MetaChat - Is your gait normal upon awakening?

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07 June 2008

Is your gait normal upon awakening? When I wake up in the morning I limp for a few steps or so before I can start walking normally. It feels as though my hip is messed up. It's not painful, but it's as if the joints aren't moving correctly. It's been happening for quite a while. I'm getting old.

Do you have to work the kinks out, or can you stroll right to the shower with nary a crick or pain?

post by: LoriFLA at: 14:11 | 25 comments

Shoot! Forgot MI.

posted by LoriFLA 07 June | 14:13

Yes, it happens to me too.

I also get this sometimes with my left foot. Many years ago I broke all the metatarsals. It all healed up but in the mornings I limp on it a little sometimes. It also happens if I sit, as I am doing now, with my left foot tucked up under my right leg.

posted by essexjan 07 June | 14:17

It varies, but if I've been doing particularly difficult/contortion-requiring work my walk to the kitchen bears more than a passing resemblance to The Evolution of Man, becoming fully upright only after putting the kettle on. I twisted my ankle about a month ago, which has added a slight limp to the process. There are many things I like about getting older, but that ain't one of them.

posted by elizard 07 June | 14:23

Yeah, I have the thing with my hip too. I don't exercise like I should; I wonder if that's part of it.

posted by desjardins 07 June | 14:23

Yer, I get this, from my hips (mild scoliosis and some sciatica). The shower helps a lot - direct the spray onto the hurty/unco parts.

My feet (broken metatarsals in my right foot that never properly healed; broken all of my toes on both feet at least twice from pointe shoes and stupid shit like running-jumping from jetties [spent xmas day in casualty when I was 9 for this very reason]) are at their best in the morning, because I haven't walked on them much yet!

posted by goo 07 June | 14:32

my walk to the kitchen bears more than a passing resemblance to The Evolution of Man, becoming fully upright only after putting the kettle on.

This just about made me squirt iced tea out my nose. :D

posted by BoringPostcards 07 June | 14:34

My hips are fine when I awake, but it take about a dozen steps before my feet do what they supposed to. Every morning I feel like I've been hobbled.

Also, goo, I too laughed out loud at that one.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 07 June | 14:57

Are you kidding. I look like I'm eighty for the first fifteen minutes of the day. My ankles won't work at all, I actually have to tip-toe to the bathroom because it hurts too much to stretch my tendons by walking flat. I should probably do yoga to stretch them out more.

posted by octothorpe 07 June | 15:10

I usually forget how to operate any of my muscles for the first five minutes of the day. I am the clumsiest person on Earth to begin with, so if I'm going to break, spill, drop, or otherwise mis-maneuver something in some totally hilarious manner, it's then.

posted by mykescipark 07 June | 15:40

If I sit in a midly constrictive position for a few hours (like using a laptop to type a paper or something, my knees will get unbelievable stiff, and will ache when I try to walk, and I will definitely hobble about.

And I'm only 24!

posted by muddgirl 07 June | 16:04

I have the stiff hip thing, only I notice it when I'm trying to go to sleep. I keep turning in bed to try to get comfortable. :/

posted by Claudia_SF 07 June | 16:44

Oh hells yeah, and it's only been happening to me ever since I spawned so I naturally blame the offspring.

O need to start yoga again, I'm like a tight rubberband.

posted by dabitch 07 June | 16:52

I'm also stiff in the morning, with the accompanying snap/crackle/pop of knees and ankles. I don't think it's my hips, it feels more like my lower spine. Since I work on my feet all day, if and when I sit for an extended break, once I stand up, I walk like I'm 90.

posted by redvixen 07 June | 17:03

Not hips, but ankles and achilles tendon problems. It often takes me a few minutes of walking around before it stretches out.

posted by DarkForest 07 June | 17:10

Another snap/crackle/pop member here. Ankles, mostly. Lately I've been trying to get over some plantar fascitis in my left foot. I stretch twice a day which helps a lot but it always takes weeks to fully heal. Ugh.

posted by chewatadistance 07 June | 17:59

Ankles and knees here. I have to walk tiptoe to pop/"realign" my knees in the morning. Ankles are somewhat optional, but if I don't do it, they'll pop on their own when I don't want them to.

posted by lysdexic 07 June | 18:15

I get out of bed like I'm 200 years old, but then, that's to be expected.

posted by kellydamnit 07 June | 18:43

It takes me 15 minutes or so to get to a normalish gait. Up until then it's old man walking (GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!). And the thing is, it's better than it was now that I've had orthotics for a couple months.

When I get up from changing the first diaper of the day on Stuart, it's hell.

posted by plinth 07 June | 18:58

Do you have to work the kinks out, or can you stroll right to the shower with nary a crick or pain?

I can stroll right to the shower.

I honestly wasn't aware that people could have these sorts of issues in the morning.

posted by jason's_planet 07 June | 20:08

I can stroll right to the shower, but I stumble into bed. That's the substances, though.

But I bitched about age stuff in my three point, so there ya go too.

posted by rainbaby 07 June | 20:34

I'm usually okay unless I've been working 12+ hour days (oh, concerts.) at which point my back is pretty awful.

I also occasionally get vicious calf cramps, which are most inconvenient because they precede leg growth. Plus they hurt and leave my calves sore ALL DAY.

posted by heeeraldo 08 June | 01:07

I say we all glare at jason's_planet.

When I first get up I'm all hunched over like an 80 year old with a dowager's hump and list to one side like I'm taking on water. It only takes a few minutes to get fully upright but even now, almost two hours after getting up, I'm still kinda stiff and sore.

posted by deborah 08 June | 12:50

My first move upon awakening, for a decade or more, has been to draw my legs straight up into the air, bent from the hips, and strrrrrrretch them for a minute or so. (I do this while I'm still mostly asleep, and it has startled more than one bedmate over the years.) Then I would spring from the bed all limbered up and ready for the day.

That was true until about 18 months ago, when I was knocked down by a car. Even now that I'm "fully recovered" (ha!), getting up in the morning is a series of careful shuffles and scoots, punctuated by crackling crunches of the joints.

I do, however, revel in the staccato song of maraca and castanets that my spine makes for me every day. Take pleasure where you find it; that's the secret to happiness.

posted by Elsa 08 June | 13:08

I had (have?) the ankles thing ... stiff achilles tendons - but I haven't noticed it lately. I'll have to try to notice in particular tomorrow morning. Maybe I don't have it now because I'm walking a lot. Or maybe I've just become used to it, and it doesn't register so much. That's odd, really, that I'm not sure. I'll let you know in the morning. :)

one thing is for sure, though, I definitely need stretching exercises... I've noticed that my flexibility really sucks these days. I can touch my toes - but not very gracefully or effortlessly. ugh. Should we start a stretch/yoga support group?

posted by taz 08 June | 13:09

I wake up, stumble to let the dog out without the kitten escaping, then, with 4 cats conspiring to impede my progress (don't you jerks know that I am getting your food NOW!?) I go into the pantry, and try to bend down to get a cup of food, then another 4 benddowns, to put some in each bowl, throughout the house (since they can't seem to eat together). Only then can I pee. (tmi, sorry) If this order is changed in anyway (meaning delay of food) then one of the cats sprays anything that he can take aim at, including parts of human bodies.

My body does not work well with any of that. It's maybe 10 minutes before everything is functioning the way it should, movement-wise. Mostly back, but also hips and knees.

posted by danf 09 June | 10:24

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