Movements at the low back during normal walking

We present a technique for measuring the kinematics of the functional low back during normal gait. We have used a similar technique previously to measure low back movement simultaneously with hip, knee, and ankle movement during the toe‐touching manoeuvre. We noted that movements at the low back were biphasic. The greatest low back movements were found to occur in the transverse plane (mean = 23°), whereas a mean of 17° movement occurred in the coronal plane and only 5° movement in the sagittal plane. These findings confirm, using a non‐invasive technique, that there are significant ranges of movement at the low back during walking and lend some support to the theory that rotational movement at the low back is a major component of human locomotion. Clin. Anat. 17:662–666, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.