The knee follows the arch/ankle.

*in the video, watch the left knee
Hopefully this video and post will make you think deeper about patellofemoral tracking, runners knee, meniscal issues and anterior knee pain syndromes as a whole.

This is subtle, but in this case, this is relevant to the LEFT knee complaints of this client.
When the foot complex is a little weak, the arch can collapse more than it should, rendering too much pronation, this means the talus will adduct, plantarflex and medially rotate more than it should. Since the tibia sits on top of this talus it must follow. This will allow more internal tibia spin (medial rotation) and this will drag the knee medially (it appears in the video to be a valgus load but it is more internal/medial rotation than valgus).
So, what the foot-ankle complex does, the knee follows. Conversely, when the knee moves medially or valgus because of a hip weakness (poor external rotation control) the foot will move medially.
So, are you going to "fix" this with an orthotic ? A stability shoe? Or are you going to actually help the client gain better control ?
You can see that our "raise the toes, to raise the arch" helps the client find the more appropriate arch posture with the help of more anterior compartment engagement and windlass effect at the 1st MPT-hallux joint. This is where our reteaching of the component parts via "motor chunking" via the Shuffle Walk (see our youtube channel) can help them control the rate and amount of arch "collapse" and thus control the rate of medial knee spin.
i say it on our podcast all the time, the knee is a simple sagittal hinge joint between 2 multiaxial joints. It is often a follower, not a leader.
Or you can bandaid this client with an expensive orthotic and never fix their problem. This keeps them coming back over and over for symptom management. It is a good business model (insert sarcasm), but helping this client learn and remedy their deficiency is a better one. Happy people talk to their friends, even strangers.

Shawn Allen, the other gait guy

#gait, #gaitproblems, #gaitanalysis, #ovepronation, #archcollapse, #valgusknee, #tibialspin, #internalhiprotation, #thegaitguys, #kneepain, #runnersknee, #patellapain, #anteriorkneepain

Why is that joint range of motion absent? Here are some thoughts.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

Is this how you think ? It is how we approach puzzles. . . .

Said client has a loss of internal hip rotation (pick any joint for that matter). . . . .

-is the loss of rotation present because they cannot get the rotation range because there is weakness of the internal rotators . . .

- or perhaps external rotators more dominant, combined with the weakness of the internal rotators

-or, is the loss there because of neuro-protective shortness/tightness because the brain feels that the said internal rotation is a vulnerable range (pain, instability), a range where it cannot protect the joint ?

-or, is it a combination of the above? (not to dismiss other processes of course, such as pelvis, knee or foot mechanical issues, OA, pain etc).

If one does not examine a client, how are they supposed to know this all important information?

*What shows up on a functional screen is merely what they are capable of doing/ recruiting/ engaging. It does not tell you why, nor narrow down the causal possibilities. Hence, driving more internal rotation range is silly, driving more strength into the internal rotator is likewise silly. And, merely adding global strength just might provide the overall presentation with more armor, a better coping strategy. Hence, strength first is not always a brilliant solution.

IF all you have is a hammer, everything is going to look like a nail, or you'll at least treat everything like a simple nail.

Why are you putting your internal hip rotation into your low back (pain).

Why are you putting your internal hip rotation into your low back (pain).

On October 12th, 2018 I wrote about utilizing the gluteals in internal hip rotation. You will have to go back and search FB for that article and video.
Assessing Internal hip rotation (in various ranges of hip flexion, extension, abduction and adduction) is a basic exam principle I examine on nearly every patient and athlete that comes to see me, regardless of their complaint. Other than breathing, walking is the next most under appreciated movement we undertake, and take for granted.
Lack of adequate internal hip rotation, in my clinical experience (20+ years), is all too often a fundamental parameter in hip, knee and low back pain. It is necessary to have unrestricted internal hip rotation during gait. Adequate internal hip rotation in the mid to late stance phases of gait is critical and is also paired with hip extension, in fact, one has to pass through adequate internal hip internal rotation to get to adequate hip extension. Without one, we do not get the other. And, if the internal rotation is not imparted in the hip when the hip is supposed to be the one internally rotation, that demand is going to move up or down, caudally or rostrally, low back or knee. Of interesting note, taking things deeper, the opposite arm is also going to go through internal rotation and extension at the same time. Impair one limb, and we can make a case, often enough, that the contralateral upper or lower limb is also challenged. This fundamental fact is one of the fascinating reasons Dr Ivo and I get so geeked out by gait and human movement. Because, it is very complicated. And if one is not looking close enough, paying enough attention with enough fundamental knowledge, things are going to get overlooked and missed when solving for "X" in a client's pain/problems/movement. Compensation will ensue, all too easily. Build strength on said compensations and we are off to the races in driving neuronal pasticity into potential asymmetries. If one is strength training a client without examining them and making specific corrections along the way, well, we reap what we sew. Ok, enough soap-boxing. -Dr. Allen
Here, don't take our word for it, . . . . .

