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The endurance athlete’s biggest enemy, besides training errors, is having some sort of asymmetry in the body.

Think about it, if one side of your body is longer/shorter/more pronated/less rotated/etc, it’s like driving a car out of alignment. Greater than normal stress is placed on a specific body part and eventually it breaks down.

I see this all the time as a coach and analyzing gaits at our running store. So while the season is early, see if you can identify any structural or functional asymmetries and address them now.

This may involve a thorough exam from an athletic trainer or maybe just doing some single leg/arm strength or flexibility tests on your own and identifying one side of the body that lags behind the other. It could even involve videotaping yourself swimming, biking, or running and looking for asymmetries such as your catch point or posture on the bike.

For those who have or are struggling with injuries, I would strongly recommend seeing a trainer. In our area, St. John’s Health Tracks does an excellent job.

Either way, the process will probably end with you implementing specific strengthening/stretching exercises to “even out” both sides of the body.

Example: try a single leg squat with each leg. Is one stronger? Then work on the other a bit more in a functional way.

via: http://www.coachej.com/2009/03/asymmetry.html