Tag: gait analysis

Arm swing asymmetry: It can be a huge window of education into your client.

Arm swing asymmetry: It can be a huge window of education into your client, if you can get past the dumb stuff we’ve all done (and believed) for decades.
I have beaten you down with arm swing principles over the past few years, sorry about that, but, the beating will continue because it is important to know what arm swing tells you, and what it does not tell you (hint hint for all those improperly coaching arm swing changes). We did an entire tele seminar on the Stage 1 principles of of arm swing (#218) on www.onlinece.com and www.chirocredit.com if you wish to take that archived lecture. Heck $19, how can you lose (see photo).  Arm swing is intimately dependent upon scapular stability, thoracic mobility, breathing, cervical spine function, pelvis stability and clearly ipsilateral and contralateral leg swing not to forget to mention spinal stability. The first signs of spine pain or instability and the counter rotation of the shoulder and pelvic girdles become more phasic, instead of their normal anti phasic nature (moving in opposite directions). This phasic nature reduces spinal shear loads.

Neurologic diseases in their early, middle and late phases can give us a clearer window into how the nervous system is tied together.
Arm swing asymmetry during gait may be a sensitive sign for early Parkinson’s disease.

Here is what this Plate et al study found :
-Arm swing amplitude as well as arm swing asymmetry varied considerably in the healthy subjects.
-Elderly subjects swung their arms more than younger participants. -Only the more demanding mental load caused a significant asymmetry
-In the patient group, asymmetry was considerably higher and even more enhanced by mental loads.
-Evaluation of arm swing asymmetry may be used as part of a test battery for early Parkinson’s disease.

Some facts you should consider:
Parkinson’s Disease will be well advanced before the first signs of motor compromise occurs. So early detection and suspicion should be acted upon early when possible. Reductions or changes in arm swing may be the first signs of neuralgic disease expression and progression. Dual tasking may bring out neurologic signs early, so talk to your clients or have them count backwards to distract the motor programs. Look for one sided arm swing impairment, and when present, be sure to examine all limbs, especially the lower limbs, for impaired function. After all, the arms are like balasts, they can help with postural stability simply by abducting or modifying their swing.  Arm swing changes can include:
– crossing over the body
– more forward sagittal swing and less posterior swing
– more posterior sagittal swing and less anterior swing
– shoulder abduction during swing (and with attributes of the prior two mentioned above)
– less swing with adduction stabilized with torso
– modified through accentuations or dampening of shoulder girdle rotation oscillations, thus less arm swing but more torso swing to protect the glenohumeral and other joints
– and others of course

Arm swing and arm swing symmetry matter. Don’t be a dunce and just train it out or tell your client to do things to change it before you identify the “why” behind it. If it were that simple Ivo and I would have long grown tails and begun eating more bananas. Or maybe we would have already moved to the islands by now. That was random wasn’t it. That’s what Jimmy Buffett said.

“Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin’s
And drinks his green label each day
He’s writing his memoirs and losing his hearing
But he don’t care what most people say.
Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion
If he likes you he’ll smile then he’ll say
Jimmy, some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic
But I had a good life all the way.
And he went to Paris looking for answers
To questions that bother him so.”  -Jimmy Buffett

Hope this helps, now back to that rum.
-Shawn Allen

Gait Posture. 2015 Jan;41(1):13-8. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.07.011. Epub 2014 Aug 8.
Normative data for arm swing asymmetry: how (a)symmetrical are we?  Plate A1, Sedunko D2, Pelykh O3, Schlick C4, Ilmberger JR5, Bötzel K6.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25442669

Loss of medial tripod

It is Rewind Friday.
Today, we are reaching back to a brief 2009 lecture I did for the local NSCA chapter on the patterns of kinetic chain compensation that match with loss of medial and lateral foot tripod. (video starts at 49 seconds, for some reason)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeCBGZkNaeM

Loss of medial tripod

Leg length discrepancies and total joint replacments.

