Ability to Balance, Postural System, Locomotion and Gait

While walking and standing, the human body is often in an indifferent or unstable condition. The "postural system" enables postural stability. Locomotor activities and the postural system constitute a functional unit which occasionally is also called "sensorimotor system". Dysfunctions or the loss of individual components in the postural, respectively the sensomotor system regularly impair balance abilities. Balance abilities and the risk to fall correlate. In every day life the most important locomotor activity is walking. In walking a standing phase can be distinguished from a momentum phase. A physiological gait cycle is tied to certain conditions. Walking speed is reduced in the elderly.