"Correlation between Hip Rotation Range-of-Motion Impairment and Low Back Pain. A Literature Review."
Ortop Traumatol Rehabil. 2015 Oct;17(5):455-62. doi: 10.5604/15093492.1186813.
Sadeghisani M1, Manshadi FD1, Kalantari KK1, Rahimi A1, Namnik N2, Karimi MT3, Oskouei AE4.

"There is a hypothesis which suggests that a limited range of hip rotation results in compensatory lumbar spine rotation. Hence, LBP may develop as the result. This article reviews studies assessing hip rotation ROM impairment in the LBP population.

"Asymmetrical (right versus left, lead versus non-lead) and limited hip internal rotation ROM were common findings in patients with LBP. Reduced and asymmetrical total hip rotation was also observed in patients with LBP. However, none of the studies explicitly reported limited hip external rotation ROM."

CONCLUSION: "The precise assessment of hip rotation ROM, especially hip internal rotation ROM, must be included in the examination of patients with LBP symptoms."

Photo credit: courtesy of Pixabay

Is this a gluteus medius foot targeting problem in swing phase or is this a loss of internal hip rotation? Or . . . .

Is this a gluteus medius foot targeting problem in swing phase or is this a loss of internal hip rotation? Or . . . .

You have to examine your client to know what to treat, a gait analysis or a series of screens is not enough. The saying "an exercise is a test and a test is an exercise" has some sharp edges around it. A screen doesn't tell you what exercise a client necessarily needs or should be prescribed.
This stuff really does matter.
What you see is not the problem , it is their compensatory strategy in coping with a problem. When someone has a pebble in their shoe and they walk on the outside edge of their shoe to avoid the pebble the solution is not to tell them to stop walking on the outside of the shoe, the solution is the de-pebble the shoe. Corrective exercises can be a similar path to this pebble analogy. One must look deeper and beyond what we see in our clients, we merely see how they have adapted, not the problem. A Trendelenburg leaning gait is not met with a solution to prescribe a corrective exercise to correct the lean, the solution is to see why the client is reducing the compressive loading across the hip. Stop giving corrective exercises if you are not examining your client. Yes, that means you need to have hands on diagnostic skills. Sorry.

Loading the wrong pattern drives a compensation, and maybe another problem or a compensation to the compensation deeper.

Loading the pattern that is corrective, the one that solves the deficit leading to the gait you see should be your target. Corrective exercises are supposed to be corrective to the problem, not to the gait aberation you see. Without the exam to solidify proper path, corrective exercises often are directed at the things we see, not the aberation that drove what we see. Be part of your clients solution.
If you aren't examining your client, you don't know for certain what you are actually doing.

This is me, Dr. Allen, i am walking in a matter to prove my point.
Do i have a loss of right internal hip rotation (thus the externally rotated limb?). Do i have a swing leg gluteus medius weakness that is allowing me to adduct the limb rendering a mere foot targeting problem? Do i have weak peronei ? A weak glute max ? A right frontal plane drift that i am avoiding by turning my leg out so i can use my quads to help the deficient glutes better block the frontal plane drift ? I could go on an on as to possible causes.
Or do i merely have a pebble in my shoe?
Mic drop.

To give a corrective exercise you have to know what is wrong. That means you have to have the knowledge and the hands on skills to diagnose the "why". So you can prescribe the correct "how".

Shawn Allen, one of the gait guys

Internal hip rotation and low back pain.

Internal hip rotation and low back pain.

