- Hip & Knee
- ACL Tears
- LCL Tears
- MCL Tears
- PCL Tears
- Difficulty Walking
- Hip Impingement
- Hip Pain & Thigh Pain
- Hip Sprain / Strain
- Labral Injury
- Knee Pain
- Knee Sprain / Strain
- Meniscus Injury
- Osteoarthritis of the Hip
- Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome
- Piriformis Syndrome
- Poor Balance / Risk of Falling
- Post-Surgery Rehab
- Quad/Patellar Tendon Tear
- Sciatica
- Tendonitis
- Total Hip Replacement
- Total Knee Replacement
- Trochanteric Bursitis
Difficulty Walking
It takes us at least 12 months as a baby to learn the fundamentals of
walking. It takes even longer to learn how to walk properly and
eventually run. Walking is very complex and requires good balance, the
ability to know where your joints are in space (proprioception), the
ability to know how your joints are moving (kinesthesia), good range of
motion and strength.
As we age, with declining activity or after an injury, walking can become difficult. With pain in the knee or hip, our walking pattern can change, leaving us with a limp and possibly back pain. Changes in posture can also be responsible for changes in walking patterns.
When walking patterns change, abnormal stresses and strains with everyday activities can be transmitted to areas it shouldn’t. For example, if you have knee pain and you begin to limp, the other hip and your spine now have to take double the weight. This can lead to pain and dysfunction in those areas also. The good news is that walking can be helped and our physical therapists are the experts uniquely trained to do so.
How physical therapy helps
One of the main specialties of physical therapy is helping people to
walk normally. This takes a thorough evaluation of your range of motion,
strength, walking patterns, balance and coordination. By discovering in
what area you have difficulties we can paint a picture of why your
walking is not as it should be.
We then coordinate an extensive, but easy to do treatment plan that will address your range of motion, pain, coordination, balance and strength. The end result is the ability to walk without the need of an assistive device such as a cane or walker, safely and smoothly. Call us today to discover how we can help you walk better!
