Stride Right: A Gait Assessment Breakdown
Have you ever wondered how your stride impacts your overall physical performance? Today, we're delving into the world of running physical therapy and gait assessment—a crucial tool in optimizing movement and enhancing athletic prowess.
What is different about physical therapy with a running specialist?
Working with a physical therapist who’s a running specialist means collaborating with someone who intimately knows and understands what it means to train: trying to hit consistent mileage each week, trying to improve your time, trying to get long runs in on the weekend, all while navigating a busy work and family life.
We want to be a part of your support crew and keep injuries at bay so you can stay the course and crush your next race!
What does this look in the clinic?
Running gait analysis gives us a lens into how you are running. Videos will be taken of your running on the treadmill and we break it down against our criteria to give us clues into your injury and help make decisions about your training/recovery plan. Based on our findings, we may then use running gait re-training to change your gait mechanics in real-time to alleviate symptoms.
Gait analysis also helps identify when to work on coordination and muscle weaknesses. We can use this information to prescribe running drills to improve specific aspects of your running gait cycle and strength exercises to be able to tolerate the loads of running.
Case Study: Hannah
Hannah came to us with a gradual onset of hip pain after attempting to increase her trail running. Not to mention, Hannah is also a high level climber, badass lawyer, and supermom of 2 young kids. At first glance, you might say this is a case of too much too soon, but Hannah’s path was not that typical.
She was making headway, but as soon as she attempted running and lifting again, the pain would immediately return. Because things were not responding as they should, we ordered an MRI and within a few days she was non-weightbearing on crutches diagnosed with a rare bone stress fracture.
Happy to say, Hannah followed her physical therapy to a “T” and fully recovered from her stress fracture, gradually returning to full lifting and climbing.
We got her back on the treadmill and addressed the long-standing knee pain on her other side. We took a look at her deadlift and were able to address her low back pain by adjusting her bracing strategy. Happy to say, she’s lifting and back to running again with new running goals!
Helping athletes RESOLVE THEIR PAIN by CLEARLY DEFINING THE PROBLEM and IMPLEMENTING EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS to get them back doing the activities they love!
If you are currently struggling with an injury or unable to perform in the activities you enjoy. Please follow the link to schedule a consultation call to discuss how we can help you.