No brain surgery here if you have been on our station for the last several years. We pound home the critical importance of internal hip rotation all the time, here and in our clinic.
When the foot is on the ground, loading, the opposite leg is in swing. Part of this swing phase requires the hemipelvis on that swing side to also advance forward as well. This means that the stance phase leg will see the pelvis rotating atop of the static femoral head, this rotation is internal hip rotation. If one does not have sufficient internal hip rotation then the heel will be lifted prematurely, the foot might undergo an adductory twist (the heel moves medially into adduction which can look like the foot spinning "relatively" outward into external rotation) to name just a few (of many possible) pattern consequences. The loads can also move up into the lumbar spine, because, if the rotation is not there in the hip, or not buffered there, it either moves down into the limb or up into the pelvis and spine, or both. There are many strategies and patterns of loading responses available to the framework, it is your job to find them, source out the problem, and remedy. One must look for and understand the importance of sufficient internal hip rotation in your client, and the ramifications when it is not sufficiently present.
This study brings this principle to mind.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26751745

Treatment of internal rotation gait due to gluteus medius and minimus overactivity

Having enough stable internal hip rotation is just as important as having enough external rotation. Lack of sufficient internal rotation is a real problem during gait and in athletes. This deficit can wreak havoc on the entire kinetic chain. What doesn't occur or what doesn't get buffered in the hips plays out in the knee or in the pelvis.
Don't forget that there are many important internal hip rotators that need your clinical eye on assessment: the vastus lateralis, anterior bundle of the g.medius and g.minimus, TFL to name a few. If you have difficulties visualizing how these muscles drive internal rotation you are not looking at the model from the foot fixated on the ground, you are still seeing things from an open kinetic chain perspective. Just remember, it is even more complicated than that, we are constantly moving through cycles of stability and mobility, with all muscles crossing a joint providing cylindrical give and take (concentric-iso-eccentrical) mobility while at the same time providing adequate stability control through safe joint centration. It is a symphony of events.

Here today, these thoughts were triggered when we came across an old (1998) article on components driving internal rotation in cerebral palsy. In this case, driving too much rotation.

Treatment of internal rotation gait due to gluteus medius and minimus overactivity in cerebral palsy: anatomical rationale of a new surgical procedure and preliminary results in twelve hips.

Joseph B. Clin Anat. 1998. Treatment of internal rotation gait due to gluteus medius and minimus over-activity in cerebral palsy: anatomical rationale of a new surgical procedure and preliminary results in twelve hips.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9445093/?i=71&from=gluteal%20weakness

The glutes are in fact great internal hip rotators, too. Open your mind.

I recently got a message from a colleague questioning as to how in the world, that when the hip is in flexion, the glutes and piriformis become internal rotators.  This is again another example of lack of functional anatomy knowledge.  It took me awhile to find a picture to help explain this, but I finally found one reasonable to do so. Many readers who are stuck on this concept are just too stuck on the anatomy as presented in the image to the right, neutral stance-like.  This article today will be all about internal and external moment arms, here, this lecture will help a little, it is on glute medius internal moment arms in stance phase however, so there is little carry over but it will at least get you understanding moment arms more clearly. 

We tend to just think of the glute max as a hip stabilizer and extensor, for the most part. It also decelerates flexion in terminal swing.  The glute medius is mostly thought of as a lateral hip stabilizer and abductor, either of the femur (open chain) or of the pelvis in stance position (closed chain), meaning zero degrees or neutral plus or minus the trivial degrees of engaged hip flexion and extension used in normal gait.

