Lazy Diagnostics Volume 2: One Leg Shorter Than The Other

Asymmetry is a completely natural thing in our bodies. The majority of us have a dominant hand, dominant leg, dominant eye and these all contribute to how we use each sides of our body differently. These traits, like all others we have, are ingrained into our nervous system.

But what does that mean for you? Are you destined to carry on forever using one side of your body differently to the other until one side just wears away? Well, probably not. While things like your dominant hand will likely never change, the way your body adapts to deal with this asymmetrical dominance will. 

This is where leg length differences come into it.

Before I carry on, YES, it is possible to have an actual leg length difference, usually from severe arthritis, congenital issues or major surgeries (e.g. hip replacements). More often than not though, this isn’t the case. Anyway…

Leg length discrepancies are part of the brains ever-changing way of adapting to the external stresses we put on the body. Old injuries, postural habits, hobbies can all contribute to this change and it is almost always coming from the PELVIS.

As the pelvis rotates or shifts up/down, it shifts the position of the hip joint. This in turn causes one leg to look longer/shorter, when in reality it isn’t. This becomes very important when we start to look at common solutions. 

Heel lifts are frequently given to ‘correct’ these asymmetries. They make up the difference in length to allow you to stand evenly again. Happy days, right?

Nope. There are two blatantly obvious issues with this. 

1. This is just allowing the body to continue with its dysfunction rather than actually correcting it. Very dangerous when you consider the long-term implications on the health of your joints, discs and other tissues. 
2. Your body changes, ALL THE TIME. I see it weekly in clinical practice. A client will come in with a ‘shorter’ right leg on Monday, then on Friday it’s the left one! Now imagine what would be going on in the body if they were still wearing a heel lift to correct the right leg length. 

My inspiration for writing this blog came from a client in this situation actually. They had been given a rather large heel lift for her LEFT side but complained that it had made her feel a lot worse. After 5 seconds of testing I found their right leg was currently shorter (It had been their LEFT in the past, it wasn’t just a clerical error). 

No wonder their spine was in agony.