5mm cut off ?  MaybeYou are likely to come across hip and knee arthroplasty clients (total joint replacements). When they take a joint out and replace it with a new one, it can be a true challenge to restore leg lengths to equality side to side. Problems often arise down the road once gait is resumed and rehabilitation is completed. It can take time for the leg length discrepancy (LLD) to begin to create compensatory problems. This article seems to suggest that 5mm is the tipping point where gait changes becoming a problem are founded. Other sources will render different numbers, this article found 5mm. The authors found that both over- and underrestoration of leg length/offset showed similar effects on gait and that Gait analysis was able to assess restoration of biomechanics after hip replacement.  I would chose to use the word “change” over restore, since the gait analysis is merely showing the deployed strategies and compensations, never the problem.  But it is a tool, and gait analysis can be a decent tool to show “change”.*Remember, it is not always a product of true length, it can come from the pelvis posturing and/or from the acetabular orrientation, which can be a postoperative sequella. One cannot over look  acetabular inclination, anteversion and femoral component anteversion/retroversion issues.Just remember, before you start making LLD changes with inserts, cork, orthotics etc be sure that you have restored as best as possible, pelvis-hip-spine mechanics because changes here can reflect as a mere leg length discrepancy. And it goes the other way as well, a LLD can cause those changes above.

* Just use your brain and don’t just lift the heel, give them a full sole lift. Heel lifts for this problem are newbie mistakes. Don’t be a newbie.

– Dr. Shawn Allen

Leg length and offset differences above 5 mm after total hip arthroplasty are associated with altered gait kinematicsTobias Renkawitz, Tim Weber, Silvia Dullien, Michael Woerner, Sebastian Dendorfer, Joachim Grifka,Markus Weber
http://www.gaitposture.com/article/S0966-6362(16)30148-5/abstract?platform=hootsuite

Forefoot strike running: Do you have enough calf muscle endurance to do it without a cost ?

Below you will find an article on footwear and running. Rice et al concluded that 

“ When running in a standard shoe, peak resultant and component instantaneous loadrates were similar between footstrike patterns. However, loadrates were lower when running in minimal shoes with a FFS (forefoot strike), compared with running in standard shoes with either foot strike. Therefore, it appears that footwear alters the loadrates during running, even with similar foot strike patterns.

They concluded that footwear alters the load rates during running. No brain surgery here. But that is not the point I want to discuss today. Foot strike matters. Shoes matter. And pairing the foot type and your strike patterns of mental choice, or out of natural choice, is critical. For example, you are not likely (hopefully) to choose a HOKA shoe if you are a forefoot striker. The problem is, novice runners are not likely to have a clue about this, especially if they are fashonistas about their reasoning behind shoe purchases. Most serious runners do not care about the look/color of the shoe. This is serious business to them and they know it is just a 2-3 months in the shoe, depending on their mileage. But, pairing the foot type, foot strike pattern and shoe anatomy is a bit of a science and an art. I will just mention our National Shoe Fit Certification program here if you want to get deeper into that science and art. (Beware, this is not a course for the feint of heart.)

However, I just wanted to approach a theoretical topic today, playing off of the “Forefoot strike” methodology mentioned in the article today.  I see this often in my practice, I know Ivo does as well. The issue can be one of insufficient endurance and top end strength (top end ankle plantar flexion) of the posterior mechanism, the gastrocsoleus-achilles complex. If your calf complex starts to fatigue and you are forefoot striker, the heel will begin to drop, and sometimes abruptly right after forefoot load. The posterior compartment is a great spring loading mechanism and can be used effectively in many runners, the question is, if you fatigue your’s beyond what is safe and effective are you going to pay a price ? This heel drop can put a sudden unexpected and possibly excessive load into the posterior compartment and achilles. This act will move you into more relative dorsiflexion, this will also likely start abrupt loading the calf-achilles eccentrically. IF you have not trained this compartment for eccentric loads, your achilles may begin to call you out angrily. Can you control the heel decent sufficiently to use the stored energy efficiently and effectively? Or will you be a casualty?  This drop if uncontrolled or excessive may also start to cause some heel counter slippage at the back of the shoe, friction is never a good thing between skin and shoe. This may cause some insertional tendonitis or achilles proper hypertrophy or adaptive thickening. This may cause some knee extension when the knee should not be extending. This may cause some pelvis drop, a lateral foot weight bear shift and supination tendencies, some patellofemoral compression, anterior meniscofemoral compression/impingement, altered arm swing etc.  You catch my drift. Simply put, an endurance challenged posterior compartment, one that may not express its problem until the latter miles, is something to be aware of. 

