National Institute on Aging funded study tracks changes to gait as we age

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Some people call it “walking on ice”— the careful steps and slower pace that older people take on when they walk.

Biomechanically it is a way to prioritize stability over economy — we slow down to decrease the chances we will fall and use our hips more than we use our ankles.

But “walking on ice” costs our bodies more metabolically and reduces walking speed, both of which have downstream consequences for healthspan. Learning more about that intersection is the heart of a recent award by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) researchers Dr. Greg Sawicki and Dr. Zach Graham.

The $3.2 million award, run through Sawicki’s lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola will focus on Identifying Multi-Scale Mechanisms for Age-Related Increase in Metabolic Cost of Walking (ID-MET).

“Mobility serves as a surrogate for well-being with age-related limits to walking function that include increased energy cost and decreased speed,” says Graham. “We want to understand more about how multiple systems interact as we age.”

Sawicki, whose home-base is the Human Physiology of Wearable Robotics Laboratory at Georgia Tech, was part of an expert panel convened by the NIA in 2021 to identify gaps in our knowledge about why mobility declines as we age. From that gathering, a key age-related difference in walking function emerged — the source of mechanical power generated by muscles to walk is redistributed within the leg from ankles to hips.

Scientists refer to this as the ‘distal-to-proximal shift, Graham says.

The goal of the IHMC study is to take a multi-scale approach to understanding the causes and consequences of that shift.

“We’ve pulled together a strong team that will combine traditional whole-body and joint-level biomechanics with tissue-level physiological data — including molecular analysis of key locomotor muscles — to understand the full cascade of age-related changes contributing to slow, effortful walking,” Sawicki says.

Data suggest walking function begin to sharply decline at age 60. This cross-sectional observational study will shed light on how this phenomenon plays out in the body and ultimately will aid in design of more effective interventions to keep us all walking vigorously into our 80’s and beyond.

“I look forward to connecting our sites with other study sites at Johns Hopkins and UMass-Amherst to share data and insights and make them available to other scientists, clinicians and engineers for maximum impact.” Sawicki says.

If you are interested in being a participant in this study, visit our study participation page to learn more.

Graham is the featured speaker at the Dec. 4, 2025 Evening Lecture on IHMC’s Pensacola campus. To reserver your seat for that lecture, which will include an overview of this study, click here.

IHMC is a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System where researchers pioneer science and technology aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities. IHMC researchers and staff collaborate extensively with the government, industry and academia to help develop breakthrough technologies. IHMC research partners have included: DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Institutes of Health, IBM, Microsoft, Honda, Boeing, Lockheed, and many others.