Every day most of us walk thousands of steps. Walking is a safe, easy and effective way to get exercise. It is also important for health.
Walking problems can affect your balance and cause you to stumble or trip. They can be caused by a number of conditions.
The pattern of your movements when you walk is called your gait. Abnormal gaits can be caused by diseases in different parts of the body.
Walking is a natural activity that most of us do thousands of times per day without even thinking about it. It’s a great form of exercise and helps to get us around, but it can be difficult for some people when they experience pain or discomfort while walking. Pain can be a sign of many different things, and it’s important to understand why you may be experiencing it so that you can seek medical attention for the problem.
A physical exam is often the first step in determining what is causing your pain while walking. Your doctor will check the bones and muscles of your body to see if they are functioning normally. If they are not, your doctor will then determine what could be causing the problems with your walking by asking questions and conducting other tests. For example, X-rays and an MRI can provide a clear view of your muscles and bones to help make a diagnosis.
X-rays and MRI can show whether there is damage to your bones and muscles, which can cause pain while walking. They can also give a clear picture of your posture, which is another important factor to consider. Symptoms such as back pain or chest pain while you’re walking can be caused by a herniated disc in the spine or weak muscles.
It’s normal for babies to walk with their legs close together and their arms out. This is because their legs are still developing and they need to balance themselves as they take their first steps. However, if your child is older and you notice that they are walking with their legs farther apart or their arms are stretched out, it’s a good idea to speak to your doctor about the issue as this may indicate a developmental delay or other medical condition.
Medications and physical therapy are often used to treat walking difficulties. These can help strengthen the muscles, improve posture, and promote a better gait. For some cases, a walking aid may be recommended to improve mobility. In other cases, your doctor will recommend rest to help relieve the symptoms of a particular condition.
Difficulty walking is a common symptom that may be caused by many different diseases, injuries, and conditions. Some of them are more serious than others, such as osteoporosis, which causes bones to become weak and brittle, causing them to fracture easily even with minor trauma or stress. Other symptoms of this disease are achy joints, loss of balance, and trouble navigating stairs. Some other illnesses that can cause difficulty walking include Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, which result in memory problems, disorientation, and confusion. Other factors that can make it difficult to walk include exhaustion and lack of vitamins, which can lead to fatigue and weakness.
Movement disorders can also lead to walking problems, as they can disrupt the complex communication system that allows people to walk. This system involves the brain and spinal cord, which coordinate functions in muscles and joints that convey the message of walking to the legs. Some movement disorders include ataxia and Parkinson ’s disease, which affect the balance, coordination, strength, and posture of the body.
A physical exam and observation of a person while they walk can help diagnose the problem. Your doctor will ask you about your family history, especially those who have had similar problems. They will also ask you about any health issues you’ve had recently and if you have any pain or discomfort while you walk. They might also order imaging tests such as X-rays or an MRI to check for any broken bones or injured tissue.
Difficulty walking usually improves with treatment of the underlying condition. For example, if you have arthritis, your doctor will prescribe medications that can help ease the pain and inflammation. They may also prescribe a physical therapy program to improve the range of motion, stability, and strength in your legs. They may also recommend making changes to your home to make it easier for you to get around, such as installing handrails in the bathroom and widening doorways. They may also suggest using a cane or walker to support your weight while you’re walking. These devices can also be used to prevent falls and keep you from getting tired as quickly.
Balance is the result of input from several body systems, including the vestibular system (the inner ear), visual system and proprioception (the sense of where one’s body parts are in space). A loss of balance can cause you to stagger or fall as you walk. It can also make you feel clumsy or uncoordinated. It may be temporary, but sometimes it can be a symptom of a serious health problem.
It is common for children to experience a loss of balance, especially when they are learning how to walk or climb stairs. However, adults who experience frequent balance problems should see a doctor. This can be a symptom of an underlying condition like inner-ear problems, a head injury or certain medications. It can also be a sign of a neurological condition like multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease.
Experiencing loss of balance can be frightening and disorienting. It can also lead to accidents that can be very dangerous. Most people will have experienced a loss of balance at some point in their lives, but ongoing problems can be signs of a larger issue and should be discussed with your doctor.
