I can always feel it through the gait belt. For safety, we place one on every patient we plan to mobilize, to give us something to hold on to for patient stability. Once experienced, you can feel through the gait belt how confident patients are in their movements, how strong (or weak) their core musculature is, where weaknesses exist in their gait pattern, and their current degree of fatigue. I always strive to teach my students to be gait belt whisperers.
Many studies show the inverse relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and overall health, including life expectancy. While I feel that this is somewhat common knowledge for many of us, I also think that it’s quite easy to underestimate how much weak legs factor in the equation. Weak legs make you less able to do what you want to do, make you feel less confident, rob you of excellent cardiovascular benefits, and place you into a vicious cycle of ever-increasing weakness and inactivity that can ultimately decrease your lifespan.
