Phantom Short Leg?
Everynow and then, I get this sensation that my left leg is a few inches shorter than my right. At those time, my gait feels like Im hobbling along. Anyone else get this and know what its about? Just to FYI, my legs are equal length and I have relatively new shoes.
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Anecdotally, I see psoas and iliacus issues often contribute and address them with ART. Sometimes it is an alignment issue I correct with manual adjustive procedures or pelvic blocking. Occasionally, upper cervical alignment malposition causes a reflexive short leg as a compensation to keep the eyes level with the horizon. I often see this in auto accidents where the patient was turned at impact, soccer players from heading the ball, and more recently lots of MMA fighters. We triathletes, cyclists strain our necks in the aero position and seemingly worse with the aerohelmets as they create more strain.
Vince
Are you saying that being the aero position can cause the neck to be out of alignment then caused the LLD?
Gotta wonder about some sort of a muscle imbalance.....overly weak muscle such as gluteus could cause an issue. If there's a good PT you know that can do a muscle/range of motion assessment could be worth your time. ONe that can watch you run on a treadmill may also be helpful
Sorry guys, Ive been off the radar for a bit with work. Well, Im still confused with the leg issue. Now that I have been hammering the intervals more, I havent noticed as much of the phantom short leg, although it still occurs. Rather, I have now consistent pain just inferior to my right hip over my hip flexor insertions. Everytime I go from a seated to standing position, I have a wince or two with each step.
The only thing again is that Ive gone from the longer Zone4 intervals to plenty of the short Zone 5s this outseason. For me, Zone 4 is about 8-8.5mph on the treadmill a 1% and Zone 5 is 9.0-9.5mph. Im thinking this had to with some core muscle strength, so Im going to start throwing those exercises in also.
Sorry for the Kate reply. Yes, the aero position can adversely influence leg length. It is a near-reflexive response. Not sure of exact mechanism but I see neck issues influence leg length thru muscular responses equalize after correction. These are comparative measurements mind you, one leg relative to the other with the patient supine and not measured trochanter to malleoli.
I was very leery for my first 15 yrs of practice until I personally could not correct one of my boys leg length issues that suddenly came about after wrestling season. I took him to a collegue that performed Atlas Orthogonal and his right leg 1" short became even with the left....he no longer walked with a hitch from his short leg! You tube...Montel Williams Chiropractic and you will see a brief vid segment on it.
Could be rectus femurs also. The rec fem gets called to action with weak hip flexors as it crosses the hip also. There are a few players to sort out here but check out Leugh's site: www.athletestreatingathletes.com and look up the hip vid. Good stuff for at home.
Great stuff guys. Will set something up with our PT and chiro at the clinic. We also have accupuncture....
either way, definitely worth a look by the PT/chiro to start sorting it all out.