LiteGait Blog

Sample Post #5

Admin — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Understanding Litegait

In the realm of rehabilitation, technology continues to push boundaries, offering innovative solutions to aid patients on their path to recovery. A recent blog written by Haley King with VIM Health discusses this very topic. In their article, they delve into the intricate details of the LiteGait rehabilitation device. Exploring its remarkable features, benefits, applications, and the transformative impact it has on the lives of those seeking to restore their mobility. Below is a brief summary of Haley's article, I highly recommend reading their blog post.

Sample Post #4

Admin — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Understanding Litegait

Sample Post #3

Admin — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Understanding Litegait

Sample Post #2

Admin — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Understanding Litegait

Sample Post #1

Admin — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Understanding Litegait

LiteGait

Admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:36:05 GMT

I have the greatest job on earth. For the past 10 years I have been on the road several times a month, traveled to all but 6 states (OK, NM, AK, OR and the Dakotas, I’m looking at you!), 5 Canadian provinces and much of Europe. I even traveled to Bermuda twice and Australia for work once! I love traveling around the world (I laugh at time zones!) and teaching other therapists how to maximize their patient outcomes using a piece of equipment that I fell madly in love with more than 2 decades ago. The rush I get, meeting a patient and deciding at a glance what will help them the most, demonstrating that to their therapists and helping them to problem-solve in order to “make it easy” is better than going to a concert and knowing all the words because they play ALL you’re favorite songs!

And then, it all came to a screeching halt. Grounded. My first cancelled trip was to the UK in March, one I actually pushed to keep on the calendar, until the conference I was speaking at was cancelled at the last minute. COVID-19 was far more widespread than we realized… Then the cancellations kept rolling in: Florida, Pennsylvania, NYC… I shopped for what was going to be a 2-week lockdown. Then the news came that all travel would be cancelled until the beginning of June. It is now mid-June and we are just starting to schedule in-person classes again. I get to drive a couple of hours to do a training in mid-July. I get to fly out to Iowa this summer. And I am feeling… scared. And excited. And anxious… and… I don’t know….

For going on 4 months now, I have had to shift my focus and my strategies dramatically. I have to use my words and gestures and videos to teach people to do things from a distance that I would normally use hand-over-hand strategies to teach. It takes longer and requires a different “muscle” to accomplish this. I shout for people to move the camera, that they are frozen, and “no, not like that, here- this, no, don’t hold the buckle, hold the strap…. the strap!!! As a New Yorker, talking with gestures comes naturally to me, but now all my gestures need to be in the camera frame (Zoomed in tight- don’t look at my mess!) But the high is the same. Talking a family member or a therapist through a series of steps to solve their problem can be effective, and can drive the same type of high as doing it in person. But I miss the hugs and high fives from the patients and their families when things come together for them! And so, back on the road in 5, 4, 3, 2….

LiteGait

Admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:36:05 GMT

First OnSite Training in the time of Covid

I did my first training in four months...

“Hi my name is Kayli, and this week I did my first in-person LiteGait training session in over 4 months. Since this was local, this was a good place to start with no air travel involved. But still I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know how it would impact the session and instruction to be wearing a mask and donning PPE and all the extra sanitizing that we really didn’t give much thought to prior to COVID. But what I found is behind the masks, people are still the same.

This was an enthusiastic group who was really appreciative of the on-site instruction. The only thing missing for me was that I like to put faces with names, and I couldn’t put faces with names because everyone’s faces were covered.

So, while this is our new normal for now, I have no doubt that LiteGait trainings on-site and in-person will continue to offer value to our customers. So, I am glad to have this first LiteGait training behind me and will be cheering on my fellow LiteGait trainers, some of which will be going into specific areas of the country for in-person instruction later this summer. “

View All Blog

LiteGait

Admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:36:05 GMT

On the road again...

“It’s been 4 months...“ Am I rusty?