No one I know consciously trains the glutes as an internal rotator, but there are many actions where we need this function, such as in crawling and many high functioning activities such as martial arts grappling and kicking for example. Gymnasts should also know that the glutes are powerful internal hip rotators.  If you are doing quadruped crawling work you also need to know this as your client approaches 90 degrees of hip flexion. No one ever seems to check this critical gluteal function, at least I see it missed all the time from my referring doctors and therapists for unresolving hip pain cases. Patients with hip pain, anterior, lateral or posterior, with lack of internal hip rotation need the glutes checked just as much as the other known internal hip rotators we all seem to know (though some still do not understand how powerful the vastus lateralis is as an internal rotator, but again, those are folks who just have not spend the time in a mental 3D space looking at functional anatomy. I live mentally in that 3D space all day long when working with patients, you should too.) Let me be more clear, the anterior bundle, the iliac bundle of the glute max, is an internal rotator in flexion, the sacral and coccyxgeal divisions are not, they are external hip rotators in flexion. The gluteus medius and minimus are internal hip rotators closing in on 90 degrees hip flexion.  Hence, you must be able to tease out these divisions in your muscle testing, one cannot just test the glutes as external rotators or extensors, you are doing a really sloppy job if that is all you are doing. Nor should someone just train the glutes as hip stabilizers, external hip rotators and extensors (which is probably 90% of the trainers and coaches out there I might assume?). IF one knows the origin and insertions (see the blue and green arrows) and moves those points towards each other in a fashion of concentric contraction (purple arrows) one should be able to easily see that this will orient the femur to spin into internal rotation in the acetabulum (follow the arc of the black arrows). The same goes for eccentric contractions, it is the same game.  If you are doing DNS and crawling work, you should know this stuff cold gang. When you close chain the hip in sitting, or are moving from tall kneeling into flexed kneeling chops, performing high knees in sprint training,  or especially in crawling and climbing type actions, you must understand the mechanisms of internal rotation creation and stabilization -- if the glutes are not present and trained and useful in flexion, you are missing a chunk of something big. Amongst many other things, your client must be capable, stable, strong and skilled in moving from supine to quadruped all in one turning-over motion to teach how to stabilize the hip in the quadruped action and then progress into crawling.  This is a reflexive action learned in the early motor developmental phase of locomotion.  So take your client back through this motor pattern if they have some of the hip problems with internal rotation, it is a small piece of the gluteal puzzle.

I am sure this will show up in someone's seminar at some point, hopefully it is in many already, it has always been in my lectures when going down the rabbit hole of all things glutes. And to be fair, I haven't been to seminars in years as I get too frustrated, so this concept may be everywhere for all I know (lets hope).  But that is something I have to get over, I am sure I still have much to learn.  

To give credit where credit is due, which we always insist upon here at The Gait Guys, this was refreshed in my mind by Greg Lehman in a Facebook post forwarded to me by the inquiring doctor.   Link here  and from the article that spurred him to discuss it, an old article I read long ago just after completing my residency, the article is by Delp et al.  It is worth your time.  Thanks Greg for bringing this back into the dialogue, it is critical base knowledge everyone should already know. 

Variation of rotation moment arms with hip flexion.  Scott L. Delp,*, William E. Hess, David S. Hungerford, Lynne C. Jones  J. of Biomechanics 32, (1999)

-Dr. Shawn Allen, the other Gait Guy

Pronating around internal hip rotation loss.

This is a remedial principle, but it is always nice to capture it on video like this. Watch this clients left foot. On initial impressions you might just say too much foot pronation, and you would be right. Some of you might say abductor-adductor twist of the foot. These are all correct. But, if we told you that this was a hip complaint client, and lack of internal hip rotation this foot action should be a simple 60Watt “light bulb moment” (translation: “epiphany”), certainly not a 100Watt moment (but for some it might be).  

This client cannot internally rotate through the hip adequately, so they have found the opposite end of the limb to internally rotate through.  They collapse through the arch/tripod, which essentially in the crudest of analogies “internally screws the limb” into the ground.  They are finding internal femur rotation through foot pronation.  Internal hip rotation is being achieved from a bottom up process if you will. Pronation through the foot complex is adduction, medial rotation and plantarflexion of the talus which will carry the tibia (and thus the femur) with it into internal rotation.  There is a problem in many clients who find that extra little bit of rotation at the hip via a foot/ankle cheat.  That problem is one of corruption of the pelvis antiphasic motion of the pelvis, they will most often dump the same hip laterally and thus drift into the frontal plane instead of achieving the antiphasic motion of the pelvis.  This will decouple the rotation of the torso in the opposite rotation of the pelvis, and thus begin the corruption of arm swing.  Want to take it another level deeper ? Ok, eat this for lunch……. asymmetrical thoracic rotation from side to side will set up. This will mean more work through scapulothoracic stabilization and cervical rotation on the side of the thoracic rotation deficit.  Still not deep enough ? Ok, evaluate their respiration symmetry.   Too many are doing respiratory work before hip rotation is clean and symmetrical, especially during gait that necessitates 1000′s of engraining steps a day.  If the hips are not clean, gait is not clean, and that means repetitive arm swing-thoracic-respiratory mechanics are not clean.

If you want to truly fix someones rooted problems, you have to be willing and able to go down the rabbit hole. 

Shawn Allen, one of the gait guys

Here is a great case from a reader.

