I can’t turn off the therapist in me. Out in public, I can spot a splint from 100 yards away, walkers, crutches, or canes from 200 yards, and a limp from 300 yards, and that’s when I’m not even trying. I can find myself absentmindedly performing gait analysis while sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store when somebody passes by with an interesting walk. Notably, limps are by far the most common thing I see.
Leg-length discrepancies, injuries, deformities, and pain can cause limps. Pain is particularly interesting because the pain that alters gait patterns is often something that can be addressed directly. Address the pain, fix the gait.
Note that “limp science” can be quite complex and include many factors, but some forms can be addressed using simple exercises.
5 Exercises to Make Your Gait Great
The following exercises and stretches can help smooth out your gait by addressing pain and stiffness and teaching your body to move better. Keep in mind that there are no guarantees for improving limps, and if you’ve developed a pronounced one, I recommend seeking medical advice to see whether deeper causes exist, which may require more intensive investigation due to the complex nature of limps in general.
These exercises work well for my patients and me, but I suggest speaking with your medical provider to ensure that they are right for you.
1. Side-to-Side Weight Shifting
Let’s start with a gentle movement that lets you alternate weight-bearing from side to side without moving your legs. Side-to-side weight shifting allows you to practice weight-bearing without worrying about actual movement. The rhythmic weight-bearing from side to side can allow you to strengthen your hip and leg muscles individually—an on-off approach that can train you to better bear weight on both sides instead of favoring one side.
Step 1: Stand with your feet approximately hip-width apart.
Step 2: Very slowly, lean to the right until all of your weight is on your right leg and you can gently lift your left foot a few inches off the ground.
Step 3: Place your left foot back down and then slowly shift your weight onto your left foot until you can lift your right foot a few inches off the ground.
Step 4: Shifting weight to one side counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 30 repetitions.
Modifications: You can increase or decrease the amount of time you spend on each side, and you can also increase the number of times you move from side to side.
Why I Like It: This is a good, simple exercise that teaches you to bear weight asymmetrically and build a firm side-to-side rhythm. I love its simplicity, but I also love its ability to program reciprocal movement.
2. Side-to-Side Stepping
Side-to-side stepping is a progression of the side-to-side weight-bearing exercise that adds lateral stepping. This increases the need for your body to bear weight while moving, including resisting shear forces, which trains your body to normalize movement on both sides. The side-to-side movement makes it easy to gauge how one side compares to the other.
Step 1: Stand with your feet a few inches apart.
Step 2: Initiate movement by slowly stepping your right foot out away from your left foot until your feet are about hip-width apart, and slowly transition your weight onto your right foot; then, once you can lift your left foot, slowly bring it close to your right foot again.
Step 3: Repeat the movement back to the left, slowly stepping and bearing weight with your left foot and then following it with your right foot.
Step 4: Stepping to a side and bringing the other foot over counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of thirty repetitions.
Modifications: You can move your feet farther apart or closer together to make the task harder or easier. You can also speed up or slow down, but be sure to maintain proper movement mechanics. Moving too fast can introduce a pendulum effect that decreases movement efficacy.
Why I Like It: This exercise takes the dynamic side-to-side movement of the first exercise and adds a considerable balance and postural stabilization component.
3. Standing March Holds
Standing March Holds train both your balance and your hip flexors. The hold forces you into a balancing position, and the maximized hip flexion addresses potential weaknesses in your hip flexors.
Step 1: Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
Step 2: Slowly lift your right leg until all of your weight is on your left leg and your hip and knee are at approximately 90 degrees of flexion. Hold this position for a few seconds before lowering your right leg, then repeat the movement with your left leg.
Step 3: Shifting weight to one side and lifting the other leg counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 30 repetitions per side.
Modifications: To make the activity more difficult, practice lifting your legs as high as you can, bending your hips as much as you possibly can. However, only lift your legs as high as you comfortably can during this movement, taking pain and balance into account. You can also slow down how fast you lift your legs and increase hold times while standing on one leg to increase the challenge. Hold on to something if you struggle to maintain your balance.
Why I Like It: I love the increased focus on using your muscles to hold position when one foot is high off the ground, because it teaches your body to carefully control the muscles that stabilize you on one foot.
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4. Step-Ups
Step-ups convert the standing march into a weight-bearing exercise. The classic step-up is a great all-around exercise, but it also works well for smoothing gait. It works heavily on the gluteal and quadriceps muscles, and also engages hip load-bearing in both flexion and extension movements.
Step 1: Stand facing a staircase or yoga step. Step up onto the first step with your right foot, and then immediately bring your left foot up beside it.
Step 2: Step back down with your right foot, followed by your left foot—note that the foot that goes up first also goes back down first. Repeat the movement, either continuing all on one side or alternating between right and left, always placing the step-up foot back down first.
Step 3: Stepping up and then back down counts as one repetition. Try to perform three sets of 30 repetitions.
Modifications: Feel free to experiment with step speeds to suit your liking, but be sure to maintain proper form. Feel free to adjust the sets and repetitions to suit your needs.
Why I Like It: Step-ups are a powerful exercise that can do wonders for your leg and gluteal strength, while strengthening your asymmetrical stepping abilities as well. The elevation change and forward and backward movement move the exercise into two planes of movement.
5. Heel-to-Toe Stepping
This balancing exercise emphasizes postural control during narrow stepping movements. The sharpened, narrowed stance challenges your postural muscles and forces you into very precise, closely attended steps to maintain balance. This is another great exercise to teach each side of the body to perform optimally.
Step 1: Slowly step forward with your right foot and move your right foot directly in front of your left foot while bringing the heel of your right foot into contact with the toes of your left foot.
Step 2: Proceed forward with your left foot, placing the heel of your left foot directly in front of your right foot.
Step 3: Try to perform three sets of 30 steps.
Modifications: Hold your arms straight out to your sides to maximize your balance if needed. Feel free to experiment with stepping speeds, but don’t let your form break down. You only want to move as fast as you can while still maintaining your posture.
Why I Like It: Heel-to-heel toe stepping fine-tunes your balance. It trains your body to pay attention to its movement while targeting balance as well.
These exercises can help train you away from limping. I recommend that you perform them at least three times per week, but preferably five times. As I mentioned before, limping is a complex issue with many causes, and several factors can combine to produce the behavior.
Prolonged limping behavior can eventually provoke pathological compensations, which can in turn cause other problems for your body. If you have an undiagnosed limp, especially after trying these exercises, I suggest that you speak with your medical provider about a more intensive examination of the potential causes and solutions. I hope these exercises help, and I wish you good luck.
About the Fitness Model: Aerowenn Hunter is a health editor for The Epoch Times. She is an accredited yoga therapist with more than three decades of teaching experience.
