My Gait Analysis

I like to think of myself as an active person. Always going and doing something physical. Digging, cutting, lifting, carrying, pounding, grinding, building, destroying, wrenching, sanding, mowing, pushing or pulling. I love it all. It never ends as long as there is daylight. “NO TV when there is daylight” is my motto.

However, as the aches and pains of age increase my productivity has declined. I hate that. Always a stiff, in a muscular sense, my range of motion has decreased as the late 50’s hit. Sore shoulders, stiff back and tight hammys – that’s me. Lately, some chronic pain in the left groin area where the thigh muscles attach has risen to the forefront. It comes for a day or two then goes away for a week, then it is back. Anything brings it on from running the treadmill to getting up from a chair. This has been my saga for the last 6 months.

Mosaicmom got sick and tired of me chirping every time I bent over, so she was kind enough to get me an appointment to go see Chuck Wolf. Chuck is a sports science and human performance expert who works at the national triathlon center near where we live. It is a really great place where many top atheletes train. Fortunately he is happy to work with regular folks too. Chuck, one of our family heroes, really helped mosiamom get her bad knee working last year through stretching excercises he prescribed.

This visit required a 'gait analysis'. This was a process in which Chuck watched me walk at normal speed, walk fast, walk in a crouch with and without shoes. Back and forth, left, right, left, right. He watched from the front and the sides. You get the picture. This took about ten minutes. Then he wrote and wrote and wrote.

The diagnosis: my feet are flat, my ankles do not flex enough, my calfs are tight as steel and my hips and butt don’t move correctly and my shoulders are very dominate. All of this muscular infighting is leading to my pain as my bode struggles to compensate. Eventually things will get worse. GOOD GREIF – how can he tell all of that from just watching me walk? No way. Besides, I have been getting around pretty good for several years.

Then I remembered some golf lessons a few years back. I just knew that the pro couldn’t really see what was happening in my golf swing, it being so fast, so how could he help me? However, he suggested little twiks in my swing and when I took his advice it worked and the ball flew as never before. Just the smallest change made all the difference. Maybe this is the same sort or situation. I had no choice but to here him out.

So what do did Chuck prescribe for me? Will I do it? Will it work? Will I become more productive? Can I be cured? Stay tuned…