“Hey guys, I absolutely love the show, especially as it becomes less and less over my head.

Due to your love of gait-altering absurdly thick EVA midsoles, I thought you might like to check out this Hoka incident that occurred at the Marathon des Sable across the Sahara in Morocco, a 6 day 251km event. It was posted by Ian Corless at Talk Ultra Podcast. Apparently the medial side of the midsole collapsed–on DAY 2! This guy finished the race, and as you have to carry 100% of your gear and nutrition, I guess he only had the one pair. It looks like this runner should fly out to CO or IL asap, because if he didn’t have gait issues before, he is sure to have them now.”

This brings up some scary thoughts when it comes to the amount of EVA foam and quality of foam (EVA or otherwise) being used in some shoes.  "The more foam there exists, the greater one can break down into their compensation or deforming strategy.“ What do we mean by this ?  Well, two things should be on one’s mind:  1. all foam breaks down into the vector of the deforming forces and 2. most of us do not have perfectly clean biomechanics, thus an abnormal loading vector is most likely present. These aberrant biomechanics are eventually reflected into our shoes as a "wear pattern”.  In this case, the EVA foam had progressively broken down into their rearfoot pronation (and likely mid and forefoot pronation). In this case, even if the person had enough tibialis posterior and other medial pronation-decelerating structure strength at the start, the acceleration of their foot into this issue is now even more abrupt, brisk, excessive etc.  A new pair of shoes would not be broken down into this deformity and so a newer pair of shoes is preventive. This is why we recommend new shoes often, and the cycling in of another pair (or several pair) into the mix so that one is never driving the same shoes into the potentially destructive compensation patterns that most of us  have.  At least with a fresh pair of shoes brought into the mix at the 200 mile wear point, you would only be in the more destructive shoes every other run, giving the body time to recuperate more. 

As for this pair of shoes, this runner either has a terrible right foot problem or this was a brutally flawed right shoe from the get go, or both. We can only imaging how painful the medial knee might be at this point.  Furthermore, imagine the abrupt nature of the hip internal rotation mechanics ! IF they do not have hip labrum impingement yet, they will soon !  And with that amount of internal limb spin, can you imagine how inhibited the glutes would be from constantly having to eccentrically control that excessive rotation? 

As a whole, are not huge fans of the HOKA shoe family, we just cannot fathom the need for this much foam under the feet. If you have been with us long enough you will have heard on our podcast and blog talk about increased impact forces with increasing EVA foam thickness (want that info, here is the link and references). Just because some EVA foam is good, doesn’t mean more is better.  Remember, to propulse off of a foam infrastructure you must bottom out/compress the foam sufficiently to find a firmness to propulse from. The Hoka’s have plenty of foam making this our concern, and we are not picking on just them. There are other companies doing this “super sizing/super stacking” such as Brooks, Altra, and New Balance to name just a few.  Sure they have added a greater forefoot rocker/toe spring on the front of the shoe to help (they have to because the foam thickness is so great that there is no flexing of the forefoot of the shoes), but is it enough for you? Remember, every biomechanical phase of the gait cycle is necessary and timely to engage the natural joint, ligament, muscle components of joint loading, mobility, stability and movement. If you spend too much time in one phase (perhaps because you are waiting for foam to decompress) you may wait a moment too long and miss the opportunity for another critical phase to begin in the sequence.  This is the root cause of many injuries, aberrant biomechanics leading to aberrant mobility or stability. 

So remember these few things:

1. more is not always better for you, it may be for some, but maybe not you.

2. there is a price to pay somewhere in the mechanical system, after all the body is a contained system. What doesn’t happen at one joint often has to be made up at the next proximal or distal joint.

3. Everyone has some aberrant mechanics. No one is perfect. These imperfections will reflect in your shoes, and the longer you are in a pair of shoes the deeper the aberrant mechanics will be reflected in your shoe, thus acting as a steering wheel for the aberrant pattern (the steering is more direct/ more aggressive than in a new pair of shoes). So keep at least 2 pair of shoes rotating in your run cycle, one newer and one half done. We even recommend 3 pairs often.  Trust us, the sudden biomechanical shift from a dead shoe into a new one (even though it is a clean new shoe without bad patterns in it) is still a biomechanical shift and could cause adaptive phase problems, pain or injury.