Imagine being a forefoot striker and 6 miles into a run your calf starts to fatigue. That forefoot strike now becomes a potential liability. We like, when possible, a mid foot strike. This avoids heel strike, avoids the problems above, and is still a highly effective running strike pattern. Think about this, if you are a forefoot striker and yet you still feel your heel touch down each step after the forefoot load, you may be experiencing some of the things I mentioned above on a low level. And, you momentarily moved backwards when you are trying to run forwards. Why not just make a subtle change towards mid foot strike, when that heel touches down after your forefoot strike, you are essentially there anyways. Think about it.

Shawn Allen, one of The Gait Guys

Footwear Matters: Influence of Footwear and Foot Strike on Loadrates During Running. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise:
Rice, Hannah M.; Jamison, Steve T.; Davis, Irene S.

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/publishahead/Footwear_Matters___Influence_of_Footwear_and_Foot.97456.aspx

New research on Non-motorized treadmills.

Facts:

•Non-motorised treadmill locomotion creates large reductions in tibial acceleration.
•Non-motorised treadmill locomotion increases lower limb muscular activation.
•Non-motorised treadmill locomotion decreases cycle time/increases step frequency.

Keep these things in mind when you are doing a treadmill gait analysis. We have discussed over and over again of the severe and misleading information gleaned from gait analysis, that it shows strategies around problems, often not the problem at hand. But, this is yet one more factor to keep in mind when you are doing such studies, that changing the surface and how and why any given work is being performed on a given surface/device, that the information can be tainted if you do not know exactly what you are dealing with.   

Few studies are perfect, look at all of the parameters they likely should, and understand the complexity of the model they examine in their entirety. None the less, there is information to glean from most studies that help to debate, refute or clarify working concepts presently proven or unproven. This study provides some conclusions as well, that should be take in, digested and then determined where, when and if appropriate for a client.

Tibial impacts and muscle activation during walking, jogging and running when performed overground, and on motorised and non-motorised treadmills

Montgomery, Dobson, Smith & Ditroilo

http://www.gaitposture.com/article/S0966-6362(16)30116-3/abstract?platform=hootsuite

A clear cut case of Form follows Function.  Leave a deforming force long enough and the body will accommodate. 

When the lateral quadratus plantae (QP) is weak and the flexor digitorum longus pulls unopposed (relying on the QP to properly orient the long flexor pull) for too long the 4th and 5th toes and drift medially and spin inwards toward the midline of the foot (as seen in the photo). Then, as the 4th toe presses down on the fleshy pad of the 5th toe, over time the fleshy pad is pancaked and triangulated. Then, with repeated pressure a corn like hardness becomes of the tip of that triangluted tissue, it resembles a hard callus. A corn is a coalescing of the skin cells into a tighter formation, a reaction to fend off repeated pressure and friction.  Form follows prolonged function.  Shave these things down and they will come back, unless you get to the root source of the problem, which could be all the way up the chain. 

-Dr. Allen

A marathon a day, for over 120 days…..on one leg, battling cancer.

So you think you are tough ? This guy was tough. A marathon a day for over 120 days…..on one leg, battling cancer. 