If you are experiencing a loss of balance, your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and perform an exam. The exam will include watching you walk, checking your vision and balance, and testing your motor skills. They will also want to know your family’s medical history. Your doctor might refer you to a specialist, such as an otolaryngologist or neurotologist, if they suspect there is an underlying problem with your balance or hearing.
If you have a balance problem, your doctor might recommend certain exercises or techniques to improve your balance. For example, they might suggest you sit up quickly and then turn your head to one side. This helps to restore blood flow to your brain and reduce dizziness. They might also recommend making your home safer by removing loose items, keeping electrical cords out of the way and applying no-slip strips to tile or carpeted surfaces. Some conditions that cause loss of balance can be treated with medication, physical therapy and a change in diet.
When a person has difficulty walking, their movements may become uncoordinated. They may fall, bump into things, or have difficulty keeping their balance. A loss of coordination usually results from a malfunction in the cerebellum, a part of the brain that coordinates sequences of movements and controls balance. When this part of the brain is damaged, a person will lose their ability to control their movements and may start taking wide, unsteady steps. This problem is called ataxia.
There are several different types of gait problems, and the underlying cause will dictate the type of treatment. For example, Parkinson’s disease causes tremors that can affect the arms and legs while walking. It can also lead to a shuffling step and hunched posture.
Other neurological disorders can also lead to difficulties walking. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that attacks the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, which can make it difficult to walk. It can also cause a condition called foot drop, which causes the front part of the leg to drag on the floor.
Many people experience gait abnormalities due to injury or illness. Some of these include fractures, sprains, and torn ligaments. Other reasons include arthritis, traumatic injuries such as car accidents, and autoimmune diseases that attack the muscles and joints.
Some people with gait abnormalities are chronic, meaning they’ve had the problem for a long time and have adapted to it. Others are episodic, meaning that they come and go. Some of the most common gait disturbances are freezing gait, festinating gait, and disequilibrium.
Some people with gait problems aren’t able to walk at all, and they must use a wheelchair or crutches. A physical therapist can help them learn how to cope with their condition by using exercises that mimic the sensation of losing balance and teaching them to adapt. They can also teach patients to modify their environment to make it safer for them, such as moving objects out of the way and applying no-slip strips to floors. Injuries caused by gait abnormalities are more common than you might think.
Walking problems are a common complaint of people living with MS. But they can have many different causes.
Both gait and balance rely on an intricate interplay between the brain, nervous system, sensory organs, and musculoskeletal structure. Problems with any of these can cause difficulty walking and increase the risk of falling.
Walking can be painful if you have an injury or problem that affects your muscles, bones and joints. For example, back and hip issues can cause pain that interferes with your walking. Dizziness and tremors can also make it difficult to walk. You may hold your body awkwardly in order to reduce the pain, but this can lead to knock-on problems such as stress on other joints.
The most common type of pain that occurs when you walk is cramping or tightness in one or both legs. This pain is called spasticity and typically gets worse when you try to walk faster or increase your stride length. It can also be triggered by stair climbing or other types of strenuous activity. It is usually felt in the calf muscle but can be felt in the thigh, hip and buttock muscles as well. It is often accompanied by a tight feeling that comes on with walking and goes away with rest. This is called intermittent claudication, and it is a classic symptom of peripheral artery disease.
Other types of foot and leg pain that interfere with walking include a shuffled gait, which results in your feet sliding on the ground as you walk. You can also lurch when you walk, which is common in people with weakness or paralysis of the muscles that control the gluteus area.
Other foot problems that can prevent you from walking comfortably include a Morton’s neuroma, in which a band of tissue thickens around a nerve at the base of your toes and makes it feel as though you are stepping on a marble. You can also develop bunions, which is a bony bump on the side of your big toe.
Often, walking problems result from a condition that causes pain and stiffness in the muscles, joints, bones or skin. It can also affect the nervous system, which controls many body functions, including balance and control. If this central system is damaged or weakened, it may cause a loss of feeling in the legs and feet, and can result in poor balance and difficulty walking.
Other symptoms, such as tremors and weakness, can also impact how easy it is to walk. A person with ALS, for example, might become exhausted easily and can’t walk far without stopping to rest. Exhaustion can also be caused by heart disease, anemia or other illnesses that drain the body’s resources.
