Jim's Log (or quad)

[Jim Pickles]

@Kit_L  As you may remember, for some time now I've been doing very slow eccentric weights for strength. However my quads on one side have been tight for a few months now. I went to a physio who found a knot in the vastus lateralis (probably an overuse injury), massaged it, and said I should roller it, and it went away. However the quads still feel tight - all over, not just the area with the knot. She also found tightness in the hip external rotators on that side, and said I should use a small massage ball on them. Have done (but only a few times). I've now started stretching it - and noticed a great improvement in the quads. They feel OK now, but I'm being cautious as I've had a few false dawns before.

So my questions are:

1. Is it usual for injury to the external rotators to lead to a (presumably compensatory reflex) tightness in the quads?

2. As for stretches, the one that feels best is not one of the standard ones described in Stretching and Flexibility and your videos, but one you described many years ago when talking about pre-exhaustion. It is lying on back both legs straight, then taking the affected leg across the body (still straight) and rotating the toes down. This gives a lovely clear stretch of the affected muscle. Is this stretch written about anywhere now, and what do you think of it as a stretch? Is there a reason why it is not in the current repertoire of ext. rotator stretches?

Many thanks, and very best wishes to you and Olivia,

Jim.

[Kit_L]

On 7/5/2026 at 10:43 PM, Jim Pickles said:

However my quads on one side have been tight for a few months now.

Is this the leg of the foot with the tendon injury? Unless you are doing unilateral strength training for the legs (which I recommend for everyone, even if there's no obvious L–R difference), you cannot know which is the stronger quadriceps, or whether they are doing the same work, or whether there is any other compensation. As well, you have a significant L–R difference in function, due to that old injury. So, possible compensation on top of compensation—very hard to work out cause and effect, here. For legs, unilateral is the preferred method.

A knot in a muscle is not an injury, if it can be changed by rolling or pressure point therapy. And the external rotator difference is what I would expect with that old injury.

Please have a think about what I wrote here, and respond. And re-present your questions following this, please. And can you take a picture of the exercise you describe? And as for whether I think this is a good exercise, only you can be the judge of that. If it feels good/works for you, how can it not be good?

[Jim Pickles]

Dear Kit - many thanks for your reply. The side that has current problems is not the one with the old ankle injury. The current problems are with the right leg. The old injury is with the left.

Here is a picture of the stretch that I finds relieves the tight external rotators on the right. I am lying (mostly) on my back, and the lifted leg is internally rotated as much as possible. When I first did this, I immediately felt a blessed relief in the quads of that side when I got up.

Interesting point you made that if the knot can be relieved by rolling or pressure point therapy, its not an injury. The knot was relieved by this. It reappeared a couple of times after I had seen the physio, and I found that the best thing was a fairly light kneading/circular massage, which then dispersed it.

I now wonder if the tightness and soreness that I continued to feel in the quads after the initial physio session (and which was even getting worse over time) was because I was tensing up the quads to protect the leg, especially when walking down stairs.

So the whole issue has become a lot better since I have been doing the stretch as in the photo (rather than the usual ST piriformis stretches which I also tried). If I was feeling like I do now when I posted I wouldn't have made a post. So I wonder if the whole thing in fact has been driven the the stress in the external rotators, which I was not aware of until the physio pointed it out,

Your post reminded me of the relation you have described before between external rotator activation and pronation. However the right leg with the external rotator issues is the one with less pronation - but I wear very substantial orthotics on the worse pronating (left) side, while the right foot pronates quite a bit anyway, so maybe the normal cause-and-effect has complicating factors. In addition, I spend a lot of time in bare feet around the house (but doing nothing strenuous) and performance/dance classes are in bare feet, so the situation becomes still more mixed. Still, the sentence I highlighted in bold above is an issue that I will very much bear in mind.

As for strength difference between my legs and the left post-tibialis rupture: the left foot pronates very badly but orthotics correct the resulting height difference and normal activities are not really a problem if I am careful. If I do leg presses separately the left leg is 10 or more kg weaker than the right, but there is a likely effect of me not making full effort because the foot is unstable when I'm wearing trainers.

Many thanks indeed, Your input is much appreciated because it has given me a whole new perspective on the problem.

All the best, Jim.

[Kit_L]

16 hours ago, Jim Pickles said:

So I wonder if the whole thing in fact has been driven the the stress in the external rotators, which I was not aware of until the physio pointed it out,

Possibly. Piriformis, I have found, is almost always involved, as a contributing cause, which can aggregate with any other cause present in the system. Make sure you siege the advanced p. pose (which you are loose enough to do well) in combination with that pose you demonstrate above (which, in addition to being a mild hamstring stretch for you, is also a direct stretch for piriformis – you are internally rotating your thigh in the hip joint, and at this angle piriformis is an external rotator). Combining the two stretches in a session might just be what you need.

16 hours ago, Jim Pickles said:

Your post reminded me of the relation you have described before between external rotator activation and pronation.

There are, of course, more extenuating factors – whether piriformis traps, completely or partially, one of the two trunks of the sciatic nerve can happen on one or both sides of the body—this is a developmental trait. It's perfectly common for piriformis syndrome to only occur on one side. This may or may not be related to the pronation – there are many factors that contribute to pronation, chief among them being a lack of stimulation from the soles of the feet. Most people who have pronating ankles can deliberately align their ankles by lifting up the toes and simply pressing a bit more weight on the outside of the foot, something that you have seen people do deliberately on many workshops. Once the brain is made aware of a more desirable placement of weight, this can become a new habit, if practised. Nonetheless, if there is a lack of sufficient external rotation, pronation can follow and this can be the only cause of it in some instances. In most instances though, there are many causes in play in addition.

Sincere thanks for your thoughtful and detailed reply. If there's anything else you want to explore in this thread, please comment further.

[Jim Pickles]

Many thanks indeed for your response and your insights. I'll use them to investigate and experiment further, and increase the range of exercises as my confidence in the recovery improves. Any maybe hold back a bit on the maximal slow eccentric contractions, intended to give micro-trauma to the muscles - it look like they succeeded.

Best wishes, Jim.