I am almost certain my pelvis misalignment was caused by wearing an orthodic piece my doctor gave me when i was 15, i am 20 now. I was a hardcore cross country runner and had a stress fracture that was healing,and to get back into action faster, i was prescribed an orthodic piece for my right foot to keep pressure off the fracture. so i ran hundreds of miles with uneven footing. it was during my growth spurts as well.
I will provide a counter argument on the subject of heel lifts
you mention
“It makes you feel more balanced but in the long run it reinforces your general postural problem.”
How does this make sense if having the heel lift puts you into a whole new posture, works your muscles in a more balanced fashion, and reinforces that new posture instead of the old one.
i believe maybe heel lifts are more potent then one may think, but also the potency is effect by our age
young normal body, maybe not perfect, but very symmetrical + Heel lift right foot = Raised right pelvis, scoliosis and non symmetrical musculature
I should mention that my family has no history of scoliosis or problems of these nature, so i believe it was environmental (the uneven footing from the heel lift) instead of genetics.
I understand your thought process, but asymmetrical body mechanics is already a degenerative thing on its own, especially for active people like ourselves. Our muscle imbalances become more and more pronounced as we do strenuous physical activity, with or without heel lifts. taking the heel lift out of the picture, your body is is still gonna intervene for you in its own destructive way to trick itself into thinking its in equilibrium.
In my case, my body intervened in its own way. hiking the shoulder, hiking the hip, the usual textbook stuff. but even in this form i still feel imbalanced
So wouldnt it make sense that since i have a raised right hip from that incident in cross country, a lift in the left could be more beneficial than not.
-It helps distribute weight more properly
+less wear and tear for the right side, which before would bare more weight
-with the lift in, i can feel my left leg (quads, glutes, shins) fatiguing since its not used to normal function, i always noticed my right side being the one sore at the end of the day before the lift.
-with the lift in, my slight rib protrusion from the scoliosis is pushed back slightly and less noticeable.
Something else to add is, i feel like you have to proactively work with your heel lift instead of passively forgetting about it. if you dont pay attention to your leg with the lift in it, you will find that your brain tells you to bend that knee slightly more than usual to achieve the same pelvic position it was at before the lift. reinforcing that poor posture.
I have no credibility on this subject other than i feel that A heel lift fucked with my body mechanics in the beginning, and maybe it can fuck the mechanics back into place ^^.
This was kinda a stream of thought. There are so many people that are for them, but then there are tons that are against it. My general practitioner and chiropractor were all for it, but then my orthopedic surgeon just said forget about it nothings gonna change you but surgery since ur mature, and since ur problem is not bad enough we cant help u.