Our “Finishing School” (as we like to call it) was created out of demand. Some SCI individuals come to our center with almost perfect gaits, while others compensate so much that walking long distance isn’t an option. At Project Walk-Austin, we believe that progress only stops when the client is satisfied with his or her results.

Theory of Gait Drills and Skills

We don’t teach you to walk; we teach you the skills necessary to walk well.

What does this mean? It is our philosophy that a functional gait is determined by the coordination between your mechanical center of gravity (hips) and your balance (ankles and inner ear). You don’t learn how to coordinate these factors walking in parallel bars or a mechanical gait trainer. In fact, those tools teach you to compensate. Instead of function you have gained dysfunction, which creates an occupational gait that causes you to rely on adaptive equipment. If you want to walk with a functional, 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 combined with hip flexor function, and be able to maintain control throughout the full range of motion of the femur; you must be able to 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 old school methods of SCI gait training. Our program has nothing to do with traditional methods or ideas of how someone with an SCI recovers; our functional gait training program is where we really have fun! We have a history of training elite athletes, and that’s the approach we still use. This is why our clients recover faster, walk better, and are stronger than their peers. Three 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. They do it by stimulating the nervous system with specific drills designed to elicit certain responses. Once that skill has been mastered, they design something a little more demanding, requiring more from the nervous system. At Project Walk-Austin, our performance training is designed to elicit a functional gait. Once this is achieved, we design the next step. Our job is to teach you how to perform drills that will give you real world, everyday practical skills that you can use in your daily life.

Looking for answers about our gait training program
 

Who can our gait program help?
 

• Someone who is walking now and wants to improve 
• Someone who has movement in their legs, but can’t walk yet 
• Someone who has walked, but due to severs misalignments is no longer able to do so

What is the program?
 

• It depends on the individual’s goals and abilities. For someone who is a more independent walker and is looking to fine tune their gait, the program is designed at Project Walk-Austin, and then taught to the individual or their trainer to be performed at their home or local gym. 
• For those needing more help, we recommend an in-house program. It is more effective and efficient because of the skill of the staff. 
• The misconception is that you have to spend years here; we are now working with clients throughout the country and the world that train at home or at their local gym. Our clients hire us as their recovery coaches. Together we sit down and design long-term training programs around the client’s individual goals.

Is the gait training program a long-term program and commitment?
 

• Yes and no. Our program is about education and exercise design. Clients can continue their progress here or go home with the knowledge to workout on their own, with or without a personal trainer. A successful training program only works with long-term, consistent training. The biggest mistake people make at the gym is doing the same thing over and over. Most do not know how to train and waste time doing things that don’t work. This is why we develop long-term plans that promote variation and consistency.

How long are the workouts?
 

• Don’t believe the common misperception that you have to train over three hours a day to get results. In all our years of training SCI clients, very few have made it more than two hours a day in our gait program. Clients rarely come five days a week because over-training can cause injury and reduce the chance of successfully reaching goals. Any coach or athlete will tell you that the most important part of training is the recovery phase. Our clients train, at most, every other day until they build up endurance. Nothing happens in a week; it takes months of doing the right exercises and stimulus to improve. How fast can I expect results? 
• We don’t know. The severity of your gait problem and the length of time you’ve been compensating play a role in how long it will take to see results. The attitude of “I want a quick fix!” doesn’t work. In the athletic training world, the most important factors are the determination and energy put into a program.

How can I take the program home? Don’t I need all that fancy, expensive equipment?
 

• Our program is very simple. We don’t use fancy equipment for this stage of the program. Our expensive, passive gait trainers are only used with clients that can’t move their legs. The equipment we use is people-friendly and can be found at any health club or purchased over the internet. We keep it simple so you can be consistent, no matter where you live.

Is there any help with the program once I leave? Can I return for updates?
 

• Yes to both. Ideally, you should visit occasionally for re-evaluation and to make certain you are still going in the right direction. This should continue until you are completely satisfied with your walking gait.

What if I can’t return?
 

• If you want to continue the program you will have access to a Specialist to help with questions and workout modifications. If you can’t come back, we recommend hiring a local trainer that you trust and believe in, and most importantly, is in it for the duration. You don’t want to keep hiring and training new trainers. Follow ups can be done with your Specialist via phone and internet conferencing.

Why do I need to modify my workout program?
 

• You will adapt to the stimulus provided by the workout, and once this happens, you will just be going through the motions. People that do the same workouts over and over see very little gains. Any successful workout program has to evolve as you change.

Do braces help with a functional gait?
 

• Braces do not help with a functional gait; they are for occupational purposes only. Braces eliminate gravity and load-bearing forces. Without these fundamentals, muscles and nerves will atrophy. For example: someone breaks an arm and receives a cast for six to eight weeks---when the cast comes off, what’s happened to the muscles? They have atrophied.

I’ve heard that most SCI will end up back in the wheelchair.
 

• We have been studying and working with posture and functional gaits in able- bodied individuals for 13 years. Almost every person that we have trained has had a muscle dysfunction where one side of the body was stronger/weaker than the other. This ultimately led to an imbalance. An example to illustrate this is a car being out of alignment--over time, the tires wear unevenly and rather than constantly replacing the tires, you fix the alignment. Unfortunately, when it comes to our bodies, we are not that smart. We almost always look at the symptom and treat it. At Project Walk-Austin, we don’t focus on the fact that an individual has an SCI. We focus on that individual’s goals, evaluate their posture and gait, then formulate a plan to attack the weaknesses and bring about a more functional bilateral gait. Those with a functional gait will have a very long life out of a wheelchair.

Does anti-spasm medication affect a functional gait?
 

• It is simple-think of oil and water--they don’t mix. If you want a functional gait, you cannot take drugs to treat the symptom that causes you to improve. Spasms and tone are not the problem; they are only a symptom of a dysfunctional nervous system. If you treat the symptom, you will never recover. Treat the cause, and your nervous system will slowly mature into a functional system.

I have a good leg and a leg that doesn’t work--any experience working with people like me?
 

• Yes. This is one of the main reasons clients hire us to improve their gait. We have been very successful at training the weaker leg with our method, from creating movement where none existed to improving deficient coordination. Almost every client we work with has a good and bad side. Our clients improve because we focus most of our attention on the weaknesses, not the strengths. With focused and efficient training, our clients become more bilateral with their gaits.

These are only a few of the comments and concerns that we have heard. If we did not address your questions or concerns, please ask us. Please remember that our experience is with our method, therefore, we will not comment on any other treatments or surgeries.