Visit our blog www.thegaitguys.tumblr.com " Just because the shoe fits, doesn't mean you should wear it ! " - The Gait Guys The LEFT foot is drastically supinating displaying a lateral weight bearing shift all the way through toe off. This case also draws clinical inquiry into whether there is weakness of the ankle and forefoot everting muscles namely the peronei and extensor digitorum longus and brevis. * This the topic of the video we are producing because these muscles have huge implications in the cross over gait (which we have senselessly beat you all with in previous blog posts) at the lower end of the limb. We have lots more to say about this on our April 5th blog post. www.thegaitguys.tumblr.com ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu746QhLAvg

Shawn and Ivo are back, talking about muscles, neurology, facilitation, balance and the core. Excerpted from our soon to be released Performance Concepts and Training Theories Video. please be sure to check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter: The Gait Guys and visit our blog: thegaitguys.tumblr.com ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT2OamPZzz8

Have stability problems in your ankles ? Lots of people do ! Here is a brief video of a simple, but difficult, functional exercise to strengthen the peroneal muscles in full plantar flexion (we will give more detailed tricks and techniques away on the Foot-Ankle DVD exercise series, once we get some time to get to it !). The key here is to not let the heel drop during single fore-foot loading and to keep the ankle pressing inwards as if to try and touch the ankles together medially .....if you feel the heel drop on the single foot loaded side (or you can feel the calf is weaker or if you feel strain to keep the inward press of the ankle) then it might be more than the peronei, it could be the combined peroneal-gastrocsoleus complex. The key to the assessment and home work is to make sure that the heel always stays in "top-end" heel rise plantarflexion. But you have to strongly consider the peronei just as seriously. Studies show that even single event sprains let alone chronic ankle sprains create serious incompetence of the peronei. Most people do not notice this because they never assess the ability to hold the foot in full heel rise (plantarflexion) while creating a valgus load (created by the peronei mostly, a less amount from the lateral calf) at the ankle. This is why repetitive sprains occur. The true key to recovery is to be able to walk on the foot in this heel-up "top-end" position while in ankle eversion (ankles squeezed together) as you see in this video. This is something we do with all of our basketball and jumping sports athletes and it is critical in our dancers of all kinds. And if they cannot do the walking skill or if they feel weakness then we keep it static and put a densely rolled towel or a small air filled ball between the ankles and have them do slow calf raises and descents while squeezing the towel-ball with all their ability. This will create a nice burn in the peroneal muscles after just a few repetitions. The user will also quickly become acutely aware of their old tendency to roll to the outside of the foot and ankle because of this lack of awareness and strength of those laterally placed ankle evertors - the peronei. It is critical to note that If you return to the ground from a jump and cannot FIRST load the forefoot squarely and then, and only then, control the rate of ankle inversion and neutral heel drop (ankle dorsiflexion) then you should not be shocked at chronic repetitive ankle sprains. Remember, the metatarsals and toes are shorter as we move away from the big toe, so there is already a huge risk and tendency to roll to the outside of the foot through ankle inversion. Hence why ankle sprains are so common. We call this "top end" peroneal strength but for it to be effectively implemented one must hav ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T9UzOaYxmo

Neuromechanics weekly: proprioceptive clues in Children's Gait. We can learn a lot about gait from watching our children walk. An immature nervous system is very similar to one which is compensating meaning cheating around a more proper and desirable movement pattern; we often resort to a more primitive state when challenges beyond our ability are presented. This is very common when we lose some aspect of proprioception, particularly from some peripheral joint or muscle, which in turn, leads to a loss of cerebellar input (and thus cerebellar function). Remember, the cerebellum is a temporal pattern generating center so a loss of cerebellar sensory input leads to poor pattern generation output. Watch this clip several times and then try and note each of the following: wide based gait; this is because proprioception is still developing (joint and muscle mechanoreceptors and of course, the spino cerebellar pathways and motor cortex) increased progression angle of the feet: this again is to try and retain stability. External rotation allows them to access a greater portion of the glute max and the frontal plane (engaging an additional plane is always more stable). shortened step length; this keeps the center of gravity close to the body and makes corrections for errors that much easier (remember our myelopathy case from last week ? LINK. This immature DEVELOPING system is very much like a mature system that is REGRESSING. This is a paramount learning point !) decreased speed of movement; this allows more time to process proprioceptive clues, creating accuracy of motion Remember that Crosby, Still, Nash and young song "Teach Your Children"? It is more like, "teach your parents"... Proprioceptive clues are an important aspect of gait analysis, in both the young and old, especially since we tend to revert back to an earlier phase of development when we have an injury or dysfunction. Make sure to check out more info like this on our blog: http://thegaitguys.tumblr.com ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N7k2MkFdcI