Gait refers to the pattern of how a person walks, including the timing, coordination, and mechanics of each step, from initial contact through push-off and swing.
What your gait involves and why it matters for pain
Walking looks simple, but your gait is a complex sequence of coordinated movements involving your feet, ankles, knees, hips, pelvis, and spine — all working in a specific rhythm. Each phase of the gait cycle loads different structures in a predictable way, and when something in that sequence is off — a stiff ankle, a weak hip, an old injury that changed how you land — other parts of the body pick up the slack. Over time, those compensations create overloading patterns that contribute to pain well away from the original problem. Knee pain, hip pain, low back pain, and plantar fasciitis all commonly involve gait mechanics as a contributing or sustaining factor, even when the initial cause was something else entirely.
How Sword Health can help
A physical therapist can observe and analyze your gait, identify where mechanical breakdowns are occurring, and use targeted exercise to correct them. Sword makes that assessment and the follow-through work available from home, with a clinical specialist guiding you through what to change and why.
About the author
Carolina Moreira
Medical Director of Clinical Development at Sword Health
