The gait cycle
One cycle runs from a foot's initial contact to its next contact. In typical walking each leg spends roughly 60% of the cycle in stance (foot on the ground) and 40% in swing, with two short periods of double support.
Pelvis
- • Obliquity (frontal plane): the swing-side hip drops slightly while the stance-side hip abductors stabilise.
- • Rotation (transverse plane): the pelvis rotates forward with the swinging leg, lengthening the step.
- • Vertical motion: the pelvis rises at mid-stance and falls at double support — twice per cycle.
Trunk
The shoulders and thorax tend to rotate opposite to the pelvis, balanced by arm swing. The trunk also sways gently toward the stance side to keep the centre of mass over the supporting foot.
Relation to the spine workspace
The figure's trunk is shaped from the spine you configure in the Spine Workspace — trunk shift, uneven shoulders and waist, rib-cage rotation and a rib prominence on the convex side — so you can see how such a posture looks in a walking body. The legs and timing remain the asset's generic walk cycle: the lab does not predict gait from the Cobb angle. Gait in people with scoliosis varies widely, and a curve measurement alone cannot tell how a particular person walks.
General biomechanics education using a generic animated 3D asset. Not a gait analysis, not measured motion capture, and not a substitute for assessment by a qualified clinician.