1cm leg length difference - hip still tight after 1 year with lift + P

Posted by nemobourtiza @nemobourtiza, 2 days ago

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my situation and see if anyone has gone through something similar.

My situation:
I have a 1cm leg length discrepancy. My left leg is shorter than my right.
For about a year now I’ve been using a 1cm heel lift in my shoe and doing daily stretching and strengthening exercises with a PT.

What improved:
• IT band pain is gone
• Anterior shin pain is gone
• Walking feels better overall

What’s still an issue:
I still feel a lot of tightness in my hip, especially when standing up from sitting or after standing for a while. It feels like my hip isn’t fully “open.”
I’ve been stretching the piriformis and IT band, but the tightness remains in the front and side of the hip/upper thigh area.

My question:
Could a full 1cm lift be too much for my body?
What exercises or treatments actually helped you when you had the same thing? I’ve read about working on the iliopsoas and doing Hip CARs, but I’d like to hear what worked for real people.

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Sue, Volunteer Mentor | @sueinmn | 1 day ago

@nemobourtiza I'm not a doctor, but can tell you what I learned when dealing with a leg length discrepancy - mine was in excess of 1/2" (1.9 cm) - the podiatrist advised correcting only 1/2 of the discrepancy with a lift, so he put 1/4" on the bottom of my orthotic. After hip replacement surgery, the physical therapist measured the discrepancy at 1.3 cm, and sanded off a bit of the lift - it is around 3/16" now, and I often wear shoes with no lift at all (but not for all day on my feet.)
Have you consulted a podiatrist or PT?