“It’s like riding a bike, you never forget how...” True, the pedaling and balancing and steering, you don’t forget. Other things? Looking out for traffic, navigating toward your destination, sticking to you side of the road, passing protocols... those, you forget.

After being grounded for 4 months, providing virtual trainings and clinical support from the comfort of my couch, last week I got to hit the road again to teach my first in-person class. While packing my training bag the night before the trip I tried to ignore the butterflies in my gut and focus on the task at hand: the same, but different. I had done this hundreds of times before, but this time I removed all the “just in case” training materials from my bag, and this time not to meet an airline's weight limit for my bag... I was driving to this one! No, the fewer items I carry, the fewer I will have to disinfect after class. The bag felt weirdly too light as I carried it down the stairs and tossed it into my car. .

Back upstairs, I packed my separate “infection control bag. Mask, Lysol spray, disinfectant wipes, faces shield, change of clothes, gloves, hand sanitizer. Extra plastic bag for “dirty” items that go straight in the washer when I get home. That’s a LOT of prep for a 3-hour class. What did I forget? (Spoiler alert: I forgot to gas up my car... if you don’t go anywhere, gas is not an issue!) Switch my toll tag to the “work” one. Set my alarms (how much wiggle room do I need for the drive?) Get to bed, I have an early wake-up for the first time in months (how did I ever leave home at 4 to catch a 6am flight??)

My first alarm went off and I hit snooze (‘s ok, I set plenty... first-day-of-school jitters). Shower, dress, head down to the car. Ugh. Empty tank! That’s why I build in extra time. Gas up. Hit the road “for real” this time. Waze day my ETA is 9:15am. Waze is a liar. Dead standstill on the Hutch. New ETA 10:15, text the site. Standstill lets up. New ETA 9:45. Not bad! Twist and turns on the Taconic, miss my turn, no cell signal. Reroute myself, new ETA 10:00. Made it!.

The teaching part was easy. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget how. The navigation, not so much. Left home at 7am, returned at 4:45pm (traffic??) for a 3-hour class. And forgot to plan for needing a bathroom, it’s been too long since I’ve been on the road!

View All Blog

LiteGait

Admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:36:05 GMT

The Victorious Cycle – How JA and Mobility Link up for Success

July is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month: Did you know that 300,000 children in the USA are affected by various forms of arthritis? Inflammation, swelling, and stiffness turn their developing joints painful, causing immobility. In some types of juvenile arthritis, inflammation and medications used cause bone loss, resulting in greater risk of broken bones! In others, joint damage results from inflammation. Studies show that kids with arthritis are deconditioned compared to their healthy counterparts: they have less muscle strength and poorer endurance.

What is to be done about it? Exercise! Bones are living tissue that needs exercise to get stronger. Weight-bearing and strengthening exercises are best for bones, but during exacerbation phases of arthritis, pain may limit a child’s ability to move or bear weight on those painful joints.

While there is not currently a cure for juvenile arthritis, the goal of treatment is to relieve inflammation, control pain and improve the child’s quality of life. Physical activity improves arthritis pain, fatigue, function and quality of life! Exercise is considered the most effective non-drug treatment available for reducing pain. But what if your walking is limited by arthritis pain? “Staying active” in the face of joint pain seems like an impossible task!

Off-loading a painful joint and moving it repeatedly is an effective way to decrease arthritis pain. Using the LiteGait® for body-weight supported walking can take some of the load off of arthritic hips, knees or ankles, allowing the person to walk longer, and accomplish their health and fitness goals. As an added bonus, the muscle strengthening and repeated movement associated with walking actually helps to relieve the joint pain associated with arthritis. Start a victorious cycle of improvement: decrease your pain, so you can exercise more, so you have less pain! Now there is a gift that keeps on giving!