There are a variety of treatments for walking problems, depending on the diagnosis and severity. Some include medication to reduce inflammation and ease pain; physical therapy or rehabilitation; and exercise. A doctor can help a patient to find the right type of treatment for their specific condition.
People with a condition such as lupus or multiple sclerosis often have muscle stiffness, and can have difficulty walking due to spasms in the muscles and joints. They may also feel dizzy and unsteady when walking, especially if they are exposed to bright light or loud noises. These symptoms can make a person afraid to leave the house, which can lead to isolation and depression.
Medications to reduce pain and anxiety, and help with sleep are common for people with these conditions. These medications can be taken in combination with other medications to control the symptoms. Taking regular walks and keeping hydrated can also help to improve a person’s balance and ease their muscle stiffness when walking.
People who experience difficulty walking may be experiencing a variety of symptoms. These include pain, stiffness, weakness, balance problems, and fatigue. These conditions may be due to a number of causes, including injuries, illnesses, and age-related changes in the body.
Difficulty with walking can also be a sign of serious health issues such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and MS. This is because these diseases can cause a person to become unsteady on their feet, shuffling their feet or falling frequently. Fortunately, there are some tests that can be done to find out if these diseases are present.
The underlying cause of the problem is usually musculoskeletal, meaning that there is something wrong with the muscles or bones in the legs and feet that make it difficult to walk normally. This can be caused by an injury, or illness such as arthritis or osteoporosis.
Other reasons for walking difficulties are related to the nervous system. A tumor, stroke, or an ear infection can all interfere with the communication between the brain and spinal cord and therefore cause difficulties while walking.
Physical therapy is often employed in the treatment of these disorders and can improve or reverse the symptoms associated with them. This can be accomplished by a trained therapist who will develop a program that works best for each individual patient. In addition, the therapist can help with making changes in the home to make it easier for people with difficulty walking to live independently. This can be as simple as installing handrails or as complex as building a wheelchair ramp and widening doorways. These modifications can be very helpful in reducing the symptoms of walking difficulties.
For walking to be smooth and safe, the body needs to be able to receive input from the nervous system about how it is moving, as well as to process sensory information. When this system is impaired by disease or injury, balance and coordination are affected. For example, the movement disorders caused by Parkinson’s and ataxia interfere with these processes.
Musculoskeletal conditions that affect the joints and bones of the legs, feet and hips can also cause difficulty in walking. These include osteoarthritis, which causes pain and stiffness in the knees, ankles and hips that can make it hard to walk. Arthritis also can result in a scissor gait, a condition in which the person’s knees and thighs cross or hit each other in a scissors-like pattern as they walk.
Cardiovascular problems can also lead to unsteady walking, especially in people with diabetes who may develop nerve damage to their feet (peripheral neuropathy). A heart rhythm problem called arrhythmia or a decreased blood flow from narrowed or blocked arteries can reduce the amount of oxygen in the brain and cause feelings of dizziness or lightheadedness that interfere with balance and walking.
The loss of balance associated with walking problems can lead to falls. These can be serious and even life-threatening if you fall down stairs, on uneven surfaces or into water. To prevent falls, use handrails on stairs and in bathrooms. Install non-skid surfaces in bathtubs and showers, clear walkways of throw rugs and mats, and make sure you have enough lighting to see where you are going. Consider wearing shoes with good traction and using assistive devices, such as canes and walkers, to help you stay balanced.
Exhaustion is a common complaint of those with walking problems. It can occur because of the strain placed on the legs and feet while walking, or it can be a sign of an underlying health concern. If exhaustion becomes a regular problem, it is recommended that you see a doctor who can test for the cause of the fatigue.
Excessive tiredness can also be caused by certain medications, thyroid disorders, and heart diseases. It can also be a symptom of some mental health concerns, such as depression and grief. It is important to address these issues before they lead to exhaustion, as this can hinder the person’s ability to walk.
Fatigue is often a normal response to hard work or exercise, but it can become a serious issue if left unchecked. In some cases, a doctor will suggest lifestyle changes, such as diet and sleep patterns, to help reduce the symptoms of fatigue. If these are not effective, medication may be prescribed to treat the underlying causes of the tiredness. This can significantly improve the patient’s energy levels. It is also important to be aware of the signs of fatigue, such as sensitivity to temperature, headaches, trouble sleeping, and weight loss or gain.