Rest in Peace Terry. You are not forgotten. You made a mark on my life, thank you for that. Watching you skip on the good leg, giving your prosthetic enough time to swing through mesmerized me, the biomechanics of it all. If i look back, this was the first time I payed attention with great detail to someone’s gait. I was in awe, you moved me, your mission moved me, your heart and spirit moved me. Your life made a difference in mine, so I may help others.Dr. Allen
Today, June 28th, every year here on The Gait Guys, I remember Terry Fox. Every year I post a reminder of perhaps one of the toughest dudes who ever lived. Today , this day, 1981 Terry Fox died. I grew up in Canada. I was barely a teenager when Terry began his plight, The Marathon of Hope. 

His mission, 26 miles a day, every day, until he had crossed the expanse of Canada to raise awareness for cancer. He made it an amazing 120+ days in a row, 3339 miles, one one leg, before his cancer returned. The whole country stood cheering watching him do something no mortal man would attempt, let along with one leg, and cancer. Today we pay a tribute to this true rockstar.
Let this video move you, just in case you think you are having a rough day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgTlCTluPA

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Global body compensations in ACL deficient knees.

ALERT: Ok, this is big.
It is a huge comment on what the brain and reflexive patterns impart on posture and gait when perceived functional instability is present.
This study aimed to investigate the gait modification strategies of trunk over right stance phase in patients with right anterior cruciate ligament deficiency.
* Here is what you need to ABSOLUTLY keep in mind when you read it. The 3D capture it telling you what they are DOING to strategize, not what is WRONG or what needs CORRECTING (our mantra it seems, sorry to keep beating this concept to death). This again hits home what I have been preaching for quite some time, that arm swing (and you can translate that to trunk movements, thorax, head posture, breathing etc) should not be coached or corrected unless you are absolutely sure there are clean symmetrical lower limb biomechanics (yes, you can easily and correctly argue that you can concurrently work on all parts). IF there is something going awry in a lower limb, compensations will occur above, they have to occur. So be absolutely sure you are not making therapeutic interventions above without making therapeutic corrections below. If you are working on a shoulder/upper quarter problem and are not looking for drivers in the lower limbs or in gait, well … . . good luck making lasting effects. Other than breathing, it can be argued well that gait locomotion is our 2nd most engaged motor pattern that we have driven to subconscious levels , and compensations are abound (but not without a cost), so we can dual++ task.
If you want to dive deeper into this, search our blog and look for my articles on Anti-phasic gait. This is essentially what this study was looking at, and confirming, that there is a distortion in the NORMAL opposite phase movements (anti-phasic) of the “shoulder girdle” and “pelvic girdle” when something goes wrong in a lower limb.
– Dr. Allen

Findings from Shi et al when there was a chronic right ACL deficiency:
-trunk rotation with right shoulder trailing over the right stance phase was lower in all five motion patterns
– trunk posterior lean was higher from descending stairs to walking when the knee sagittal plane moment ended
– trunk lateral flexion to the left was higher when ascending stairs at the start of right knee coronal plane moment when descending stairs at the maximal knee coronal plane moment and when descending stairs at the end of the knee coronal plane moment
– trunk rotation with right shoulder forward was higher at the minimal knee transverse plane moment and when the knee transverse plane moment ended
– during walking, trunk rotation with right shoulder trailing was lower at other knee moments during other walking patterns

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27131179

Feature: Arterial disease and cycling – VeloNews.com

“That offseason, his symptoms worsened. Before, it might have taken 20 minutes of riding at 400 watts to feel the sensation. Now, if he rode for five minutes at 350, he’d be riding with one good leg and one numb, powerless appendage.”

Iliac artery endofibrosis is a circulatory condition affecting the legs and is sending more and more cyclists under the knife.
If you are a bike geek like i am (been watching the Tour de France since i was 15) you may take interest in this. If you are a avid bike rider or triathlete you may take interest in this.
But do not stop at the bike when you have symptoms in front of you that sound vascular. If your leg is doing numb on a long walk or run, dead or heavy during exertion, something is going on that needs evaluated. Get evaluated.

Feature: Arterial disease and cycling – VeloNews.com