DIY Gait training?
 

This is so simple that anybody can try it, so I'm going to pass it on at the prototype stage. Try it out. My initial reaction was positive.

I got to thinking about Greg's experience with the Gait Aid goggles and wanted to try it but that's a lot of money. After playing with it awhile I have come up with a possible alternative. it helps and maybe it will retrain the brain.

Here's how to make your very own-
Materials needed- 2 wire coat hangers, roll of masking tape

Take a coat hanger and stretch it so that you can wear it like a necklace. It should hang down to about mid-sternum.

Take the other and stretch it to form a square. Tape it to the other one at your sternum so that it rides like a cigarette tray - i.e. sticking out of your chest.

Looking down you should see some toes. Those are yours. Take one of those nasty little, short, shuffling steps and stop. One foot only. Stretch a piece of tape across the wire frame such that you can see your foot but not your big toe nail.

Now add another piece of tape by taking a second shuffle and then a third.

That's it! Finished.

You don't need the squares. Having the strips lets you start with a shuffle and then lengthen your stride with the other two strips. You're not struggling to walk. You're trying to see your toes. And using a different part of your brain!

Quite interesting Rick. I'll have to work on it.

GregD

a tip
 

It doesn't work when you are completely off, at least not at this stage. But if using it at better times of the day are reorganizing things, that might be enough.

I'm working on something else that I'll go ahead and put in the public domain. I am going to use a "tilt sensor" made from a soda straw with a BB inside and a pair of contacts at one end. BB rolls to one end, switch closes. Back the other way, switch opens. Glue the straw to a big safety pin.

Make a pair of those, stop by Radio Shack for a low cost buzzer and battery box. Pin one sensor to each leg to train to lift that blasted knee higher. Cost $10.

<Also has some cool possibilities running through game port on my desktop computer :D >

This is very interesting!

Get a Silent Coach and monitor yourself or recruit a partner.....works for me.
$75 is worth it to me to have someone else R&D it! :)

Kimberley-
Looked that bad boy up. I want one for my dog! :D

LOL! I originally bought it for my skating, then tried it for freezing...voila!

Usually hubby is the trigger man, but I can do it myself if out without him.