Lots to consider in this game. It is not just about dropping into barefoot and taking off down your street. Not if you want to be doing this for a long time and stay healthy.

Shawn and Ivo, the gait guys

* next day follow up from our social media pages:

Along the lines of EVA and yesterdays post: 

“Wear of the EVA consistently increased heel pad stresses, and reduced EVA thickness was the most influential factor, e.g., for a 50% reduction in thickness, peak heel pad stress increased by 19%. ”

This study looks at a model; it would be interesting to see this study with a large cohort.

Biomed Mater Eng. 2006;16(5):289-99.

Role of EVA viscoelastic properties in the protective performance of a sport shoe: computational studies.

Even-Tzur N1, Weisz E, Hirsch-Falk Y, Gefen A.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17075164

Ankle Dorsiflexion: Even in sprinters who land on the forefoot often heel strike, a retrograde strike if you will.

Many people think of heel strike followed by midfoot/tripod contact phase followed by ankle dorsiflexion, aka ankle rocker.  Heel strike is normal in the walking gait cycle. In some runners, depending on foot type, strength, flexibilty and several other factors, heel strike may be considered normal and may be essential for normal injury free mechanics. However, in recent years we tend to see the media and research investigate a midfoot or forefoot strike pattern. If you have been here with us on TGG for a year or 2-3 you will know we are big advocates of a midfoot strike pattern for several reasons which we will not go into again in this article. (Feel free to SEARCH our blog for MIDFOOT strike articles).  

However, one rarely sees anyone or any source talking about the retrograde heel contact when forefoot strike patterns are used.  Here, in this video, you can see several of these top level athletes who are trying to go forward at top end speed, but who are tapping the heel down on many loading responses. This can be thought of as a retrograde movement and could in a biomechanical way of thinking be considered non-productive. In other words, they are trying to move forward and yet the heel is touching down which is a backwards movement. This point can be argued but that is not the point of this article. The point that we are trying to make is that in order to drop the heel down, and especially if the heel touches, that the runner had better have sufficient ankle rocker/dorsifleixon otherwise the arch may be asked to collapse via excessive pronation (to perform the heel tap) which will drive an internal spin movement when the leg is supposed to be externally rotating to a rigid supinated foot for propulsive toe off. This negative scenario is a huge power leak for a sprinter, or any runner for that matter when they are ramping up speed.  

So, why does this happen ?  Well, for some it can help to load the posterior mechanism, the gastrocsoleus-achilles complex for conservation and power conversion.  It also enables more hip extension and thus more gluteal function. Longer stride means more efficient and greater arm swing which is a huge accessory power source for a sprinter. This also lengthens the stride, they feed off of each other. There are many benefits, if you have sufficient ankle rocker range in the ankle to begin with.  In some runners who do not have the requisite ankle rocker range, you may often see the increased foot progression angle and external limb spin and/or the dreaded adductor twist of the heel (aka  abductory twist of the foot).  These are strategies to get more hip extension and more gluteal function without finding it via the ankle dorsiflexion, where you want to see it.  Remember, the body is a brilliant compensatory and substituter. If the body cannot find a range at one joint it will find it at the next proximal or distal joint. And when that loss is at the ankle, motor patterns options dictate you either find it at foot pronation or hip extension.

Maybe, just maybe we should have called this blog article “Can you hold the foot tripod all the way through the stance phase, even through retrograde heel touch down ? If you cannot, trouble could be on the horizon. ”  But that is a really dumb title.  

Shawn and Ivo

the gait guys

Podcast 47: The Thigh Gap & Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome

Podcast 47 is live !

Topics: Lots of cool stuff for your ears and brains today. Don’t miss this show on Allen’s Rule Part 2, ankle biosensors, Parkinson’s syndrome gait disorder, Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, The Thigh Gap disorder, and the ever confusing and much debated Abductory Heel Twist in walking and in runners. Don’t miss this show !