If your child is walking normally, a physical exam and blood tests are not usually needed. X-rays and other imaging tests may help pinpoint the cause of the problem.
Some types of walking problems are caused by disease or injury to nerves, muscles, bones, spinal cord, brain or inner ear. Some are due to abnormalities in how the cerebellum controls balance and coordination.
There are a number of different factors that can affect walking ability. These include injuries that reduce the function of muscles, bones and nerves. Long-term difficulties can also result from neurological and muscle problems such as weakness or numbness. These types of conditions can make walking more difficult, resulting in pain or even falls.
If you are experiencing these kinds of issues, check with your Los Angeles podiatrist. We can provide you with a full consultation and a wide range of tests to diagnose the problem. These may include imaging, X-rays and muscle or nervous system tests.
Neurological conditions that can cause walking difficulties include multiple sclerosis, lupus and many other autoimmune disorders. These diseases attack the body’s natural defenses, causing damage to the muscles, bones and nerves that are necessary for normal walking.
Walking difficulties due to a neurological condition are often caused by damage or deterioration in the cerebellum. The cerebellum controls balance and muscle coordination, so any injury or disease that causes a loss of brain cells in this area can lead to gait abnormalities.
Other conditions that can cause a decline in walking include cardiovascular disease, which can affect the blood vessels that carry oxygen to the legs and feet. This can cause a reduction in circulation and can also cause the heart to beat faster, which can increase your risk of a stroke.
In addition to the physical exam, your doctor will ask questions about when you first noticed the changes in your walk, whether you are experiencing any other symptoms and what type of activities you normally participate in. He or she will watch you as you walk and look for signs of numbness or weakness in your leg and foot muscles. The doctor may test the strength of your ankle and foot muscles and check for numbness in the shin or toes. A physical examination can also reveal a mass or bone lesion that could be pressing on a nerve, such as a herniated disc in the spinal cord or a tumor or cyst.
Some musculoskeletal conditions that can lead to walking problems include arthritic joints, such as the knees and ankles. There are a variety of treatments for these conditions, including medications, physical therapy and sometimes a brace or cane.
The way you walk is known as your gait, and it’s essential to how you live. Changes in the normal way you walk can cause problems like pain, difficulty moving and even falls. Having your doctor evaluate you and identify the underlying problem can help to ease symptoms and restore healthy walking patterns.
There are many reasons you may experience difficulty walking, from injuries that impact muscles and bones to herniated discs that affect nerves. Your doctor will ask about your past health and do a physical exam to check the strength of your muscles, joints and bones. They may also tap on your limbs to see how the reflexes react, and do lab or imaging tests as needed.
Injuries that occur during daily activities, such as falling, can cause a loss of balance or muscle weakness that can lead to difficulties with walking. These are usually mechanical issues that your doctor can treat with physical therapy and other treatments, such as pain medications, to ease the discomfort and prevent further injury.
Other issues that can lead to trouble walking include autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or lupus, which can attack the nerves and bones in your feet, knees and legs and lead to complications with walking. A loss of balance due to a disease like Parkinson’s or diabetes is another example of a neurological condition that can make it hard to move your body correctly when you walk.
Treatment for these conditions will depend on the underlying cause, but can often include medications to slow down or reduce symptoms; exercise to improve strength and flexibility in the leg muscles; and other therapies like electrical stimulation that uses a mild electric current to stimulate specific muscle groups. Physical therapy is a common treatment that has been shown to help people with many types of walking problems.
Other treatments for your walking problem may involve making changes to your home to make it easier to get around in, such as installing handrails and widening doorways. You may also want to consider a motorized scooter or wheelchair if you have difficulty walking for long periods of time.
Walking is a natural, everyday activity that most people take for granted. Problems with walking, however, are very common in older adults and can significantly limit a person’s independence. The most common causes of walking problems are diseases or injuries that affect the bones, joints, and nerves of the legs and feet. Some types of walking problems can be prevented by proper treatment or early diagnosis.
Many different factors can lead to a walking problem, and it is often the case that multiple conditions or diseases contribute to walking problems. These include nerve, joint, and muscle weakness or disease, as well as sensory loss due to ear infections or dementia. Difficulty walking may also be the result of changes in the normal pattern of the way a person walks, known as gait dysfunctions.
