balanced thighs?

I have read and heard a lot about the need to have balanced thigh muscles in order to protect the knee.

Does anyone know what this means in practice?

If say I can lift 25kg doing upward leg curls on a machine at the gym, what should i be doing on the bench press and what load should I be putting on the hamstring curls?

I have a slight knee problem which only flares up when I run, so i suspect it is something to do with pronating. I have just shelled out a lot of money on shoes to correct this so do not want to miss anything obvious.

Kg Upward leg curls + Kg Leg extension should = leg press kg, give or take. Leg curls being roughly 1/3rd to 1/2 of leg extensions weight.

However if you have a muscle imbalance problem then the last thing you want to do is leg extensions as that will strengthen the quad muscles which are too strong at the expense of the weaker muscles thus making the imbalance worse.. This is because the leg extension machine should never be used with your knee full extended - but it's only in the last few degrees of motion that it activates the vastus medialis - hence you'll never safely be able to work that inner quad muscle.

You will come under amazing pressure from loads of sources - including friends / fitness experts / magazines etc to 'strengthen' the quads in order to protect the knee - but if it's the quads which are causing the knee problem then believe me - you'll make it worse. Better to do proprioceptive (balance) type exercises and others which don't involve the static machines which load your muscles in unnatural positions. Also it is possible to do 30 degree knee extensions off a wall pulley which targets the vastus medialis.....I could go on - and on - and on -

e-mail me if you want more info !

Cheers

Shattered by name and shattered by nature