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PHASE V: Gait Training Center for Excellence
Objective
The objective of Phase V is to provide advanced functional gait training for our clients who are moving their legs or are able to walk with or without adaptive aids.
The foundation of our Functional Gait Performance Program™ is education and workout design. Our goal is to teach each client the tools necessary to improve on their own, allowing out-of-town clients to return home and continue their progress.
Our “finishing school” was created out of demand. Some clients in the walking phase come to us with almost perfect gaits, while others compensate so much that walking long distance isn’t an option. We have determined that the difference is not due to the level of injury, but how these people were trained over the years and what was expected of them. Their gait is not predetermined but developed through the stimulation received. Over time, just as with any person, compensation leads to loss of function. It is not only a problem with SCI, but a normal response to an inefficient gait pattern. Correcting this compensation isn’t easy, but with the right stimulation, workout program and client determination, improvement can happen. At First Steps Wellness Centre, we believe that progress only stops when the client is satisfied with his or her results.
Theory of Drills and Skills
We don’t teach you to walk; we teach you the skills necessary to walk well.
It is our philosophy that a functional gait is determined by the coordination between your mechanical center of gravity (pelvis) and your balance (ankles and inner ear). You don’t learn how to coordinate these factors walking in parallel bars or on a mechanical gait trainer. To improve coordination and balance you must be able to trust your legs to support and balance you. This is the cornerstone of our Functional Gait Performance Program.
If you want to walk with a functionally sound gait, you must first learn to master the basic skills of controlling the muscles that support and move your hips in a full range of motion. You must have control of your hip, knee and ankle joints, and you must be able to coordinate these movements with your upper body. Skills you must have are: the ability to do full knee and hip flexion; maintain control throughout the full range of motion of the femur; move side to side, forward and backwards; and you must be able to go to the floor and get back up in all different body positions.
Posture and functional range of motion is what sets our training program apart from the rest. Our program has nothing to do with traditional methods or ideas of how someone with SCI recovers. Decades ago, teaching coordination within the sports world was something that just wasn’t done. Either you were born with it, or you weren’t. Things have changed since then. Each year performance trainers take average athletes and turn them into scholarship athletes by teaching them all the aspects of performance, including coordination. It is accomplished by stimulating the nervous system with specific drills designed to elicit certain responses. Once that skill has been mastered, programs become more demanding requiring more from the nervous system. At First Steps Wellness Centre our performance training is designed to elicit a functional gait.
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