Physical therapy is effective for most people with walking problems. Physiotherapists are movement experts that improve quality of life by using hands-on care, education, and prescribed movement to treat the underlying cause of the problem. The type of treatment used depends on the underlying condition, but usually involves exercises that improve balance and coordination, strength, and posture.
In addition to physical therapy, lifestyle adjustments can help prevent or manage some walking problems. For example, installing handrails on stairs and keeping hallways clear of obstacles can be very helpful. In general, reporting any new or ongoing difficulty with walking to your doctor is important, especially if it’s associated with other symptoms such as numbness or fatigue. Your doctor can provide you with safety checklists to make your home safer and suggest assistive devices that may help with your walking. They can also advise when to report your walking problem urgently if it gets worse or is severe.
There are a wide range of conditions that can cause gait dysfunction, including problems with the joints (such as arthritis), bones and muscles. Injuries can also make it difficult to walk normally, and many people who experience walking abnormalities can benefit from physical rehabilitation.
A physical therapist is an expert in diagnosing a gait disorder and designing a treatment plan to help improve your ability to walk. Typically, you will have a physical exam and neurological examination to determine the type of problem that is making walking difficult. A physical therapist will screen for problems that can interfere with your ability to walk, such as weakness in the muscles or loss of balance.
Some of the most common disorders that make it difficult to walk include central nervous system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, and nerve or muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Other conditions that may affect your ability to walk include musculoskeletal abnormalities or injuries, such as hip or knee osteoarthritis or sprains of the ankle and foot.
Other disorders can also lead to gait abnormalities, such as a stroke (which occurs when an artery is blocked and causes a lack of blood flow to a part of the brain), or conditions that affect the bones, joints and ligaments in the legs and feet, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and lupus, can also cause walking abnormalities, because these disorders can damage multiple components of the systems needed for normal walking.
Once your doctor has determined the reason for your gait abnormalities, your treatment will focus on restoring your ability to walk as naturally as possible. Your physical therapist will teach you to use your arms and legs to support yourself when you walk, which is known as body weight bearing. They will then ask you to choose a distance to walk each day and slowly increase that amount over time. This will stimulate neuroplasticity, which is the ability of your brain to retrain itself and learn new movements, and can help you walk with greater ease.
Walking is something that most of us take for granted. However, to walk well requires an astonishingly complex system of control. When this system is disrupted by disease or injury, a person can develop what is called a walking abnormality or gait.
Some walking problems are temporary and improve with treatment, while others are long-term. A physical therapist can help.
Muscles in the body work together as a team to make you move. They are the skeletal muscles that can be felt under your skin and pull on your bones to help you walk, run, jump, etc. There are also muscle groups that are active in other ways, like those that keep your heart beating and move food through your intestines. Muscles are made of a group of fibers that have one end attached to a site on the bone called the muscle’s origin. The other end of the muscle is attached to a different part of the bone called its insertion. Muscle movements are coordinated by a system of nerves that transmit instructions from the brain and receive feedback about movement.
There are many problems that can affect your gait, or the way you walk. These can be caused by slowed nerve conduction, muscle spasticity (tightness or stiffness), balance problems and more.
The quadriceps muscles and the hamstring muscles (gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, vastus lateralis and vastus intermedius) are the primary contributors to support and progression during walking. The iliopsoas muscles and the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles play a role in foot drop, which is necessary to prevent tripping or falling and can also make a slapping sound as your feet hit the ground. Muscle contributions to swing initiation and trunk propulsion increase with increasing walking speed.
Other muscles, like the hip girdle muscles, control your pelvis as you walk. Weakness in these muscles can lead to a dropping of the hip on the non-dominant side of the pelvis while you walk, which is known as waddling gait. This type of weakness can be due to myopathies, like muscular dystrophy, or basal ganglia disorders, such as Sydenham’s chorea or Huntington’s disease.
If you spend a lot of time sitting, the hip flexor muscles may become tight. This can lead to a short step length on the leg that does not have the problem. This is often caused by a fear of falling or it can be a sign of a neurologic or musculoskeletal problem.
The point at which two or more bones meet to allow movement is called a joint. Bones are held together in a joint by tough bands of connective tissue called ligaments. Smooth cartilage covers the articulating surfaces of the bones to prevent friction (rubbing) as the bones move against each other. In freely movable joints, a membrane filled with lubricating fluid called synovial fluid works to provide extra cushioning for the bones and reduce friction. The fluid also supplies nutrients to the cartilage and removes debris that can cause pain.
