Gait Importance

Your gait is about more than just your legs

Your gait does more than just affects your form whenever you run and walk. It’s much more important than that and this is why a gait analysis looks at how your whole body works holistically. Having an improper gait can cause other problems that you might not even realize are associated, such as problems with your hips and back.

Having a gait analysis administered will measure how your entire body moves and functions, also known as biomechanics. This affects your mobility, flexibility, stability, and overall functional strength. If you continue to use your body with an improper gait, then you’re likely to put more of a strain on multiple parts of your body.

Gait Analysis:

A gait analysis can include many things and is based on your individual symptoms. Some of the tests that may be part of your gait analysis include:

• Comprehensive physical examination
• Muscle and motion assessment
• Computer-interfaced video cameras to record muscle movements
• Electrodes placed on your skin to measure muscle activity
• Force platforms that are used to measure your torque and force against the ground

Patterns of Movement

A gait analysis doesn’t just measure how you run, but it looks at all aspects of your body’s movement. This means that you have a unique movement pattern, whether it’s your running stride, swimming stroke, or pedal stroke.

Why it’s important to discover your unique movement patterns is because you likely have compensations for areas where you lack peak muscle efficiency. Compensations may lead to strength imbalances around your joints, which can cause you not to use some of your larger muscles (such as your quads, hamstrings, or glutes) to favor smaller, stabilizing muscles instead. We can help you to correct your compensations so that your larger muscles do more of the work, like they’re supposed to do.

Treat Abnormal Gait

If your gait isn’t quite right, it’s a completely treatable condition. One of the things we might do include fitting your feet for custom orthotics. These are custom-designed inserts that you’ll wear in your shoes, which correct for gait abnormalities. It may require a bit of an adjustment phase to get used to wearing your orthotics, but soon you should find them comfortable and preferable to wear.

You may also be recommended to undergo physical therapy exercises. These exercises will be customized for your specific muscle needs, to strengthen weak muscles that are affecting your gait. The best part of physical therapy to correct your gait is that you can see that it’s working, as measured by follow-up tests.