The Autumn Gait Check: How Changing Your Footwear & Terrain Impacts Joint Health

The autumn gait check: how changing footwear and terrain can affect your joints

Your movement can start to shift with the season before anything feels obviously different. Dry summer pavements become wet and slippery, fallen leaves hide uneven ground, trails soften, and lighter shoes are often replaced by boots, waterproof trainers or thicker-soled footwear. You may be walking or running the same distance, but the demands being placed on your feet, ankles, knees and hips can be different.

We would not jump from “new shoes” or “slippery ground” straight to a conclusion about what is causing your pain. We look at the bigger picture: what has changed, how your body is responding and whether your current strength and movement capacity match the demands you are placing on it. That reflects the wider Perfect Balance approach of using assessment and gait analysis to understand the cause of recurring movement problems rather than treating symptoms in isolation.

If an Achilles has started feeling tight, the heel is uncomfortable after longer walks or an old knee problem has begun returning on your runs, autumn is a useful time to look at the combination of footwear, terrain and loading rather than simply pushing through it.

Why autumn surfaces can change your gait

You can remain completely stable and still move differently because the surface feels less secure. Research has shown that when people anticipate a slippery floor, they naturally shorten their steps and change the way the foot approaches the ground. These are sensible protective adjustments, but they also alter the forces and muscular demands being managed through the lower limb.

Uneven terrain presents a different challenge. Each step may require a slightly different response from the foot, ankle, knee and hip. Research examining walking on irregular ground has found greater step-to-step variability and changes in lower-limb muscle activity and joint work compared with walking on a more predictable surface.

That does not mean autumn terrain is harmful. Your tissues and movement patterns are capable of adapting when the demands change gradually enough. Problems are more likely to emerge when the new demand arrives alongside other changes: increased running mileage, longer walks, a return to commuting, different footwear, reduced strength or an existing problem that was already close to becoming symptomatic.

On wetter or less predictable ground, you may also become slightly more guarded without realising it. Stride length can reduce, foot placement may become more cautious and the muscles around the lower limb may do more stabilising work. Over one short walk that may be insignificant. Repeated across weeks of walking, commuting or training, it can become a meaningful change in workload.

The autumn footwear switch

Autumn often changes the ground and the shoe at the same time. Sandals, flexible summer shoes or lightweight trainers may suddenly be replaced by heavier boots, waterproof running shoes or footwear with a firmer sole.

A noticeable change in shoe design can produce an equally noticeable change in foot and ankle movement. Sole stiffness, cushioning, shoe weight and heel-to-toe drop can all influence the way forces are managed as you walk or run. How a shoe is built can shape the way you move, although injury prevention cannot be reduced to one footwear choice.

A more rigid sole, heavier shoe or different heel-to-toe drop may alter where load is absorbed through the foot and lower leg. For some people, particularly when the change is sudden or combined with more walking or running, this may coincide with plantar heel pain, Achilles symptoms or shin discomfort. Research has also shown that changing footwear can influence Achilles tendon loading.

The useful question is therefore not simply, “Are these good shoes?” It is, “How different are these shoes from what my body is used to, and how am I responding to them?”

Why the heel, Achilles and knee may start to complain

Pain that appears seasonally is usually better understood by looking at the pattern around it, not one variable. Someone developing plantar fasciitis or plantar heel pain may also have increased their daily walking, started wearing stiffer shoes and spent more time on hills. A runner developing Achilles tendinopathy may have changed footwear at the same time as adding faster sessions. Patellofemoral pain syndrome may become more noticeable after mileage increases or more uneven running rather than because one isolated element of gait is suddenly “wrong”.

At Perfect Balance, the pattern around the symptom matters. Does it appear in one pair of shoes but not another? Does the discomfort begin on a road, trail or hill? Does the Achilles feel fine while you are running but stiff the following morning? Does knee pain emerge only once you become tired?

Those details help build a more useful clinical picture. Gait is one part of that picture, alongside strength, mobility, activity levels, previous injury and how quickly your workload has changed.

How to check your gait at home

If you have been searching for how to check gait or how to check your gait at home, there are a few simple things you can observe before arranging a formal assessment.

Ask someone to record a short video while you walk naturally in the footwear you use most often. A few simple angles can help highlight obvious patterns without encouraging you to overanalyse small details. Is one step consistently shorter? Does one foot turn out much more than the other? Do you appear to favour one side? Try not to analyse tiny differences frame by frame. Human movement is naturally variable, and asymmetry does not automatically mean something needs correcting.

