position is basically 180 degrees turned out (completely flat). If it's a matter of strength, will simply working extra on it even the difference out? Any suggestions for exercises?

[Clara 76]

Could be your pelvis is out of whack after the accident, or you have one leg that is shorter than the other! Very normal, actually.

[Marjolein]

Oh I hope it's my pelvis out of whack, my wonderful osteopath can solve that.

[Miss Persistent]

As Clara says, very, very normal! Particularly after an accident I would get a professional to look at it - you never know what might be out of whack, what you might be unconsciously favouring or any number of things!

[Redbookish]

I notice that when on the floor the extent of my 'natural' turn out is very different between my two legs (right turns out almost flat from the hip, left only about half). But this is without any use of muscles, just letting the leg's own weight turn it out. Upright, and with core and turn out muscles engaged, it's quite different -- they're about the same, although it's easier to get a flat look on the right than the left leg..

 

I thought this was just normal -- whatever 'normal' is!

[brie]

I'm relieved to hear other people have this problem too. My right side is noticeably less turned out than my left side - it's actually noticeable when my feet are in first! Though I think I'm the opposite to your Marjolein in that it doesn't show up as much when I do floor barre excercises for some strange reason. I'm attributing it to a slightly weaker hip flexor (I injured it last year) on my right side. I'd be curious to know whether you find the osteopath helps sort this out though.