Malte* walks through the room where I have my training facility.

At first his gait looks very clumsy, but he is a skillful young footballer and there is nothing wrong with him anymore, so I can’t figure out why.

Perhaps because he is currently walking in socks on a slippery floor?

Since most of the kilometres he walks in a day are with shoes on, I ask him to put his shoes on. With his shoes on, I can clearly see that he is limping, but he has just told me that he hasn’t had any pain since our last consultation six weeks ago.

“Why do you limp?
“I don’t know…. Maybe I’m used to it?”
“Try not to.”
“Okay!”

He immediately stops limping and his gait becomes better, but still not optimal, so I film him to take a closer look.

The detailed analysis of what is wrong with Malte’s gait is not important here, but I discover enough points of impact or “findings” as I call it in the gait pattern to create a basis for a new injury.

The findings are not directly from the original injury that Malte came with, but most likely from “compensations” for the injury, which has settled in the connective tissue and created asymmetrical tensions.

This is of course what Malte needs to work on next in his self-training, but I often register this phenomenon and it is often the injury that I and a client spend the most time rehabilitating together.

I also sometimes ask myself if what I interpret as a compensatory injury, was in fact a pre-injury asymmetry in the musculoskeletal system and maybe even the root of it all?

Therefore: if you have an injury, or are working with a person with an injury, continue the effort until any possible compensatory injuries are also corrected to avoid new injuries.

*Malte is an alias for an actual client in my clinic.