Gait Analysis

FTG Physical Therapy wants to ask you: how do you run? The act of running is a natural instinct. We have never properly been taught that there is a correct way to run. Even the world’s most efficient runners have faults that can lead to increased stress in certain areas. We want to make a plan to teach you how to make running less traumatic on your body.

When it comes to fitness and health, one of the first few exercises that often comes to mind is running. Running is a great workout that provides great benefits to one’s cardiovascular health. Running is a great stress reliever and a fun way to compete and train. However, many runners have not considered how beneficial a gait analysis can be towards their quality of life.

Runners tend to either push their body too fast and too hard or they endure countless minor injuries that slowly break down their system.  In runners, we mostly see micro-trauma and repetitive use injuries in the form of tendonitis, bursitis, muscle strains, and joint pain. In these situations, FTG Physical Therapy will advise you to rest, stretch, and ice. However, we understand that is it not always easy or possible for our clients to simply discontinue running in order to recover.  We are on your side. We want to provide you with a solution that will allow you to continue running and doing what you love.

Video gait analysis is a perfect technique we recommend for our runners. The gait analysis allows us to zoom in on different areas and see what is actually taking place at a specific joint. The video will allow us to slow down a sequence of strides frame by frame. This will allow us to focus on several links in the chain at once as well as allow us to show you exactly how your actions are impacting your body. From there, we can compare your running video with joint angle measurement throughout stance phase and then compare to expected norms

So, if you are a runner who experiences lower back pain, knee pain, or foot/ankle pain, a gait analysis could be helpful for you. However, gait analysis is not only beneficial for runners who have pain. It can be helpful for those who want to improve their performance, improve efficiency, or to prevent injury. To schedule your gait analysis, please call us at FTG Physical Therapy and we will look forward to helping you reach your best running potential.