Originally Posted by RChung

I suppose it's a possibility, but a lot depends on why your left is weaker: some things may be correctable, others may not be. I have a friend who's a cycling coach, pretty well known, who had to have his lower left leg amputated after a cycling accident. After a long and arduous recovery, he was able to *exceed* his pre-amputation FTP although his L/R balance was, obviously, unbalanced. There is no way he can "pedal circles" or "pull up" or "scrape the bottom of the stroke": he'd yank his prosthesis off his stump if he tried any of that. All he can do is stomp with it, so he stomps down as hard as he can, and he only pays attention to his total combined one-and-a-half-leg power. Below the knee amputation, so maybe one-and-two-thirds. A dozen or so years ago, I had a very unpleasant experience with sciatica, and my right leg went dead. I'd already had several years of power data so I didn't need separate L/R data to tell me that my right leg was dead and my pedaling was asymmetric -- my total power dropped and I couldn't control my right foot. Over the course of six or nine months I slowly recovered, and I was able to match my power from before. I wasn't specifically concentrating on strengthening my right leg, I was just riding and walking and trying to get back to where I was. I have no idea whether my L/R power production is symmetric now, and I don't care. All I care about is whether I can achieve my goals with as many legs as I have available.

In a deep sense, if you can go faster and/or achieve your goals, do you really care if it was because of your left leg rather than your entire aerobic system, however it is bilaterally allocated? (I don't have an answer for that -- I think it will vary by individual).