It’s one of the most common complaints heard in clinic: “My right side always feels tighter,” or “I only get pain on my left side.” This isn’t random. The body isn’t always symmetrical in how it moves, works, or compensates. Left-right imbalances often lead to pain, stiffness, and poor performance—especially if ignored.
Understanding what causes this uneven pain and what can be done to correct it is key to long-term relief and better function.
Dominant Side Overuse
Most people favour one side for daily activities—right-handed individuals often carry, reach, and push more with their right arm, creating muscle imbalances. Over time, this creates asymmetrical tension in the neck, shoulder, hip, or back.
When one side does more of the work, its muscles shorten and tighten, while the other side weakens or becomes less active. This imbalance causes your body to compensate, resulting in localised pain or reduced mobility.
Tom often sees this in clients who work at desks, drive for long hours, or carry children on one hip—all seemingly minor habits that repeat daily.
Pelvic and Spinal Misalignment
The pelvis acts as the foundation of the spine. If one side of the pelvis tilts forward or rotates, it changes how the spine loads and how the legs function during walking or training. Uneven pelvic posture can cause one glute or hip flexor to become dominant, leading to tightness or pain on one side of the lower back or leg.
A rotated pelvis or an imbalance in the sacroiliac (SI) joints is a major contributor to side-dominant discomfort. Through manual therapy and muscular assessment, Tom identifies and treats these misalignments with targeted soft tissue work and mobility restoration.
Old Injuries and Compensation
If you’ve ever injured a shoulder, hip, ankle, or knee, your body will have compensated—often for months or even years. This leads to dysfunctional movement patterns that overload one side of the body.
Even after the injury heals, the compensation remains. For example, limping after an ankle sprain can lead to lower back tightness on the opposite side, or shoulder tension from favouring one arm.
Massage therapy helps reset these imbalances by releasing the overworked side and reactivating the neglected muscles on the weaker side.
Poor Sleeping or Sitting Habits
Sleeping on the same side every night or sitting with your legs crossed in one direction leads to a pattern of consistent asymmetrical stress. These passive postures may feel comfortable but cause the spine, hips, and shoulders to shift out of balance over time.
Clients often report waking up with pain on the same side or noticing tension only after long periods of sitting. These are common signs of side-dominant postural stress that can be reversed through soft tissue therapy and postural awareness.
Training Imbalances
In the gym, uneven training or poor form can increase left-right imbalances. Unilateral lifts like lunges or single-arm rows often reveal one side is stronger, more stable, or more mobile than the other.
Tom works with members inside The Gym Group Slough to assess these patterns and uses massage therapy to improve neuromuscular balance, mobility, and recovery. If one side constantly fatigues faster or feels tight post-workout, it’s a clear sign of imbalance.
Sciatica or Nerve Irritation
Pain running down one leg or buttock, especially with numbness or tingling, may stem from sciatica or nerve entrapment. This often presents on one side, particularly when the piriformis muscle or lumbar spine compresses the sciatic nerve.
Targeted massage, particularly deep gluteal work and lower back release, helps reduce the pressure and restore mobility. Sciatica-related pain typically does not improve with stretching alone—manual therapy is often the missing piece.
How to Fix It (The Tom Approach)
✅ Assessment First
Every session begins with a short movement assessment. This reveals which muscles are overworking and which are underactive.
✅ Targeted Massage
Tom uses a combination of deep tissue therapy, trigger point release, and fascia work to restore muscular balance. He focuses on the overloaded side, but also reactivates and mobilises the weaker side for full-body realignment.
✅ Corrective Advice
Aftercare includes tailored stretches, mobility drills, or strength work to maintain balance. Whether it’s adjusting sleeping posture, training habits, or daily movement, small changes can reduce future flare-ups.
Side-dominant pain isn’t something to just live with. With the right hands-on therapy and body awareness, balance can be restored and movement becomes pain-free again.
📍 Located inside The Gym Group Slough
🔗 www.muscletherapybytom.co.uk
📞 Book your tailored session today and correct imbalances before they turn into long-term injuries.