Classic Crossover Gait Case.
Here is a client with a uncompensated forefoot varus (ie: the forefoot is inverted with respect to the rearfoot) and a cross over gait, secondary to incompetence of the medial tripod of the foot (he cannot descend the head of his 1st metatarsal to form the medial tripod due to the uncompensated forefoot varus) and weak right lower abdominal external obliques which we discovered on examination (perhaps you can detect a subtle sag of the right side during stance phase on that side).
Note how he circumducts the lower extremities around each other. This takes the cross over to another level and it can occur when a client is pronating through the medial tripod such as in this forefoot varus case (we know this from the examination, it cannot be detected for sure from the video with the foot in the shoe, that would be an assumption).
How do you fix this?
- tripod standing exercises
- core stabilization exercises with attention to the right lower oblique (see our core series available for download on Payloadz here and here
- foot manual therapy to improve motion of the 1st ray
- see our crossover gait series on youtube here: part 1, part 2, and part 3
- form running classes such as Chi Running
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