Gait Analysis: How the Way You Walk Affects Your Joints
Gait analysis is the study of how you walk and move. It looks at the timing, posture and forces in each step. When your gait is off, the extra stress does not stay in one place. It spreads through your knees, hips and spine. It often causes pain far from where the problem started. A full standing assessment can show what scans of a single area miss.
Key points
- Your gait is a whole-body pattern. A problem at one level affects the joints above and below it.
- Lying-down scans relax the muscles. They can hide alignment faults that only show up when you stand and walk.
- EOS whole-body standing imaging captures your skeleton under real weight-bearing load, with about 90% less radiation than a standard X-ray.
- ScanAlign provides diagnostic imaging only. Treatment decisions are made by your clinician.
What is gait analysis and why does it matter?
Gait analysis is a structured way to watch and measure how you walk. Clinicians look at the length of your stride and how long each foot stays on the ground. They check the angle of your joints at each stage of a step, and how your body spreads force. This matters because walking is the load your skeleton handles most often. Even a small imbalance, repeated thousands of times a day, can lead to wear, pain and knock-on problems elsewhere as the body compensates.
Most people never think about how they walk until something hurts. By then, the body has often been compensating for months or years. The place that hurts may be far from the original cause.
What are the signs of a gait problem?
A gait problem does not always feel like a walking problem. It often shows up as joint pain, tiredness or shoes that wear unevenly. Here are common signs that your gait may be adding to your symptoms.
One shoe sole wears down faster than the other. This suggests your weight is spread unevenly.
Pain in only one knee or hip may point to a gait imbalance rather than a problem in the joint alone.
Discomfort in your lower back that gets worse the further you walk can come from how force travels up through your pelvis.
Even a slight limp changes how your whole skeleton absorbs impact with every step.
Important. If you have sudden leg weakness, numbness, or loss of bladder or bowel control along with changes in how you walk, get urgent medical help from your doctor or the nearest emergency department. These may be signs of a serious neurological condition that needs to be checked straight away.
What causes an abnormal gait?
An abnormal gait can develop from a structural issue, an injury, wear and tear over time, or a mix of all three. Your body is a connected chain from your feet up to your head. When one link changes, the others adjust to keep you moving. This adjustment is called compensation, and it is where many unexplained aches begin.
Even a small difference can tilt the pelvis and change your stride with every step.
Stiffness in a hip or knee reduces how far it can move. This forces other joints to take extra load.
A tilted pelvis shifts your centre of gravity and changes how weight flows through each leg.
Old injuries to the foot, ankle or knee can leave lasting changes in how you bear weight.
The difficulty is that compensation is usually invisible. You do not notice you are doing it. When pain appears in a knee or a hip, the natural step is to scan that one joint. But if the underlying cause is a pelvic tilt or a leg-length difference, a scan of a single area will not show it.
How is gait analysed with a standing whole-body scan?
Gait analysis starts with understanding the structure underneath. A standing whole-body EOS scan captures your whole skeleton, from your ankles to the top of your spine, in one upright image. It is taken while your muscles and joints carry your full weight. This is the position your body is actually in when you walk.
Lying-down imaging, such as a standard X-ray, CT or MRI, relaxes your muscles and lets your joints settle into a resting position. That can hide alignment problems that only appear when gravity is at work. Think of it this way: checking alignment while lying down is like trying to judge how much a building leans while it is flat on the ground.
An EOS scan uses about 90% less radiation than a standard X-ray, around ten times less. It shows how every major joint relates to the others in one view. A radiologist can see whether your pelvis is level, whether your legs are the same length, and how your spine responds to any imbalance below.
This whole-body view gives your clinician the context they need to link your gait pattern to its structural cause. If you go on to physiotherapy, orthotics or surgery, the images give a clear starting point to plan from.
Thinking of travelling to London and want to know whether a standing alignment scan could explain your symptoms?
Book a free video consultationWhen is MRI the better choice? EOS imaging shows bones, joints and overall alignment very well. But if your clinician suspects soft-tissue damage, disc problems or nerve compression, MRI is usually the better tool. In many cases, both types of imaging work together to give a complete picture.
What helps once a gait problem is found?
Once the underlying structural cause is clear, your clinician can decide on the right approach. ScanAlign provides the diagnostic imaging only. Treatment decisions are made by your referring clinician or specialist. Common next steps might include physiotherapy, orthotics, targeted exercises, or in some cases a surgical review.
The key point is that good management depends on understanding the full picture first. A scan of one joint shows that joint. A whole-body standing image shows how that joint fits into the chain, and where the real problem may sit. That difference can change the course of your care.
So before you start a treatment, or change the one you are on, it is worth getting a detailed diagnosis. Knowing whether the cause sits in your pelvis, your legs or your spine changes what will actually help.
Frequently asked questions about gait analysis
Gait analysis is used to understand how you walk, spot imbalances and find the structural causes of joint pain. It is helpful for people with knee, hip or back pain, and for runners or walkers with injuries that keep coming back.
Yes. If your gait shifts extra load onto one knee, that knee absorbs more force with every step. Over time, this can lead to pain, inflammation or faster wear, even when the knee itself is structurally sound.
No. ScanAlign accepts self-referrals, so you do not need a letter from your doctor. You can book a free video consultation to talk about your symptoms and find out whether an EOS standing scan is right for you.
The price for patients travelling from abroad is confirmed during the free video consultation. You can find more answers on the ScanAlign FAQs page.
EOS uses about 90% less radiation than a standard X-ray, around ten times less. It is a very low-dose imaging system designed for whole-body standing views.
A traditional gait analysis watches your movement pattern. A standing EOS X-ray captures the structural alignment underneath. Together, they show both how you move and why your body moves that way.
Yes. Your spine sits on top of your pelvis. If a gait imbalance tilts your pelvis or shifts your weight unevenly, your lower back compensates. This is a common and often overlooked cause of chronic back pain.
Very useful. Running multiplies the force on each joint. A small structural imbalance that causes no issues when walking can cause significant pain under running loads. Standing alignment imaging can help find the source.
When you lie down, gravity is no longer pushing through your joints. Muscles relax, the pelvis levels out, and alignment faults can disappear. Standing imaging captures your skeleton under real load, the way it works when you walk.
You stand still inside the EOS unit for a few seconds while it takes a full-length image. It is quick and painless, and you do not need any preparation. Full details are on the what to expect page.
Find out what your gait is really doing to your joints
A free video consultation with our team, before you plan your trip to London, can help you understand whether a standing alignment scan is the right next step.
Book a free video consultationRelated pages
Sources
- Perry, J. & Burnfield, J.M. Gait Analysis: Normal and Pathological Function, 2nd ed. SLACK Incorporated, 2010.
- Illés, T. & Somoskeöy, S. "The EOS imaging system and its uses in daily orthopaedic practice." International Orthopaedics, 36(7), 2012, pp. 1469–1475.
- NHS. "Overview: Joint pain." NHS.uk. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/joint-pain/
Written by Abbas Dhami (Specialist Diagnostic Radiographer)
This page is general information and not a diagnosis.
ScanAlign is the trading name of CoreMed Solutions Ltd and operates under The Harley Street Hospital's CQC licence.