Video Gait Analysis

A video gait analysis is an important tool that can uncover why you may be getting pain or not moving in an optimal way, and then helps guide your treatment plan in a meaningful way that addresses the cause of the problem, as opposed to just working on the symptoms. 

Every time you take a step, your bones, joints and muscles work together in a complex yet seamless way to produce that movement. This is called your gait, and examining the unique specifics of your gait can uncover the cause behind many pains and problems in the feet and legs. This is what we do in a video gait analysis, where we record your natural gait while you walk or run on a treadmill, so we can see what your feet and legs are doing at each phase of gait.

What Does A Video Gait Analysis Show?

Through video gait analysis, we can observe your gait in a slow and careful manner, frame by frame, to look for movement dysfunction, inefficiencies in the way you move, and ways that your body may be compensating to account for a problem. The beauty of this system is that we also show you and explain exactly what we’re seeing! Simple examples of what we may show you include:

 

  • That you have a tight Achilles tendon that is causing your heel on one foot to start lifting off the ground much earlier than expected, causing you to spend more time loading the ball of your foot and creating a twisting movement at the big toe (as a way to explain pain at the big toe joint or the development of a bunion)
  • The amount of time your foot and ankle is spending rolling down and in a flatter foot position, which means the tissues that span your arch like the plantar fascia are spending significantly more time in a strained position, which is contributing to your plantar fasciitis heel pain as this excessive rolling (pronation) is uncontrolled with every step
  • Significant supination with every step, with your ankle bulging outwards and being unstable, which is contributing to your history of repeated ankle sprains
  • That each time your right knee lifts off the ground, the movement is coming from flexing the hip as opposed to sufficiently bending the knee and lifting the foot to clear the ground, which can explain your one-sided hip pain
  • Your larger and stronger muscles have become less active, forcing the smaller stabilising muscles to work much harder and become painfully overused

 

For the majority of our patients, their gait analysis is linked to a pain or problem they’re experiencing, so we can quickly look for gait factors that are causing or contributing to the problem. It’s no surprise that our gait is so closely tied in with pain, as each time we lift a foot off the ground, the other foot is left bearing 100% of our full body weight – and this can increase to up to 400% during running. For others, particularly the sporting world, their gait analysis is designed to identify dysfunctions generally so we can help optimise the way they move, and their sports performance, as a whole.

Health From The Feet Up

We take a holistic, whole-body approach to health here at Sole Motion, looking at a gait analysis as an important foundation for establishing movement patterns and characteristics that affect the whole body, from the feet up. This means that we take your gait analysis into account when considering upper body problems like back pain, and ensure that we optimise your foundations to help prevent recurring pains elsewhere in your body.

FAQ's

We start by ensuring you’re comfortable walking on a treadmill, getting you walking in bare feet, and later with shoes as needed. We start our recording software, and support you while you walk at a comfortable walking pace for approximately one minute. We then review your gait using our analytics software, show you what we’re seeing, and explain what everything means.

If you’re experiencing pains in your feet or legs, or you’re unhappy with your current movement or performance in sports, then a video gait analysis may help in identifying what’s going wrong, and guide a treatment plan to help address it.

We almost always start with a video gait analysis without shoes because that shows us how your feet and legs are naturally moving. You’re also not in your shoes 100% of the time and many walk around their homes in bare feet or socks, so it’s important to understand exactly what’s happening when you are. When we do a second video gait analysis with footwear, which are usually your sports shoes, this shows us how your footwear (plus any orthotics in them) are working to support your feet, which can offer us valuable insight if you’re doing lots of walking, running or playing sports. It may guide the decision to recommend selecting a pair of shoes whose support better matches the needs of your feet, or adjusting your orthotics if you have them to better address the needs of your feet.

Instantly! Your podiatrist analyses your results immediately after the recording and shares them with you.

A video gait analysis is completed as part of our biomechanical assessment of the feet and legs. Both the analysis and assessment are equally important components to best understand what is happening with your feet and why, and whether what we’re picking up on your assessment is translating to your gait and vice versa. To book your gait analysis, book a biomechanical assessment appointment.

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