Does this guy have a short leg or what? How good are your eyes?

One again, we had the gait cam, investigating gait on the east coast. What do we see in this gent?

• heel strike on out side of left foot with increased progression angle

he appears to be stabilizing the left side during stance phase. notice the upper torso shift to the left during left stance phase

• abbreviated arm swing on right

note that ankle rocker is adequate on the left

• body lean to right on right stance phase

gluteus medius weakness on right? short leg on right?

Good.

• Did you also notice the loss of ankle rocker on the right, compared to the left? This results in less hip extension on that side as well.

• He flexes his right thigh less than his right during pre swing and swing

external obliques should be firing to initiate hip flexion, perpetuated by the psoas, iliacus and rectus femoris. This does not appear to be happening.

All of this is great BUT nothing like being able to actually examine your patients is there? You can see how gait analysis can tell us many things, but they need to be confirmed by a physical exam.

The Gait Guys. Educating (and hopefully enlightening) with each post. Keep your eyes open and your thinking from the ground up : )

Got Arm Swing?

We have written many times about arm swing. Click here for some of our posts here on Tumblr.

Here we are again at the beach. Look at the beautiful difference in arm swing from side to side in the guy carrying the bag. Makes you want to tell him to use a backpack, eh?

Never mind what it does to his gait

• decreased arm swing on the carrying side
• increased step length on the left side
• increased thigh flexion of the left side
• increased body lean and head tilt to right side (Take a look at this paper)

think about the increased metabolic cost. Think about what this  type of input (increased amplitude of movement unilaterally) is doing to your cortex!

keep your movements symmetrical, folks!

The Gait Guys

It’s that time of the year again….beach cam

With Dr Ivo’s yearly trip to the beach, we have some interesting footage. Today’s winner was this gentleman. We apologize for the shakiness of the camera, as he free handed it for this shot.

Note the following:

• the lack of glute action and the  loss of ankle rocker; his hips NEVER extend past zero. In this case, if they did, he would probably fall forward., due to his abdominal weakness

• To go along with this, we have some premature heel rise, to help him to move forward. As soon as his body mass passes over the foot, the heel comes up.

• Note the forward posture of the head, to attempt to move his center of gravity forward

• Note how his arm swing is only forward. Normally, we like to se the arms move posterior to the body

• He does appear to use his abs to initiate flexion of the thigh. See how he picks up his leg and extends the knee suddenly? This is given away by the acceleration of the leg as he “kicks” it forward.

As you can see, no one is safe from the gait cam. We are everywhere and the army of gait geeks is growing.  Do yourself a favor. Train yourself and others to have ankle rocker, use their glutes to extend their thigh and initiate hip flexion with their abs, rather than the psoas and rectus femoris.

This message is brought to you as a public service by The Gait Guys. Friends don’t let friends have bad biomechanics…

READY

A little beach forensics, anyone?

As far as we know, there is only one shoe that makes a print like this one. You guessed it, a Newton (great going guys! You are all the way out here on the east coast!). We are pretty sure it is an MV2, because it has 5 actuator lugs. (Danny, Ian, Jordan, please feel free to chime in!)

Look at the top left and right images; left is running, right appears to be walking or a midfoot strike). What do you see? One foot imprint (the left) is accentuated and they are a forefoot striker. We are pretty sure this is how Newton encourages folks to run and if you have ever been in the shoe, you know it is pretty rockered and pushes you on to your toes.

Now look at the images that compare left to right. Notice how the outside of the forefoot makes a deeper impression on the left? Looks like that lateral column is sinking in the sand more. What type of forefoot type may cause this? You guessed it, a forefoot varus!. The forefoot is striking (and coming off the ground) in more supination on the left than the right.

Anything else? what about that right foot in the top right image? More printing on the medial aspect. Hmmm, maybe some increased forefoot pronation or possibly some forefoot valgus.

You could argue that due to the slop on the beach, we may be seeing this…and that would be a good argument, except that these are on the flats and repeat for many cycles.

Yup, we probably should be looking at all stuff north of the feet on the beach, but hey, we ARE geeks and “feet” are our thing.

The Gait Guys. Yes, we are always watching!…Even at the beach!

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