A Short History

The current walker was first patented by a certain Andrejs Musiza, a Latvian immigrant to the US sometime after WWII. Its pioneering design consisted of a waist-high frame that surrounds the front and sides of the user and is about a foot deep and supporting the user’s weight on 4 points on the floor. The wrap-around design was meant to protect the user from falling sideways. The basic design endured over the years with various design innovation around it such as the slant and angle, lightweight materials and hand grip designs that make them more ergonomic.

Versatile Uses

There are walker variants designed for toddlers training to walk. They are necessarily circular framed surrounding the toddler to safely support standing as they move about. There are also walking frames for children adapted for kids suffering polio or have limited leg strength or balance problems.

There are now models that use wheels casters on front or back legs or all. A walking frame is meant to be thrown a few paces in front and the user walks to it while leaning over the walker, repeating the process to reach his/her destination. With wheels, the user just glides or pushes the walker ahead instead of picking it up every time. This certainly makes it easier for invalids with feeble arms.

While walkers are often prescribed in physical therapy sessions to help recuperating patients regain a temporary loss of mobility due to illness or injury to their leg muscles, they can also figure as permanent or alternative mobility solutions for people afflicted with life-long polio.

There are also walking frames for the elderly who suffer arthritic joint problems that make walking and standing over long periods difficult and dangerous for them without assistance. Walkers give them stability and some models have attachments for bags and trays for short distance visits to the corner drug or convenience store.

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Your 3rd and 4th legs using Fitness Poles

A walking staff or pole provides stability while relieving stress on you’re your muscles and joints. It can also provide a measure of security when your walking staff can be used as a weapon to fend off muggers.

While a solitary pole that acts as your third leg is often enough to provide walking stability, exercise buffs say that two sticks are superior to having just one. Using a pair of identical poles supports symmetric balance and absorbs the stress equally on either sides of the body. Exercise, hiking and trekking pole are one in providing these benefits. The hand grips and straps on these poles have been designed for assisting maneuverability with quick release features incase the poles get stuck along the trail.

It can take practice using poles but practice should be able to overcome any difficulty. They come with instructions with illustrations and even videos to guide first-time users get accustomed in using them.

These walking poles for exercise have specifications that make them suitable for the purpose. Some are just similar to walking canes to assist mobility impaired handicaps using rubber tips at the ends that contact the pavement of terrain. There are various types of tips depending on the terrain. One specially designed for walking in the sand, snow or soft terrain is the use of trekking baskets that prevent poles from sinking into the soft surface.

Shock-absorbing systems are also used like cork inside the pole top can reduces shock. Some uses springs inside. Regardless of the anti-shock mechanism used, walking poles benefits include increasing your comfort while using them.

Other features include adjustable height in some models. Single piece pole are generally lighter and offer the best choice for Nordic walking. Adjustable telescopic types are best suited for terrain trekking over hills and mountains so you can adjust the height when going uphill or downhill, allowing correct body incline when trekking. There are also collapsible poles that are handy with travelers and backpackers.

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They go beyond serving medical needs for assisting mobility needs of handicapped persons. You see them more than just a mere disability aid but have become a lasting fashion accessory across all social strata.

Walking canes for men have figured as a status symbol that the stylish gentry can’t forego with their caped tuxedos when attending white tie affairs and galas. And there are even walking canes for women that have a decidedly slimmer and more feminine design like using more of the colors associated with the fairer sex, like lavender and magenta.

Made from various wood or metal, these canes also come with ancillary functions as a concealed self-defense tool with the cane rod serving to sheath a bladed weapon or fencing foil within.

But there are also canes with less sinister concealment and have functional features like a flash light or remote controls for garage doors. Innovative designs are not rare with these fashion accessories.

You also have telescopic canes that can be stored in attaché cases or gabs and deployed when needed. They may not be as firm and sturdy as solid canes for purely medical ambulatory cases, but they do the job as fashion canes.

Over the years, vaudeville entertainers have been using them together with their top hats on stage dances and night club acts. Movies abound with characters using canes. You have the likes of Fred Astaire and Clark Gable singing and dancing with these canes on screen.

Medically, canes have come a long way from mere straight sticks with a rubber or foam-padded hand grip at one end, curved or angled away from the stick. A French mechanical engineer by the name of Emile Schlick, patented a walking stick design back in 1917 providing an obliquely angled supported at the upper end where the forearm rests.

A similar looking cane was likewise patented in the US by Philipp Cederstom earlier in 1915. And in 1945, you have A.R. Lofstrand, Jr. filing a patent for cane that has an adjustable length. Since the, most forearm crutches have been called Lofstrands canes, elbow crutches or Walk Easies which happens to be a brand name for the maker of these crutches.

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Without a walking cane or stick, walking stability can be compromised, increasing the risk of ambulatory accidents. It is also interesting to note that canes often figure as a fashion accessory than as a medical mobility aid.

Different Types

Various types of medical crutches aid in the ambulatory needs of patients suffering specific types of disorders. Forearm crutches are typically the most common anywhere in the planet and are used almost exclusively by patients suffering permanent disability condition. These mobility aids have semi-circular plastic or metal cuffs through which your forearm slips and has metal grip you hold onto. This can be for just one or both arms.

Then there are the underarm types which are most common and prescribed to patients with temporary ambulatory problems or injuries. The support comes by positing the aid under your armpits and holding a grip below. Rubber or foam pads make the aid comfortable against your armpit and ribcage.

A condition known as crutch paralysis or palsy can occur as the brachial plexus or acilla nerves under your armpit are damaged by pressure from this type of crutch. Providing thicker pads under the armpit can lessen the risk.

There are other types like Strutters, a variation of the elbow type with larger footprints on the floor, knee supports that is useful for patients with injury below the knee and the platform type which is the least common and often prescribed to patients with arthritis and cerebral palsy.

Alternatives

Regardless of type, all these walking aids are weight-bearing in that they harness your weight to support your walking gait and some can have health risks if used often like in the use of underarm crutches. As mobility aids, they are the cheapest to use. But if for whatever reason, you are comfortable using these, there are alternatives like a knee scooter, wheelchair or mobility scooters that can get your around faster and more conveniently. Needless to say, they cost more.

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