Faulty Arm Swing provides clues to gait pathology.

Don’t think that just because you see aberrant arm swing that you should “coach” it out of someone.  It is very likely there for a reason. We discuss tonight how the leg swing is more deeply neurologically embedded, more so than arm swing.  So, fixing something you do not like in their arm swing is very possibly the wrong solution and by doing just that you are forcing your client into a new compensatory CPG (central pattern generator) which is essentially a compensation to their compensation.   Fix the problem, go for its roots !

This is one of our slides for tonights lecture.  This is from the European Spine Journal 2011.  More posterior arm swing can help improve impaired hip extension and gluteal function. A nice compensatory fix to reduce spine rotation in a spinal pain patient, more hip extension means that less pelvic obliquity needs to be acquired (less obliquity in the pelvic girdle means less spine rotation and thus less spine compression. This is a brain based phenomenon, the brain is engaging a pain avoidance CPG. 

You gotta know your biomechanics, you gotta know your neurology and you MUST understand and recognize normal and abnormal gait patterns if you choose to work with humans !

Join us tonight on www.onlinece.com for an in-depth hour talking about the biomechanics and neurobiology behind normal and abnormal arm swing.  7pm central Wednesday 19th.

Shawn and Ivo, the gait guys