Gait analysis borrows a lot of vocabulary from biomechanics —
and not all of it is intuitive. Cadence is steps per
minute, not a hint about your fitness band's music taste.
Stance phase isn't a stage of grief. Here's every term
the ReWalk report uses, defined in a sentence or two with a
note on what a typical healthy adult range looks like.
- Assessment
- A single recorded gait session — the IMU stream captured while you walked, plus the metrics computed from it. Multiple assessments roll up into a trend.
- Asymmetry index %
- A summary number for how different the left and right do the same job, computed across multiple metrics (step length, stance time, single-support, etc.). 0% means perfectly symmetric.
Healthy adult range: typically < 3%. Above 6% usually warrants a closer look.
- Cadence steps/min
- How many steps you take per minute. Borrowed from "cadence" in music (a regular pulse), not the rhythmic sense from harmony. It's a strong proxy for confidence and balance — people with painful or unsteady gait drop their cadence to feel safer.
Healthy adult walking: ~100–120 steps/min. Brisk: 130+. Below 90 often signals caution or pain.
- Double support % of cycle
- The portion of each gait cycle where both feet are on the ground. Goes up when balance is uncertain (a wider, slower base feels safer).
Healthy: ~20% of the cycle. Higher means more time on two feet.
- Gait cycle
- One complete stride: heel-strike on one foot through to the next heel-strike on the same foot. Every other metric is measured per cycle.
- Heel-strike
- The moment your heel first touches the ground. The beginning of stance phase for that foot. Detectable as a sharp downward spike in accelerometer data.
- IMU sensor
- Inertial Measurement Unit — the chip in your phone that streams accelerometer + gyroscope + magnetometer readings at high frequency. ReWalk reads it at 100 Hz to reconstruct motion.
- Pelvic tilt degrees
- The angle your pelvis rotates in three planes (sagittal = front/back, frontal = side-to-side, transverse = twisting). Excess tilt on one side often hints at a hip-flexor or core imbalance.
- Range of motion (ROM) degrees
- How far a joint moves during a stride — knee flexion, ankle dorsiflexion, hip extension. ROM that's noticeably smaller on one side often signals stiffness, pain-guarding, or restricted recovery.
- Single support % of cycle
- The portion of each gait cycle where only ONE foot is on the ground. Symmetric single-support on both sides is a strong proxy for balanced loading.
Healthy: ~40% per side. Asymmetry between sides > 3% is worth investigating.
- Stance phase % of cycle
- The portion of each gait cycle when a foot is on the ground bearing weight. Stance shortens when standing on the affected limb is uncomfortable.
Healthy: ~60% of the cycle.
- Step
- The interval from one heel-strike to the next, alternating feet. Half of a stride.
- Step length m
- Distance between successive heel-strikes — left to right, then right to left. Shorter steps usually mean shorter strides; consistently uneven steps signal asymmetry.
Healthy adult: ~0.6–0.8 m at comfortable pace.
- Stride
- Two consecutive steps — one heel-strike to the next heel-strike on the same foot. Same as one gait cycle. Note that "stride" and "step" aren't synonyms.
- Stride length m
- Distance covered in one full stride. Together with cadence, it determines walking velocity (velocity ≈ cadence × stride length / 2).
Healthy adult: ~1.2–1.6 m. Drops with age, pain, or shorter limbs.
- Swing phase % of cycle
- The portion of each gait cycle when a foot is in the air, swinging forward. Complement of stance.
Healthy: ~40% of the cycle.
- Toe-off
- The moment the toes of the trailing foot leave the ground. The end of stance phase, the start of swing.
- Walking velocity m/s
- Forward speed during the assessment, averaged across the recorded segment. One of the most clinically meaningful single numbers — used as an overall fitness proxy across most rehab populations.
Healthy adult comfortable pace: ~1.2–1.4 m/s. Slow pace (< 1.0 m/s) often signals reduced function.