Describe the phases of stance and swing of the gait cycle in terms of how you would define the beginning and end of each phase.
Gait cycle is started from heel or foot contact with the ground, and ends when the same foot makes next ground contact. During gait cycle, each low extremities experiences both swing phase and stand phage. At normal gait speed, the swing phase accounts for 60% of the gait cycle, and the stance phase occupies 40% of it. Basically, the stance phase means the period when the leg contacts the ground. The swing phase means the period when the leg is in the air. The stance phase is subdivided into five events which are heel contact, foot flat, mid stance, heel off, and toe off. The stance phase begins with heel contact, and ends with toe off in order. Heel contact is defined as the point where the foot contacts the ground, which is occurred at the beginning of the gait cycle. Following event is foot flat which is defined as the point when the sole makes full contact with the ground. The event takes place at around 8% of the gait cycle. Mid stance is defined as the moment when the leg in the swing phase passes the leg in the stance. It means that body weight passes over the supporting leg. The event happens at approximately 30% of the gait cycle. Heel off means the instant when the heel lifts off the ground. Toe off, the final event of the gait cycle, is defined as the point where toe comes off the ground, and the low extremity start to move into the swing phase. The swing phase is subdivided into three events: early, mid, and late swing. The early swing is from the toe off to mid swing. The mid swing is defined as the point where the low extremity in the swing phase places next to the opposite low extremity. The late swing phase is the period from the mid phase to heel contact.
Describe the terms cadence, stride, step length, and how you would measure walking speed- look under the heading spatial and temporal descriptors.
Stride is the period from heel contact of the low extremity to heel contact of the same low extremity. Therefore, stride length is the same as the length that a gait cycle has. On contrast, Step length is the distance between heel contact of opposite feet. That is, there are two steps, right and left step in a gait cycle. People can assess the symmetry of gait by the means of comparing right and left step length. Cadence is basically the number of steps per minute. It is the most basic temporal descriptor. Step time is able to be measured by cadence. Fox instance, if cadence is 60 steps, step speed should be 1 second/step. Walking speed is defined as the distance covered in a given amount of time. For example, if a individual walks 65m for a minute, his/her walking speed will be 1.08m/s. Speed is also measured by the time covered in a given distance. It is also inferred from cadence, and step length. For example, if a individual has 97 steps per min, and the step length is 76 cm, his/her walk speed will be 1.22 m/s. That is, there are many different ways that we can calculate walking speed.
Describe the range of movement at the hip, knee and ankle during each of the phases of walking. You may wish to use a table.
Heel contact
Foot flat
Mid stance
Heel off
Toe off
Early swing
Mid swing
Late swing
Hip
30° flexion
Start to extend
Neutral position
10° extension 0°
15° flexion
25° flexion
Almost reach 30° flexion knee 5° flexion
Slightly more flexed (10° to 15°)
Nearly fully extended
Same as mid stance
35° flexion
