Published on June 19, 2026 08:05 am
I often feel like my feet are being treated the wrong way. Whenever I travel on foot, especially with a heavy load, my right hip and ankle ache – but never my left. I’ve tried almost everything to fix my flabby body: single-leg exercises, physical therapy, foam-rolling, and massage. I even had a new age doctor hammer my hips back into place. My friends call him the bone carpenter.
Then a physical therapist suggested I do something less medieval: get a gait analysis. He suggested that maybe strength wasn’t my issue. Maybe I was walking on this path.
Why might your gait be a problem?
Gait is the particular movement pattern you use for walking or running. It’s kind of like handwriting – it’s uniquely yours and has been shaped by years of practice, learned shortcuts and old habits. And, like handwriting, it can become loose with age.
There are quirks in all our moves. For most people, those specifications don’t cause any particular problems, especially over short distances. But after walking thousands and thousands of steps, small discrepancies can increase.
If you lean to one side or bend too much in any direction, it can lead to chronic pain in your hips, lower back or knees over time, says athletic trainer, chiropractor and co-owner Dr. Steve Brown. Boulder Sports Clinic.
“The number-one predictor of injury is previous injury,” he says, “but the number-two predictor is asymmetry.”
Think of it like your car is out of alignment. This probably sounds pretty normal when you’re driving. But after a few thousand miles, you’ll start to see major wear and tear on your tires and, eventually, your suspension.
To extend the metaphor, getting gait analysis is like taking your body to a mechanic. A trainer or physical therapist makes sure everything is working smoothly, and helps you reposition anything that has fallen out of place. It’s a popular tool among runners, but I wondered if it could help my hiking problems?
What is move analysis?
To find out, I met Brown in his Colorado office. He said he was going to put a motion-capture sensor on me. I asked him if it was modeled after the suit that Andy Serkis used to create Gollum’s actions in The Lord of the Rings. Brown looked at me strangely.
“It’s not that good,” he said. He gave me a small belt with a sensor on the back. I tried to hide my disappointment.
I buckled up and started hiking on the treadmill on a 10-percent grade. The sensor—which was connected to a gait analysis software platform called Runess-It measured how well and evenly my legs moved up and down and how much my hips moved through space.
I walked on a treadmill while Brown held up a tablet for me to look at. Various bars and graphs lit up and jumped around the screen. After a few minutes, he stopped me and we looked at our data. I felt confirmation: my body was indeed crooked.
To be more specific, my right hip was locked. That tightness was pulling my torso into a slight, rightward bend. Because I was leaning sideways, I was applying more force to my right leg than my left leg with every step.
Over time, such abnormalities can lead to long-term injury. In my case, the repeated, excessive impact forces likely caused plantar fasciitis and hip pain, which I already struggled with on that side.
Where do gait problems come from?
So, how did I get here? It’s hard to say, Brown says. Sometimes, gait imbalance is caused by an injury or some other obvious event that makes one side weaker than the other.
“Other times, it’s a cascade of little things,” he says. Let’s say you overworked a hip one day at the gym. It hurts, so you take sides. This puts more force on the knee on that side, causing it to bend slightly. You start taking sides, which leads to bad hips and ankle problems. It goes on constantly, often without you noticing.
“We’re hardwired to avoid pain,” says Brown. In other words, our body will shut down certain muscles or force others to work twice as long to protect against perceived injuries. All this happens without our consciousness saying anything.
Even small, repetitive movements can throw your body into disarray.
“Maybe you’re always pressing the gas pedal with your right foot, or you’re always holding your baby on your right foot instead of your left foot,” says Brown. “Similarity is obviously the norm, but it’s not something that’s built into society.” If you’re a professional athlete or otherwise diligent about going to the gym, you’re constantly working your body back into isometric strength. If not, those little things add up over time.
The resulting biomechanical asymmetry may appear as subtle as a lameness or as mild as a limp. This is why using a professional trainer or physical therapist – especially one with fancy sensors – is so helpful.
What is gait analysis for?
Brown says gait analysis is for people who move their bodies over long distances. If you have atypical pain—that is, recurring pain in one hip, one knee, or one ankle—your gait may be the cause. Heel pain, arch pain, and lower back pain can also be symptoms of poor gait.
So, if your aches and pains fall into those categories and regular strength training hasn’t fixed them, gait analysis may be worth the expense.
So my gait is odd. How do I fix this?
The answer will depend on your particular odds. You may be too flexible in some places or too rigid in others.
“Physical therapy is about figuring out what’s not moving enough and turning it down — and figuring out what’s moving too much and turning it down,” says Brown.
In my case, my tight right hip was the issue. Brown did some (extremely painful) massage to loosen it up and then sat me back on the treadmill. Sure, I was running more evenly.
The changes won’t last without a regular stretching and strengthening routine, which means I’ve got my work cut out for me. But for the first time in a long time, I had a concrete issue to work on—and I had hopes of getting back to pain-free hiking.
How can I get gait analysis?
You can get a basic gait analysis for free at some running stores. Most provide visual analysis without any special sensors or software. That said, if you’re new to biomechanical espionage and don’t want to spend a lot of money out of pocket, this is a great place to start.
If you’re looking for more detailed data, you’ll need the help of a trainer or physical therapist. PTs who specialize in runners and endurance athletes offer more advanced analysis for anywhere from $100 to $400, depending on the complexity of the analysis. My cost was somewhere in the middle—$280 for a 60-minute session.