Every bone in the body is joined to at least one other bone to form a joint. In the human body, there are four types of joints:
Freely movable joints: In these joints, the articulating surface is covered by smooth cartilage that allows side to side and back and forth movement. This is the type of joint found in the knee and elbow. This is the most common type of joint in the body.
Fibrous joint: This type of joint is bound together by strong fibrous tissues that add stability to the joint. In some joints, there is no cartilage. This is the case with the hip and shoulder. In these joints, the rounded head of one bone fits into a cavity in another bone. This is a ball and socket joint.
Pivot joint: These joints only allow a specific type of movement, the rotation of one bone on or around another. For example, the joints in our neck that allow us to turn our heads from left to right are pivot joints.
Problems with your muscles, joints or nerves affect how you walk. Symptoms like tremors, muscle weakness and loss of balance can cause you to take short, shuffled steps when walking. These gait problems are called gait abnormalities and occur without your control. Most of these abnormalities are due to a disease or injury in different areas of the body. Treating the underlying cause often improves your gait. A physical therapist can help evaluate and treat the problem area of your body that is contributing to your gait abnormality.
Your nerves send messages from your brain and spinal cord to the rest of your body. The messages control movement, like walking. There are 31 pairs of spinal nerves, and each pair controls different areas of the body. For example, the spinal nerves that run through your lower spine (L5 and S4) help you walk by controlling your leg muscles.
When your spinal nerves are damaged, you may have a gait problem. This can cause you to have problems with balance, making you more likely to fall. Other symptoms include numbness or weakness in your legs and feet. The damage to the spinal nerves can happen from injury or disease. It can also occur due to certain medications. For example, some chemotherapies can cause spinal nerve damage. Other causes of nerve damage include diabetes, diabetes mellitus, shingles, and peripheral neuropathy from aging. It can also happen from a disease that affects your muscle tissue, such as muscular dystrophy.
There are many types of walking problems. Some are episodic, and others are chronic. Your health care provider can tell you which type of gait problem you have. They will do a physical exam and watch you walk. They will ask you about your past medical history and family history. They may order X-rays or other tests to see if you have bone, muscle, or nerve problems.
Some gait problems are caused by pain, which makes you limp or avoid stepping with your affected foot. These are called antalgic gaits. Another type of gait problem is called ataxia. It means that you don’t have a coordinated motion, like when you are walking. It is common in patients with Parkinson disease.
Other types of gait problems include a spastic gait, which is a stiff, foot-dragging walk that is caused by a long muscle contraction on one side. You might have a scissoring gait, which is when your knees and hips move together in a scissors-like movement. This can occur in people with peroneal mononeuropathy, a condition that affects the anterior tibialis muscle. It can be caused by injury, surgery, or disease such as polio and multiple sclerosis.
Everyone walks a little differently and it is normal for the way you walk to change as you grow older. However, some changes to the way you walk can be a sign of an illness or disease such as arthritis, diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s or stroke. Stroke occurs when a blood clot or piece of atherosclerotic plaque blocks the flow of oxygen-rich blood to an area of the brain, resulting in damage or death to cells within that region of the brain.
Converging lines of evidence suggest that walking deficits and disorders are characterized in part by a shift from healthy automaticity to compensatory executive control during locomotor task performance. This strategy places excessive demands on a limited pool of executive control resources and compromises the ability to perform basic and complex walking tasks, while increasing the risk for adverse mobility outcomes such as falls.
Despite the importance of the balance between automatic and executive control for maintaining healthy walking, the neural circuits that support these functions remain relatively obscure. While fMRI studies in healthy individuals have detected robust beta activity in the premotor and somatosensory cortex during undemanding steady state walking, these responses are largely absent from fMRI studies of patients with walking deficits.
Dynamical system theory suggests that the brain’s underlying model for walking might be a simple network of weakly coupled phase oscillators, with each oscillator representing a muscle, joint angle, or leg, and each being driven by input from sensorimotor and proprioceptive systems. These models can produce the most realistic kinematic trajectories and are therefore a promising avenue for further exploration of the neural underpinnings of walking.