A. Link to our server:

http://thegaitguys.libsyn.com/podcast-47-the-thigh-gap-medial-tibial-stress-syndrome

B. iTunes link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-gait-guys-podcast/id559864138

C. Gait Guys online /download store (National Shoe Fit Certification and more !) :

http://store.payloadz.com/results/results.aspx?m=80204

D. other web based Gait Guys lectures:

www.onlinece.com   type in Dr. Waerlop or Dr. Allen,  ”Biomechanics”

________________________________________

* Today’s show notes:

Neuroscience piece

1. Update on Allen’s Rule blog post:

http://thegaitguys.tumblr.com/post/68094426145/allens-rule-is-this-why-the-kenyans-are-better

2. Could a simple ankle sensor help with parkinsons symptoms ?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=could-a-simple-ankle-sensor-help-with-parkinsons-symptoms

3. Probiotics Boost Running Performance in Heat

http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-for-runners/probiotics-boost-running-performance-in-heat

4. http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/11/26/thalmic-labs-gearing-ship-first-myo-gesture-control-armbands-weeks/

5 Gait Factoid:  the foot abductory twist

6.  Note from melissa on her 9 month leg pain.

Disclaimer 

7 . National Shoe Fit Program

8 . medial tibial stress syndrome

http://lowerextremityreview.com/cover_story/medial-shin-pain-in-runners-evidence-for-orthosis-use

9. from a blog reader:

The thigh-gap obsession is not new but it’s the most extreme body fixation yet

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/nov/04/thigh-gap-obsession-most-extreme

The Solitary Turned out Right foot in a Barefoot Runner: Part 2

Here is a perfect example why we sometimes cringe when someone comes into our office with pain or problems and wearing minimalist shoes or worse yet, claims to be a barefoot runner.  This is a perfect example of a client, whether they are in your shoe store or in a medical office, that needs to be convinced to remain in their more stable trainers until the problem is unwound. 

In this video it is plain for anyone to see that the right foot/lower limb is clearly externally rotated and pronating excessively when compared to the left side.  This could be from weakness of the gluteus medius, loss of internal rotation or one of several other biomechanical flaws (be sure to review Dec 15th blog post on these topics ). However, it could also be anatomic.  This could be from external tibial torsion or a torsion at the femur.  Regardless, it is likely creating a functional short leg on the right because when we pronate heavily like this, the height of the talus and arch drops further than normal, and in this case further than the other side.  However, one could argue the opposite, meaning that this person is pronating heavily on the right to shorten that leg to be equal to an already shorter left leg. In order to know, and not guess, you have to assess your client.  As indicated above, the internal limb spinning pronation could be a compensation to gain more entire limb internal rotation from a loss of hip rotation. Yes, there could be many causes. In this latter case, prescribing an orthotic to dampen this pronatory excess would be a mistake for the hip even though it would be a logical intervention at the foot level.  Our direction would be to find the cause of the right limb turn out and hyperpronation.  Video gait analysis and guessing will not get you there.  You have to assess your clients neuromuscular ability and deficits.  If one were to bet on impaired internal hip rotation, a fairly high probability bet, then how many internal rotators of the lower limb can you name immediately without looking them up ? You will need this info at the tips of your fingers in an exam if you are going to prove or disprove the internal hip rotation theory.  Here are a few to get you started:

• vastus lateralis
• TFL-ITB
• anterior head of gluteus medius
• reflected head of rectus femoris
• adductor brevis
• coccygeal division of gluteus maximus
• how many others can you name and accurately test so that you are not guessing when it comes time to assess your client ?

Welcome to the complex game we play every day with our athletes and “every day Joe’s”. It is a brain knocking game, and  you have to juggle many factors while sorting it out. ! Tomorrow we will talk a little about possible problems of Functional Screens and how they can be used to help assess, but also how they can fool you.

Have a good Monday gang….. and watch for the rampant spreading plague of the turned out foot.  It is nationwide already !

Shawn and Ivo, The Gait Guys

Hip rotation and knee pain. What we have been saying.

We have been pounding the floor on this topic on and off for the last 6 months it seems.  Lack of internal hip rotation or too much internal hip rotation ……. both abnormal hip kinematics, is a result of reduced hip-muscle performance as opposed to structural issues of the hip (anteversion, retroversion etc).

If you are not assessing for impaired hip muscle function in your knee patients, you could be missing the boat …….. and it is a big boat…… Titanic in size.

Don’t be like so many others and be tunnel visioned when you have a knee patient, expand your vision, at least to the hip and foot. 

We are……. The Gait Guys……. Shawn and Ivo

________________________________________________________________________________

Am J Sports Med. 2009 Mar;37(3):579-87. Epub 2008 Dec 19.

Predictors of hip internal rotation during running: an evaluation of hip strength and femoral structure in women with and without patellofemoral pain.

