So what can you tell us about this foot?

Hmmm. Pedograph again….You guys must think this is important, eh? You bet!  The best $150 dollars you will spend and one of the best education (and sales) tool you can buy.

So, back to the foot. Lets divide it into 3 sections; the rearfoot, the midfoot and the forefoot.

What do we see in the rearfoot? plenty of pronation, that’s for sure. How do you know? Look at the width of the print and the elongation of the heel print medially; ideally it is shaped like a teardrop. You would expect to see the calcaneus tipped into valgus (eversion) wile standing. What else? A heavy heel strike; look at all that ink!

Next, the midfoot; Lots of printing here = lots of midfoot pronation. Look at how the 2nd and 3rd cunieforms and cuboid print. This much ink under the cuboid means that the peroneus is having a hard time everting and assisting in supination  of the foot.

The forefoot? We see ink under met heads 2, 3 and 5, but not under 1.Looks like they can’t get the head of the 1st metatarsal down. This would lead us to believe they have an uncompensated forefoot varus (forefoot inverted with respect to the rearfoot). What about the toes? looks like overactivity of the long flexors to us, including the flexor hallucis longus (the brevis would only print more proximally; see our post here). This activity is probably to try desperately to stabilize the obviously unstable foot.

Where do you begin? Lots of diligent work on the clients behalf, maybe consider an orthotic that you can slowly pull the correction out of as they improve, to give them mechanics they don’t have. How about the tripod? Increase mobility of that 1st ray and get the 1st met head down and help to keep it there. Mobilization/manipulation, toe waving, tripod standing are a good start. Next tone down some of that long flexor tone. How about some more tripod standing, toes up walking and some shuffle walks. The intrinsics are next, and so on.

Yes, you should own a pedograph.  Need one? One of our friends (Another Shawn) can get you one. contact him at: 303 567 2271

You be able to interpret a pedograph. It provides a window to the gait cycle unlike any you have seen. Need help? Search our blog here with hundreds of examples, go to our Youtube channel and watch some of our great, free videos.

Thirsty for more? We have THE ONLY book published (as far as we know) on them exclusively and you can get it by clicking here. We are told by our publisher that it is being converted to e-book format, but have not been given a conversion date.

Ivo and Shawn. Articulate. In your face. Pushing your limits daily. Changing the way the world looks at the feet and gait.

all material copyright 2012 The Homunculus Group/The Gait Guys. All rights reserved. If you use our stuff without asking us, we WILL find you and and send Toelio to deal with you.