You know your ankles and feet play an important role in your ability to walk, but you may not be aware of the incredible array of adjustments they actually go through. Read on for a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action.
While there are many components that play a role in the gait cycle, none may play as major a role as your ankles and feet. The two work together to give you a stable platform on which to move forward. Their importance is obvious at a glance, although they are also engaging in less obvious work behind the scenes.
Throughout the entire gait cycle, your feet and ankles are making various subtle and not-so-subtle adjustments to ensure you can most effectively take your next step. While we cannot cover every single adjustment, we can touch on several of the most crucial.
Foot Support
You’ll recall the various stages of the gait cycle from our introductory post on gait. Each stage involves some type of weight-bearing support of your foot. The weight bearing starts at the heel and moves along the outside border of your foot, finishing off with the final propulsive thrust of your big toe’s distal phalanx.1
During heel strike, the weight is at your heel. Mid stance involves pressure on your heel as well as the ball of your foot. Terminal stance places pressure on the forefoot and toes while toe off moves the pressure to the big toe, second toe and the area directly beneath it.1
Your midfoot gets into the action by increasing either its pliability or stability throughout the gait cycle. It increases pliability at the onset of the stance phase, but then decreases pliability to become more stable at the end of the stance phase. It again increases pliability during the swing phase.2
Toe-Out
Your feet additionally assist with stability by engaging in a slight “toe-out” during the gait cycle. The typical gait cycle involves the outward angling of your toes by about 6 to 7 degrees.1 As you get older, the toe-out generally increases to help improve balance. Walking at a faster pace requires less stability, and toe-out usually decreases or is altogether eliminated.
Subtalar Joint
Your foot’s subtalar joint is also getting quite a workout. As you recall from our post on foot joints, the subtalar joint is made up of the top surface of the heel bone, or calcaneus, and the bottom surface of the talus. It contributes to the eversion and inversion of your foot. Your foot everts or inverts as needed during the gait cycle. When the midfoot is pliable during the early stance phase and the swing phase, your subtalar joint is typically everting. When your midfoot is stable during the second half the stance phase, your subtalar joint inverts.2
Foot-Ankle Relationship
Your foot and ankle relationship is another crucial component during gait stability. As a reminder, dorsiflexion refers to the upward movement of your ankle and foot while plantar flexion is the downward movement. Your ankle goes through both during the gait cycle, traveling through four distinct arcs of motion where it alternately dorsiflexes and plantar flexes.1
As your heel strikes the ground, your foot and ankle are both dorsiflexed at a 90-degree angle. Your ankle’s level then rises slightly, or plantar flexes, as your foot moves forward into what is called a flatfoot stance. Your ankle then again dorsiflexes as your leg passes over your foot as your center of mass is vaulted over the flat foot.1
Although we touched on some of the major adjustments and movements of your ankles and feet during gait, a number of others are additionally taking place. A slight variation in any one of those adjustments can eventually impair your gait pattern or even the proper functioning of other areas of your body.
REFERENCES:
- Cailliet R. Foot and Ankle Pain. 3rd Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company; 1997.
- Newmann D. Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System. 2nd St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier; 2009.