It is also worth looking beyond the video. Compare single-leg balance from side to side. Try a few controlled calf raises. Notice whether symptoms change when you swap shoes, walk on hills or move from firm pavement to softer ground. If you are asking how to check your gait, these real-world patterns are often more informative than trying to identify one supposedly perfect foot position.

Three simple ways to prepare for uneven ground

You do not need a complicated prevention programme to prepare for autumn. A few simple strength and balance exercises can help build the capacity needed for more variable surfaces.

Try these three movements:

Slow calf raises

Rise onto the balls of both feet, pause briefly and lower with control. If this is comfortable, progress towards single-leg calf raises. Around 8–12 controlled repetitions can be a sensible starting point.

Bent-knee calf raises

Keep the movement controlled, but soften the knees as you rise onto the balls of the feet. This changes the emphasis within the calf complex and can be useful for building tolerance through the ankle and lower leg.

Single-leg balance with movement

Stand on one leg near something you can use for support. Once steady, reach the opposite foot gently forwards, sideways and backwards. This creates small, controlled balance challenges similar to the adjustments required on uneven ground.

Balance-based injury-prevention programmes have been shown to reduce ankle injury rates in sporting populations. That does not mean these exercises will prevent every injury, but they are a practical way of developing some of the qualities needed for variable terrain.

Treat new footwear like a change in training

One of the simplest ways to reduce unnecessary overload is to avoid changing everything at once. If your new autumn shoes feel very different, introduce them over shorter walks or runs and keep your familiar pair in rotation where practical.

Pay attention to fit as well as cushioning. Your footwear should accommodate the foot comfortably while still giving you a secure heel and an appropriate interface with the ground. Waterproofing alone does not tell you how much grip or flexibility the shoe provides.

For runners, avoid introducing new shoes, more mileage, more hills and faster sessions in the same week if you can. Gradual change makes adaptation easier and also makes it far clearer which factor matters if symptoms start to appear.

When a Gait scan can help

A Gait scan can be useful when discomfort repeatedly appears with walking or running, an old problem keeps returning, or you cannot understand why one shoe or surface feels very different from another.

Perfect Balance uses gait assessment to inform the wider clinical picture rather than letting the technology dictate the conclusion. The clinic's gait-analysis approach is designed to assess walking and running patterns and explore how they may relate to recurring lower-limb problems.

You may have arrived here after searching for a gait check near me, running gait check near me or simply gait check. What matters is not just finding somewhere that can scan your feet. The useful part is connecting what the scan shows with your symptoms, footwear, strength, mobility and activity.

Sometimes that leads to footwear advice. Sometimes the priority is strength or rehabilitation. In other cases, gait itself may not be the main issue at all.

Autumn does not require a perfect stride. It asks your body to adapt to different surfaces, different shoes and slightly different demands. If that transition is bringing back pain or making walking and running less comfortable, understanding why is a better starting point than simply waiting for it to settle.

Gait scans are available at Perfect Balance clinics in Hatfield, St Albans, Moorgate and Cambridge.

If your symptoms are persisting or repeatedly linked to walking and running, contact Perfect Balance to discuss whether a Gait scan would be a useful part of your assessment.

Research disclosure:
This article was supplemented with additional external research. Sources used include:

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Voloshina AS, Kuo AD, Daley MA, Ferris DP. Biomechanics and energetics of walking on uneven terrain. Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013;216(21):3963–3970. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.081711. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23913951/

Sun X, Lam WK, Zhang X, Wang J, Fu W. Systematic Review of the Role of Footwear Constructions in Running Biomechanics: Implications for Running-Related Injury and Performance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2020;19(1):20–37. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32132824/

Malisoux L, Chambon N, Urhausen A, Theisen D. Influence of the Heel-to-Toe Drop of Standard Cushioned Running Shoes on Injury Risk in Leisure-Time Runners: A Randomized Controlled Trial With 6-Month Follow-up. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2016;44(11):2933–2940. DOI: 10.1177/0363546516654690. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27501833/

Zhang X, Deng L, Yang Y, Li L, Fu W. Acute shoe effects on Achilles tendon loading in runners with habitual rearfoot strike pattern. Gait & Posture, 2020;82:322–328. DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2020.09.027. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33022565/

Al Attar WSA, Khaledi EH, Bakhsh JM, Faude O, Ghulam H, Sanders RH. Injury prevention programs that include balance training exercises reduce ankle injury rates among soccer players: a systematic review. Journal of Physiotherapy, 2022;68(3):165–173. DOI: 10.1016/j.jphys.2022.05.019. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35753965/