Walking - abnormalities

Our first assignment was to observe people walking, which was very apt given my heel condition. The background is that my left heel begins to hurt after I take about 5 steps. It got to the point where I was hobbling noticeably, and overcompensating with my right foot.

It got me to think about the reasons why people hobble, or at least not walk "properly" (in quotation marks because, really, what is walking properly? Is there a definitive guide to walking? Interestingly enough, there is a guide on Walking as a sport, but not walking in general. Anyway, I digress). When we see people hobble, we know instinctively that something is wrong, or not normal. But we don't really know why they are exhibiting this 'sign', to use a medical term.

Certainly, there are a number of oft-seen reasons for abnormal gait. Polio for instance can lead to one leg being shorter than another. Some people compensate for it by wearing platforms on the stunted leg, so as to correct the length disparity. However, because of the difference in the position of the knee, there is still an observable difference.

Rickets would be another medical condition where soft bones cause the legs to be bowed at the knee since young. That said, not all bowed-legs come from rickets. I've been told that cowboys do exhibit bow-leggedness because of how they wrap their legs around their steeds. However, I think those with Rickets tend to have it worse - they are generally more stunted. Could there be other reasons for bow-legs? Possibly.

But what about other hobbles where there aren't observable differences in the structure of the leg (from the normal leg). Could it be due to a hurt ankle/heel as in my case? A sore or over-exerted muscle? And even if we knew the 'cause' of the hobble, that's really just an intermediate 'cause', because then we would have to think about why there was a hurt body part in the first place. In my case, was it because of the cold weather having just come from a warmer climate, or was it because I had been walking around too much in the days prior to getting my hurt heel? I also recall hobbling immediately after the Passion Run in 2007 - was it because I over-exerted during the run, or had not trained or warmed up/cooled down properly, or perhaps because after the run I proceeded to cycle home?

There are also 'external' reasons to a hobble. Perhaps gum under one's shoe, or a pebble in the shoe? Or a case of the sole falling off (which happens often enough in the army).

To correct the problem or prevent it from happening again in the future, we would have to determine the cause of the problem. But as seen above, we may not know the real cause of the issue.

By extension, to treat learning disabilities, it is important to establish what was the cause of the problem. As our understanding of LDs improves, it becomes easier to diagnose and treat them. But we still aren't able to root them out completely, which suggests that we may not know the real causes behind them (or perhaps we do but we are willing to take risks to expose ourselves to them).