stroke or spinal cord injury. They have the ability to assist the person with mobility in a therapy setting through gait training. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough advancements in technology to help people with impaired mobility make full recovery, however, the use of exoskeletons has been the optimal treatment used in helping individuals regain some motor abilities. Upright gait therapy aids in neuromuscular retraining and is a method used to preserve muscle mass and strength, consequently…
The Celebration Imagine a big white horse, tail swaying back and forth, head bobbing up and down and Larry Bright playing the best music on a piano, you have ever heard. In seventy-eight years, I hope the tradition my dad brought me to love will still be going on, but flourishing better than now. At the age of two, my parents took me to the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, for the first time. Yes, I said national, in the little town that I grew up in that has more churches than bars…
Ever go to the doctor or know someone who goes to the doctor feeling ill and comes back home with a prescription for broad spectrum antibiotic or painkiller. Then about a week later they are back at the doctors. What is going to be different this time? Actually running laboratory test being conducted by technologist/ scientist. This was the story of my diabetic father. Having frequent urination he decided to go to the doctors and mentioned this new condition. Being told it was just his increased…
activities that integrate with mobility such as: the ability to stand up from a bed or chair, to walk or run, and to navigate through often quite complex environments. Our mobility incorporates with gait speed to complete our activities in a certain time. If a person can perform and complete the full gait cycle during walking, he/she will be able to perform tasks and activities independently (1). On the other hand, mobility disability, which is defined as the inability to walk ¼ mile or climb…
different approaches and technologies to develop prosthetic legs that help the user regain a normal, active lifestyle. Studying the Human Gait Cycle: Each person has a unique way of walking. But studying the way humans walk has revealed that some basic mechanics hold true for just about everyone. Scientists analyze how we walk by looking at our “gait cycle.” The gait cycle consists of two consecutive strides while walking, one foot and then the other. By breaking the cycle down into phases and…
More Than Just A One Trick Pony The Clydesdale is a breed of draught horse, A draught horse is a large horse used for pulling heavy loads, though it is more commonly known here in America as a Draft horse. There are many breeds of draught horses and they are characterized by their tall stature and extremely muscular build. They also tend to have a more upright shoulder and broad short backs with powerful hindquarters, best suited for pulling. This particular horse breed is derived from the…
to lose balance and gait abilities. This includes involuntary movements of some voluntary muscles in parts of the body. Lack of Coordination between the brain and the muscles when impaired lead to the involuntary muscular movement, a condition that affects many post-stroke patients. There have been a number of mechanisms to help post-stroke patients continue with their usual activities normally. Cho, Kim and Lee (2010) investigated how motor imagery training combined with gait training can…
topic, I changed the search terms to robotic gait training, neurological disorders, and physical therapy. The majority of results from the search terms “physical therapy” and “neurological disorder” related to gross motor…
Toe Off/Pre-swing Gait Phase Gait is the manner in which a person walks and can be described using terms such as stride, stride length, step, step length, and cadence. According to Lippert, (2011) stride is defined as the distance from the point when one foot touches the ground to the point when the same foot touches the ground again. Stride length is the total distance traveled during the gait cycle. A step is one half of a stride and cadence is walking speed (p. 339). In addition, there are…
action regarding physical therapy is more effective in helping to improve the function of gait of children with CP. A systematic review is helpful in this case as it allows the practitioner to compare previous studies that were gathered to help reach the answer to the research question based on the specific exclusion and inclusion criteria. Determining which therapy option is more beneficial to improving gait is important because discovering new research will help to enhance better treatment…