Modern Gait

Let’s look at modern gait research. Modern gait research studies the human foot in a shoe. However, “The human foot was anatomically modern, and therefore fully functional for bipedal walking and endurance running, more than 100,000 years ago” (D’Aout, et al., 2009, pg. 103).

Habitual use of the type of rigid footwear in vogue in our current culture extends back to the 17th century – and at that time was seen mostly in wealthy, or aristocratic populations. Widespread use of rigid footwear by a majority of Western Europeans probably only began around the time of industrialization – about 150 years ago.

Can we safely say that after 100 years of research we have a truly good understanding of normal human gait (as in “physiologically normal” – considering that the human species has existed without footwear for roughly 100,000 years)?

In addition to the changes that shoe wear has brought we are also not as active as we once were. 2 researchers found that the “removal of 8500 steps (dropping from ~10,000 to ~1500) in the absence of a structured exercise program for two weeks results in abnormal physiological changes in healthy young men”. It is difficult to guarantee accurate gait studies research when our daily activity levels have dropped so much. Can we claim to have studied “physiologically normal” human gait at all, with or without shoes (Booth and Laye, 2009, pg. 2)?

All this means that we are studying an abnormal population in terms of morphology and kinematics, due to the use of footwear (and the accompanying loss of tissue tone and function accompanying that loss of normal movement). In addition we are studying a potentially (in terms of gross physiology) abnormal population (in terms of our evolutionary history). One that suffers from a lack of sufficient movement in general, and the accompanying loss of proprioception and tissue strength and tone.

The point is that if we use our bodies in ways closer to how it evolved we will have healthier, more active lifestyles with fewer problems and less pain.