How much does your Hallux Extend?
Last week, on Mondays post, we introduced potential areas for power leaks.
The common areas for leaks are:
- great toe dorsiflexion
- loss of ankle rocker
- loss of knee flexion/extension
- loss of hip extension
- loss of balance/ proprioception
let’s take a look at a video of the 1st one:
Power leak 1: Great Toe Dorsiflexion
The big toe needs to extend AT LEAST 40 degrees and CLOSER TO 60 degrees for normal walking and running gait. If you do not have that available range of motion, then you will need to “borrow” it from somewhere else.
Common compensations include:
- externally rotating the foot and coming off the inside of the great toe. this often causes a callus at the medial aspect of the toe. This places the foot in more pronation (plantar flexion, eversion and abduction) so it is a poorer lever.
- internally rotating the foot and coming off the outside of the foot. This places the foot in more supination ( dorsiflexion, inversion and adduction) and it is therefore a more rigid lever. This often causes tripping or stumbling because of a lack of adequate dorsiflexion of the foot.
- lifting the foot off the ground and avoiding toe off at terminal stance phase
- abbreviating the step length to accommodate the amount of available great toe dorsiflexion.
Are YOU losing power? Tune in here for more tips on this series in the coming weeks!
The Gait Guys. Increasing your gait literacy with each and every post.
