Gait analysis is the assessment of how a person moves while walking or running. This is typically carried out using video or observational analysis from multiple angles – front, side, and back – to build a clear picture of movement mechanics. During the process, we examine joint angles, muscle activity, and timing patterns. This helps identify inefficiencies and detect abnormalities within the gait cycle.
Gait analysis offers a wide range of benefits across prevention, rehabilitation, and performance:
- Injury Prevention: By identifying movement deficits or postural abnormalities, potential areas of injury risk can be highlighted. In older adults, gait analysis can help reduce the risk of falls by identifying issues such as foot drop or hip weakness. For athletes, pre-season screening may reveal movement patterns associated with overuse injuries before they develop.
- Rehabilitation Support: Following injury, surgery, or neurological conditions, gait analysis can support recovery by identifying compensations such as limping, poor alignment, or balance issues. This helps ensure correct movement patterns are restored, reducing the likelihood of secondary problems affecting the hips, knees, ankles, or spine.
- Performance Enhancement: For runners and athletes, gait analysis can be used to optimise efficiency and maximise power production during walking, running, or sprinting. It also helps redistribute load more evenly throughout the body, reducing excessive stress on areas such as the knees or lower back.
- Postural and Spinal Health: Gait analysis can detect underlying issues such as pelvic tilt, asymmetrical stride, excessive trunk rotation, or weakness in the core and hip muscles – factors that often contribute to back pain or poor posture.
By addressing these factors early, gait analysis not only improves current movement quality but also helps prevent long-term complications.
Assessment methods
Our gait analysis combines careful observation with advanced technology to give a complete picture of how you move.
- Observation from multiple angles: We watch you walk from different perspectives to identify subtle differences in your movement that might affect your balance or efficiency.
- Video recording and slow-motion analysis: High-quality video allows us to review your movements frame by frame, detecting issues that are often too small to see in real time.
- Joint flexibility and muscle strength testing: By measuring how far your joints move and the strength of your muscles, we can see how your body supports walking and identify areas that may need improvement.
- Symmetry, timing, and posture evaluation: We check how evenly your body moves, how your steps are timed, and how your posture affects your gait, helping pinpoint underlying causes of discomfort or imbalance.
- Head-to-toe movement breakdown: Every part of your body contributes to walking. Our detailed assessment ensures no detail is missed, from your head and torso down to your feet.
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