Souza RB, Powers CM.

Musculoskeletal and Quantitative Imaging Research Laboratory, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.

A brief note on internal hip rotation from a cyclists perspective.

Today is Stage 14 in the Tour De France. We are big fans and we treat tons of Triathletes. So, it seemed perfect to do a little bike fit and mechanics today.

On the subject of cyclists, we have noted many have these 3 anatomical traits: femoral retoversion (see recent blog posts this week), tibial varum, forefoot varus. If you look at these closely, they all tend to supinate the foot foot more and make it a better lever. These folks are way better cyclists than runners.

With a FF varus, they often compensate on the down stroke to make the foot flat on the pedal (to use the 1st MTP); if they are retroverted, they have limited hip internal rotation to begin with and now you are asking them to internally rotate more, which leads to hip pain and at times, labral injuries.

Look at the attached clip, R leg; note how it comes closer to the center bar and the position of the knee; also look at the forefoot.

Yup…The Gait Guys…We do bikes too!

The Hip: Part 4....Putting it all together.

Correlating various foot problems to hip function and limitations. This is something we have been shouting about for years now.

One of the very first things we do after watching one’s gait on any patient visit is to have them supine on the table and check passive external and internal hip rotation (IR) ranges. At this time paying particular attention to the topic of INTERNAL HIP ROTATION, we do this particularly with the limb straight (lying flat on the table) to mimic what the range might be with them standing in midstance phase of gait/running (ie. the pelvis and body mass directly over the foot). We do this supine because checking IR in variations of hip flexion does not make much sense when it comes to gait pathology. We compare the ranges left and right. They should be symmetrical and sufficient. According to Michaud’s work, 4-6 internal rotation degrees is necessary, 45 is normal.
As we move through midstance the stance limb is converting from external hip rotation to internal rotation as the contralateral hemipelvis transitions forward during that leg’s swing phase. A major key for normal biomechanics moving downwards through the kinetic chain is that sufficient hip internal rotation is present. If there is a deficit functionally (and sometimes that is different from what the books say is necessary), the internal rotation has to occur somewhere. Quite frequently it occurs through more aggressive and faster internal tibial rotation which will challenge the amount of foot pronation that occurs (it usually causes more). [* please keep in mind if your solution for this local increased pronation at the foot is an orthotic to block the excess motion keep in mind that the body now has to find another place to put this internal spin and sadly it quite often has to go back to the hip and this can cause the hip labral problems that we have talked about all week. *Now you see why we set the week up this way preempting this discussion with the pathologies.]

Continuing our thoughts a bit further, if internal hip rotation is not sufficient as the body moves over the limb then the next succession, hip extension, is going to be compromised. This sets up a whole cascade of problems. here we go with some (but not all) …….

• If you cannot get sufficient internal hip rotation you have to ask for it from tibial spin and thus possible increased pronation and arch collapse…..this could lead to a plethora of foot and ankle pathologies such as plantar fascitis, metatarsal pain syndromes, tendonopathies etc etc.
• lack of subsequent hip extension will cause weakness of the gluteals, which will further compromise hip stability but also hip propulsion. This can cause a compensatory challenge to the calf muscles to do more in the department of forward propulsion which often has complications. Furthermore, if the calf becomes more dominant than it should, and we thus lose the relationship symmetry between the calf and the anterior compartment of the lower leg, then ankle rocker will be impaired. And loss of ankle rocker (dorsiflexion) has a whole host of pathologies that go with it (see numerous prior postings on this blog).
• if the glutes are compromised then the glute-abdominal relationship is challenged and thus pelvic stability problems can occur. This disrupted relationship can allow anterior pelvic posturing which usually is accompanied by lower abdominal weakness. And you should know that the lower abdominals are the anchor for internal hip rotation (review the postings earlier this week).

And so …. if you follow this whole lineage, you will see a completion of a vicious cycle. So now, the entire gait pattern is disrupted. From internal hip rotation, to hip extension, to glute mediation, to pelvic instability, to impaired limb spin, to impaired pronation-supination cycle and thus …… gait pathology. And in time, but hopefully not, hip labral and knee meniscal pathologies to go with the gait pathology.

Remember what they always say…….. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.

But here at The Gait Guys, we like to say……..FORM FOLLOWS DYSFUNCTION.

we ain’t no Gait Fools !