The Gait Cycle
An animated gait cycle with stance and swing phases, the three rockers, live joint-angle curves, muscle activity and eight gait patterns to compare.
What you can do
- Play the cycle from 0.25× to 1.5× speed, or step phase by phase on the timeline.
- Switch between body, skeleton and marker views of the same walking model.
- Follow hip, knee and ankle angle curves, with key textbook values marked.
- See which muscles work in each phase and how: eccentric or concentric.
- Compare eight patterns: normal, Trendelenburg, steppage, antalgic, crouch, stiff knee, calcaneus and equinus.
- Review the phase table, rockers, pearls, pediatric notes and a short quiz.
Key concepts
Stance takes about 60% of the cycle and swing about 40%, with two periods of double support. Three rockers (heel, ankle and forefoot) carry the body forward over the stance foot.
Much of the muscle work in walking is eccentric control. Gastrocsoleus at push-off and iliopsoas in early swing are the two main concentric accelerators.
Each pathological pattern is easiest to read as one change in one phase, one joint or one muscle, compared with the normal curves.
Further reading
- Tachdjian's Pediatric Orthopaedics: Gait Analysis, ch 5, and ch 6.
- Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics, 15th edition (2026): Arthroplasty of the Knee, ch 8 (knee motion during gait).
Designed for Orthoverse by Dr. M. M. Bakhshaei. Built to make orthopedic concepts visible, measurable and easy to explore.
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For medical education only. Orthoverse simulators are teaching models for health professionals and students. They are simplified on purpose, are not medical devices and are not a substitute for clinical judgement, patient-specific imaging or the original literature.
© 2026 Orthoverse. All rights reserved. The simulators, their code, drawings and models are original work. Free to use for learning on orthoverse.org; copying, embedding, scraping or redistribution is not permitted. Textbook references are cited for further reading only.