The Who, What, When, Why and How of a Quality Gait Measurement System
Evaluating physical performance is an intricate process that requires taking many factors into account. These include an athlete’s unique biomechanical makeup, any injuries or genetic quirks, their sport, chronic movements based on that sport, physical therapy routines, shoes and other gear. The same is true for patients where multiple lifestyle angles must be considered before diagnosis and recommendations can be made.
One of the most helpful tools in analyzing performance is a quality gait measurement system. Until we understand how the athlete or patient stands, walks and runs, it’s impossible to make recommendations to heal current injuries and prevent new ones. And before we can understand that, it’s critical to understand the who, what, when, why and how of a quality gait measurement system.
Who Is Gait Measurement For?
Those who benefit from a gait measurement system fall into two basic categories:
- Patients: Real-life, everyday people who have suffered an injury or who are managing chronic conditions need intelligent analysis to determine the root of their problems. These can come from musculoskeletal structural abnormalities, a recent injury, an old injury, or a genetic condition. Understanding what is happening in the foot on a very granular level can help address the problem, create the proper physical therapy routines, and help the patient heal permanently.
- Athletes: When athletes return from injuries, they’ve often developed abnormal gaits to compensate for them. If you want to improve sports performance quickly, you need to identify how their gait has changed and help them return to normal walking and running patterns.
Patients and athletes are the ones who wear the insoles and mount the stance pads and walkways that perform the measurement and data collection. Physicians, athletic trainers, coaches, and physical therapists perform the experiments and analyze the data.
Only once clinicians and trainers understand what they need will athletes or patients see a marked improvement in their performance and quality of life.
What Do We Do with It?
So just what do we do with a gait measurement system? Such technology enables us to analyze human gait in a wide variety of ways, including:
- Gather lab-quality data out in the field, where athletes and patients normally work, walk, run, stand and otherwise use their bodies
- Record plantar pressure, foot function and gait with comprehensive, reliable, comfortable and form-fitting insole sensors that mold to the foot and facilitate natural motion
- Take measurements continuously without agonizing recalibrations
- Use wireless sensors to transmit data, avoiding cumbersome cables that restrict movement and cause people to move in unnatural ways
- Make comprehensive analysis with easy to use well-engineered software
If your goal is optimal athletic performance through gait, a gait measurement system allows you to see where the biomechanics are off and how best you can correct them.
When Is It Needed?
Anytime you’re failing to gather the data you need to diagnose tricky conditions and offer treatment guidance, you can benefit from a gait measurement system.
Many biomechanical issues exist on a level undetectable to the human eye. If you cannot tell what’s going on, even through repeated sessions, questions and observations, this might be the tool you’re lacking to help you decide on a corrective strategy.
Why Is It Needed?
Whether or not your patient needs orthotics or another form of physical intervention, a gait measurement system is critical to preventing injuries and keeping performance sound throughout their lives.
Injury is not necessarily a requirement of using a gait measurement system. For instance, capturing baselines, monitoring weight shifts and helping athletes optimize them can make significant improvements in baseball, tennis and golf. Similarly, measuring gait can indicate when slight divergence from a typical gait may herald a future injury, allowing you to head it off.
And of course, gait analysis helps physicians to help patients increase their stability, mobility, flexibility and strength – from professional athletes to active grandmothers. For that reason, the “why” of a gait measurement system is pretty clear: it helps you help the people you care about to become their best selves.
How Does a Gait Measurement System Work?
The “how” might be the easiest part of a gait measurement system. While the tech involved is at the forefront of industry advancement, the methodology itself is quite simple:
- Have the patient or athlete don a pair of gait and motion research insoles.
- Ensure they are connected to a data collection system wirelessly, the better to gather data in the field without interference.
- Put the patient on a walkway sensor or stance pad, or ask them to perform their regular routines “in the wild,” as it were: at the gym, on the track, in the field, etc.
- Gather data from the sensors thousands of pressure points.
- Analyze the data using software and determine where gait/stance is off.
- Use these conclusions to develop highly tailored PT routines to correct gait, heal injury and prevent additional trauma.
Let XSENSOR Help Today
Want to learn more about human gait analysis methods and products? Our insoles or walkway and stance pads will help provide you with the data and insights needed to take your clinic or facility to the next level.
