Gait

A lot of people talk about their gait and you will find lots of runners who are more than happy to tell you all about it. Whether they over pronate, wear orthotics, need lots of pairs of trainers to make sure they keep their gait in check etc., but what actually is gait.

The definition of gait ‘a person’s manner of walking, stepping or running’. 

So in simple terms it is how we walk or run, each and everyone has our own gait and this can be determined by numerous factors, from genetics, age, sex, weight (and diet), posture – if the body suffers a trauma it can affect gait, poor fitting footwear, carrying a phone or wallet in your back pocket can even affect your gait so it is important to make sure your gait is in fitting with your lifestyle.

Gait Cycle

To understand gait a little more we need to understand the gait cycle, the gait cycle is the cycle of movement through a typical walking motion and primarily consists of two main phases, the swing phase, and the stance phase. 

The initial part of the walking motion is normally seen as the stance phase and can be broken down into several parts, the initial part being as the heel strikes the ground (heel strike). Then as we then move forward through the action this foot takes the weight of the body (weight acceptance) which gradually transfers forward through the midfoot (mid stance), the ball of the foot (late stance). 

At this point, the other leg is going through the swing phase.

As the foot rolls onto the toes (toe-off position) the other leg will be in contact with the ground so both limbs will be in contact.

As the toes leave the ground this leg has entered the swing position where it goes through the early swing, the mid swing where it passes the midline of the body and then finally into the late swing which is just before the heel then contacts the ground (back to heel strike).

The diagram below is taken from James Earls, Born to Walk which shows the cycle as described above.

See the below video of me walking – if you play it in very slow speed you will be able to identify the different stages of the gait cycle. (One day there will be more videos on You Tube for you to subscribe too – but not yet 😉 )

So why is gait important?

As humans we are born to move and the human body is an amazing piece of engineering that is designed to work at an optimum to get the most efficiency out of it. A symmetrical stance, even weight distribution of the head down through the body, into the pelvis and then evenly distributed through the legs into the ground makes for efficient use of the energy we have.

However, if for any reason the body is slightly out of line then the efficiency is reduced and this in turn can lead to issues, they may be minor and not affect your everyday life or over time these minor issues become more pronounced and you find you start getting back pain, foot issues, headaches, balance issues to name but a few.

How many of us had a paper round when we were younger? Carrying those Sunday Times with what felt like about 50 different supplements that you had to post through the door one by one because the thickness of them didn’t want to fit through the smallest letterbox (that had unusually strong spring mechanisms or snapping dog on the other side) – we carried them on our teenage shoulders every day, what was that doing to our posture – not sure there was an even distribution of weight in this instance.

Or even a more modern phenomenon, phones in our back pocket – not exactly heavy but the continued twisting and turning getting it out, again a potential postural nightmare.

So as you can see modern life is good (ish) but there are lots of things that affect our posture and gait now that perhaps were not as obvious back when we were simple hunters and gatherers, barefooted chasing our dinner!

So now you know what gait is and why it is important we can then go on to look at Gait Analysis? However, I will leave this for another blog coming soon.

Thanks for reading – Please like and follow my Facebook Page (@kinisiuk) and follow me on Instagram  (@kinisi_uk).

Paul

Important Note !

Before I go into gait analysis I want to make a point that although I feel gait is important it is not the end of the world if you don’t have the ‘perfect’ gait. Lots of sporting superstars manage perfectly well with variations in gait and in some cases achieved because of their ‘imperfect’ techniques.

Everybody is unique and there is never a one size fits all solution to anything – some things work well for one person and not for another, so find what works for you and not what you have been told works for you.