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Do You REALLY Have One Longer Leg
- chelsie462
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://youtu.be/-BT5Q_wjRNs
Mike: Have you been told by numerous doctors, chiropractors, or physical therapists that you have one leg longer than the other, and that's creating your pain?
Brad: Well, in our experience, few people have one leg longer than the other that causes problems, so what's going on?
Mike: Now, most clinicians look for a higher pelvis on one side, but why is it higher?
Brad: That's right. The only accurate way to determine leg length is through X-rays, which is rarely done. So, an old injury, we have found out, somewhere on one side in the leg or the hip, actually causes the muscles to tighten up between the pelvis and the rib cage, and when that happens, that part of the pelvis elevates, making one leg appear shorter or the other one longer.
Mike: We're going to show you how you can correct this.
Brad: So let's look at why one leg appears longer. As we mentioned, an old injury on one side or the other can cause compensations in how you walk and actually muscles as a result, contract giving that protective mechanism, and when that happens, the body appears to side bend, the rib cage goes over that side, the pelvis goes up, and things tighten up here. That is a problem, and we need to stretch that muscle side out so that we get even. Help me out, Mike.
Mike: So we can get an even load distributed through both sides of your pelvis here. Now this can cause a whole array of pain. It can be muscle tightness in your hip, maybe your lower back. It can also compress your nerve roots, causing back pain. So we just want to get this lengthened, and we want it to stay there again.
Brad: Right, and we don't want to forget about sciatica symptoms with pain and numbness going down the leg as a result of that compression on one side.
Mike: So we're going to get into some stretches now on how to alleviate this.
Brad: There you go.
Mike: So the first exercise we're going to show, you're going to need a wall to perform it, or possibly a doorway. This is going to work on specifically lifting the rib cage up to prevent that side-bending problem. So what you're going to do is take the side that is bent or flexed a little bit, you're going to place your pinky on the wall, my elbow is below my shoulder joint to start and I'm going to start sliding my hand up the wall as far as I comfortably can and once I get to the point, I'm really thinking about lifting my ribcage here, I am breathing, you can hold this for 15 to 30 seconds or if you just want to breathe a couple relaxed breaths while you're here and then slowly come back down.
Mike: You're going to want to perform five to 10 repetitions of this on one side, specifically the side with the side-bending problems. There are a lot of sides there. If you want, you can certainly do it on the other side. Over time, if this feels comfortable and you want to save time, you can certainly do both hands at once.
Brad: There you go. Again, that part, let's do one side because it is a little confusing. Why are we sliding our pinky up against the wall? When the elbow gets above 90 degrees from here up, that's when you think about bringing that whole shoulder blade up, which pulls the rib cage up and helps get this gap here stretched so that the gap in the low back where the problem and the pain is becomes relaxed and takes pressure off those nerves and muscles.
Brad: All right, now this protocol has a total of three exercises. This is actually a protocol developed by a physical therapist. His name is Rick Olderman. He's used this for many years. He's actually written books and teaches them to other therapists. You have some information on Rick on how to get to him.
Mike: You can go to rickolderman.com and find all the information there on where to purchase his programs or books. So the next stretch we're going to do is going to, again, lift the ribcage, but it's going to help keep the pelvis down and in control. Sometimes when people lift the ribcage, their pelvis will hike up as well, so this will help with that. So, again, the side that is tight or painful, you're going to go to a doorway. You can use a pull-up bar as well. Brad will show another option if you can't reach high enough, simply using a stick. I'm going to face my hand away from me, my palm is on the top of the doorframe here. Once I'm here, I'm going to lean into the door, and if you want to get a little bit more stretch, bend your knees a little bit, and now I'm really feeling that lengthening specifically on the obliques here, stretching that rib cage up and keeping that pelvis down.
Brad: Now, again, if you cannot reach the trim of the door, or maybe you have trim that's a little loose, which we ran into that once, using a stick is a really good option. Something that's pretty sturdy, about four to five feet long, like our Booyah Stik, and you can do it standing. You can put it on a countertop like this. Now this sticks in there well; it's important that it does not slip around. If you have something that slips, simply take a shoe and put it inside the shoe. It allows it to grip.
Brad: Watch out for the ceiling. Okay, again, grab here and it's the same thing I'm going to hold, I'm not going to let my hands slide down, and there we go, I'm getting that stretch right through here. You can see it in my shirt how it tightens up, and we're going to do this exactly the same as on the door, and this works out quite well.
Brad: This is something you can actually do in the seated position, which is really nice. Gives you another option. Some people are more comfortable this way. And right there, my shirt is loose, as I go over that material tightens up just like your muscles and skin do as you do it. Oh, my back cracked.
Mike: You can hold this for 15 to 30 seconds or three breaths, whichever's comfortable for you.
Brad: Oh, thank you, Mike. All right, that's the second exercise. We're going to go to number three. All right, now the third one is not really an exercise, but it is a posture correction, which can make a big difference, and it's in the seated position. For example, if you're working at a computer workstation for an extended period of time, this is very critical to help with the problem, and it can prevent other neck and headache as well. So, Mike, you want to talk about it?
Mike: So if I'm having a side-bending problem, I am doing an extreme version here.
Mike: What you can do is try to use the armrest for support. You can see this isn't quite tall enough for me. So I can simply fold up a pillow, place it on my side like this, and then I'm going to be higher up. This is going to help keep that ribcage elevated on that side.
Mike: Again, you could probably do this on both sides. It might start to feel awkward if you're sitting in a chair eight hours a day with one side higher than the other, and if you have a standard chair, this is a simple solution.
Mike: If you have a computer chair, you could certainly raise the armrests up higher than you normally have them. It'll give you the same effect.
Brad: Right, so when you're there, some people aren't even aware that their arm rests go up and down in their computer chair, so check it out. A lot of them do. But it takes the weight of your arm, elevates it, and it also relaxes the muscles up in the shoulder as well as the gap. So it's a win-win situation. Great for posture and many other problems, as well as what we're talking about here.
Mike: So give all these three tips a try. Do them every day and try them for a while. See if it starts to help your side-bending problem, and you notice your pain is starting to go away. If you're still concerned, you have one leg longer than the other, you can check out the video, "Do You Have One Longer Leg? How to Tell and What to Do." This video gives you more explanation of things you can test to actually see if one leg truly is longer.
Brad: That's right.
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