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COMFORT + EFFICIENCY = PERFORMANCE

MORE ABOUT LEG LENGTH DIFFERENCES

Last Updated on April 25, 2015 by stevehoggbikefitting.com

I have a friend in Austin, Texas named Jerry Gerlich. Jerry works at Castle Hill Fitness as a personal trainer, bike fitter and rehab guy. Jerry is smart and thoughtful. Thoughtful in the sense that he is a thinker. Below are 4 pics of one of Jerry’s clients who originally presented with a functional leg length difference. I’ll let Jerry speak for what happened subsquently:

” The first and second shot is the improvement we gained in her first session.  After 6-7 weeks of some challenging core and some not-so-fun fascia work, we did another session with photos.  The third photo is not as good as the second but take a look at the fourth”

LEG LENGTH 1

LEG LENGTH 2

LEG LENGTH 3

LEG LENGTH 4

Jerry knows his stuff and the pics above show what is possible when some one with a functional issue gets the right advice and is prepared to do the hard work. Your body functions better with improved symmetry. Your nervous system rewards symmetry. Cycling is easier when you are as functionally symmetrical as possible.

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This Post Has 22 Comments

  1. Steve

    wow

    its too far to go for me to USA for this…. any personal recommendations in Melbourne, Australia for similar professionals?

    1. G’day Michelle,
      Interesting; thank you. I did some net searching and from that, believe Basso drops his seat when he needs high cadence (as in when the bunch pace is really on the flats) and raises it for lower cadence, higher torque per stroke riding in the hills. He’s an adult and makes his own decisions but if he had an effective seat height, seat setback and cleat position, he shouldn’t have to change seat height when the course profiie changes. He wouldn’t do it unless he felt there was an advantage but I note that no one else in his team, or the rest of the pro bunch (that I’m aware of) is doing the same thing.

      Good luck to him. He’s the only one that has to be happy.

      1. I believe there was a certain Belgian who did something similar and was fairly successful… Too bad you didn’t fit him! Eddy Merckx’s records may be even more breathtaking…

      2. My understanding of Merckx’s constant fiddling with his seat was that he had low level back pain for most of his career resulting from a really bad crash in a motor paced track race at 21 years of age that killed his derny driver. The constant fiddling was an attempt to resolve the problem. If you ever see footage of him from each side, it appears he may have had a leg length difference as well. Whether measurable or functional, I don’t know.

  3. Steve

    Had great session with Jerry – he really put the hurt on me with the functional assessments. Intriguing to get a “quantitative” assessment of how poor my function really is. The new SMP Lite is pretty cool too!

    On just the simple changes he made, the measured difference was remarkable – same speed, distance for 6 less watts. Once I adapt – should be more interesting.

    Thanks for the “referal” – Jerry is highly recommended from me.

    1. G’day Craig,
      Thanks for the feedback. Jerry’s way ahead of the run of the
      mill bike fitter. I’m glad that you enjoyed yourself.

  4. Hi Craig and thanks for the lead Steve. Craig is a strong rider with a respectable taste in music. I can tell he has been working on his position and reading your postings, Steve, as his cleat position was very close to my suggestion and he pretty much quoted your whole site to me. Now, he just needs to open up those quads/hip flexors a bit and work the hammies 9 days/week so he can get a little more stable as well as ” aggressive.”

      1. Thank you bikefitter … we laughed a lot about that little video. I have to say that Jerry was a great guy and my experience there was spectacular. The glute exercises he put me through are HELL but I can see where they are going to be a mainstay in my daily work.

        As I noted to him (in a separate, more detailed email), my initial thought on the position we moved to was “This sucks”. After riding it again today, hey – it doesn’t suck as much! Actually I feel centered and somewhat stable on the bike for perhaps the first time ever. Once I get through the adaptation period I am really excited to see where I stand.

        Jerry – I don’t want to be aggressive/submissive – just want to drop a few grams of drag!

        Thanks guys.

      2. G’day Craig,
        Rod and Bikefitter will return from time to time as Rod moves on to other forms of cycling. Glad that you like them. A new position is always ‘different’. If you feel more stable, then the big picture has improved. All that remains now is for the process of adaptation to continue.
        I’m sure Jerry did a good job.

      3. Thank you bike fitter – yes he did. Enough so that I am actually considering a membership to the gym even though I don’t get to Austin more than once or twice a month (on business). Castle Hills may be the finest small facility I have ever been to and Jerry is the man.

    2. hi jerry,

      i’m interested to know where you did your fascia work on that lady to even her out? psoas?

      thanks.

      1. Lots of work through the right leg, right psoas and abdominal stuff across the board. We also did lots of glute medius, hamstring and transvers abs. All of that combined with inversion table stuff and Power Plate vibration therapy.

    1. G’day Elliot,
      I talk to a few bikefitters in N.Z but don’t have any first
      hand knowledge. Where are you?
      North or South Island?

  6. I would be interested to know if you have seen uneven saddle wear with people who have leg length differences? I ask because i noticed that in our club there are a few people with white saddles (which show wear readily) that have either the right side (near sit bones) or left side with much heavier wear than the other side. I thought that perhaps the heavier wear side was the side with the shorter leg?

    1. G’day Paul,
      the answer is yes, but as with all of these things the situation isn’t as simple as “bent seat on right side equals short leg on right side”.

      The seat will deform towards the side of the seat that is being pressured most. This can happen because of –
      1. Too high a seat height presenting a Positional Challenge to the rider and causing an asymmetric compensation; i.e dropping of one hip.
      2. Because the hip drops on the functionally or measurably shorter leg.
      3. Occasionally the seat distorts on the side away from the hip drop. This is because when a rider drops a hip, the other leg has to reach further. Some riders achieve this by explosively loading the overextending leg early in the pedal stroke. This can cause the seat to distort downwards on that side. It is the least common of the 3 things above but I’ve seen it enough times to mention it as a possibility.

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