What is a normal walking cadence?

A typical adult walking cadence is roughly 100–120 steps per minute, though it varies with height, speed, and age.

Gait Analysis: A Plain-English Guide to How You Walk

Updated 2026-06-30

Walking feels automatic, but it's one of the most coordinated things the body does. Gait analysis is the study of how you walk — and it can reveal asymmetries and inefficiencies that static posture checks miss.

A timeline of one gait cycle showing the stance phase at about 60 percent and the swing phase at about 40 percent with their sub-phases. — One gait cycle runs from one heel-strike to the next heel-strike of the same foot.

The gait cycle

A single gait cycle is measured from one heel-strike to the next heel-strike of the same foot. It splits into two phases:

Stance phase (~60%) — the foot is on the ground: heel strike → mid-stance → toe-off. This is where the body accepts load and propels forward.
Swing phase (~40%) — the foot is in the air, swinging through to the next heel strike.

Both legs cycle out of phase with each other, so there are brief moments of double support when both feet touch the ground — a feature that distinguishes walking from running.

The five sub-phases of the stance phase of gait: initial contact, loading response, mid-stance, terminal stance, and pre-swing. — The stance phase, broken into its five sub-phases — from initial contact to pre-swing.

What gait analysis measures

Cadence — steps per minute (typically ~100–120 for adult walking).
Step and stride length — distance per step and per full cycle.
Symmetry — whether the left and right sides spend equal time in stance and swing.
Joint motion — how the ankle, knee, and hip move through the cycle.

Common gait deviations

A few patterns show up often:

Asymmetry — favouring one side, often after an old injury.
Reduced push-off — weak calves or glutes limiting propulsion.
Excessive hip drop — a sign of weak hip abductors (gluteus medius), the same muscles behind uneven hips and dynamic knee valgus.
Over-striding — landing with a long, braking step ahead of the body.

How gait connects to posture

Gait and standing posture share the same machinery. A weak gluteus medius shows up both as a hip drop when you walk and as uneven hips when you stand. That's why building hip and core strength — the glute medius isometric, side plank, and bird dog — pays off in walking too.

Where to start

A full instrumented gait lab uses force plates and motion capture, but you can learn a lot from a simple side-on and front-on video of yourself walking. Start by checking symmetry and hip drop, then strengthen the hip and core muscles that stabilise each step. A standing posture scan is a useful companion — many gait issues have a static posture signature.

A dedicated walking-analysis feature is on our roadmap. For now, this guide and the static scan cover the fundamentals.