The History Of Gait Anyalysis

With the development of photography, it became possible to capture image sequences revealing details of human and animal locomotion unnoticed by the naked eye. Eadweard Muybridge "freeze-framed" his first horse gait at the end of the 1800's showing the gallop to be a four-beat gait. This explains the misrepresentation of horses' gallop gaits in paintings prior to the 1900s.

Although much early research was done using film cameras, the widespread application of gait analysis in humans with pathological conditions such as Cerebral Palsy, Parkinson's Disease, and neuromuscular disorders began in the 1970s with the availability of video cameras. Today gait analysis is routinely used worldwide in designing treatment plans and follow-up monitoring of both pathological and non-pathological conditions.

Gait analysis is commonly used to optimize and improve athletic performance and to reflect compensations for underlying pathologies. The study encompasses quantifying and analyzing measurable parameters of gaits and drawing conclusions from this data. This includes measurement of the movement of the body in space (kinematics) and the forces involved in producing these movements (kinetics).