View All Blog

LiteGait

Admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:36:05 GMT

SCI and LiteGait: long-term consulting from a distance

“I’m a brain person. Acquired brain injury is my true love,

but I’ll take congenital if that’s what you’ve got. Really, any neurological population is fine with me. Except for spinal cord injury. I cut my teeth as a PT in pediatrics, then segued into adult populations. But what I have never really done to any extent is to work with people with spinal cord injuries. Maybe 2 in my entire pediatric career and one of those was actually spina bifida, a congenital spinal cord injury.)

In my “mature” career, I have had to consult with people with spinal cord injuries in my role as an educator: one-and-done type consults. A demo at a course, and never see them again. Until COVID. During the COVID pandemic, I have had to do more remote trainings, and so the “one-and-done” spinal cord injury patient demos have morphed into more long-term consulting from a distance for home LiteGait users with spinal cord injuries. One got started in the summer (I still periodically FaceTime into his PT sessions, since his treating therapist at home has an orthopedics background), and the other started just yesterday. His injury is more extensive and all I had to fall back on is my theoretical knowledge of how to work with someone with a cervical spinal cord injury and only slight muscle activation in one leg. His activation is well below what I learned “academically” is the bare minimum for gait training… But what I learned academically was a quarter of a century ago, and spinal cord injury research has grown a lot since then. We now understand spinal locomotor mechanisms and how they respond to intervention and have much greater hope for return of function in this population. I have been teaching this subject for years, but my practical experience has been minimal.

Armed with my theoretical knowledge, I zoomed into the family’s living room yesterday and coached them through setup in the LiteGait. It’s different via zoom. I couldn’t scan the room with my eyes and see what was available – something I do automatically whenever I walk into a training session (knowing they had a massage table would have made things easier….) But we got set up and onto the treadmill and ready to start the motor… except “I’m feeling nauseated” he says as his wife remarks that he is VERY pale. Despite wearing support stockings and an abdominal binder it appears that his blood pressure has dropped, and I talk the family through lowering him back into the chair and loosening the harness for some breathing room, tilting him back and elevating legs and waiting for it to pass. In an in-person training session in a rehab facility that might be the end of the session. We only have 30 minutes with each patient. But it’s the weekend, and I am sitting on my couch, so we wait it out. He says he is feeling better and ready to get back to work. Back up into standing, and onto the treadmill, I talk them through body weight supported gait training techniques with one helper at each leg. The clonus on the right is not too bothersome, but man, is it a workout. We reach .6 mph and keep it going for a couple of minutes, rest and then another 5 minutes or so. Not too bad for a first session. Let’s pick this up again tomorrow, and we can tweak the setup. I provide a link to an instructional video for them to review – tomorrow we will adjust harness application since I know you have the massage table in advance…

Day 2 starts out differently. They log in with him harnessed up, and the room rearranged per my suggestions. Lifting to stand and onto the treadmill is much faster, and BP holds steady. 2 different helpers today (gonna train the whole family so they can take turns), and I talk them through the gait training. Our target training speed is 2mph, and I figure it will take a couple of weeks to build up to that speed.

Nope, he reaches it on day 2, with 3 bouts of 5 minutes walking. BP holds steady, that clonus doesn’t rear it’s ugly head at all, and the assistance is easier to provide at the faster speed. “I feel my thighs” he says… pain? “no, tingling, or a little burning like I feel them working – like a workout. Both of them.” The right had no sensation when we got started – an unexpected outcome, to be sure. I thought it would take longer to get up to the speeds necessary to up-regulate the spinal locomotor mechanisms. More sessions of coaching before they were ready to fly on their own. They proved me wrong. I was afraid to let them go just yet. Asked them to record a few seconds of their next session and send it my way. Keep a log of training and response. And zoom me again mid-week, so I can be sure you are managing. But I am pretty sure they will continue to prove me wrong. I thought I was good at role-release pre-COVID. But COVID has taught me that my “magic hands” really aren’t all that magical at all. Families are plenty capable, even without me in the room with them.

View All Blog