Gait Analysis
At Kinetic Podiatry Clinic, we concentrate on the structure, alignment, muscle and movement of your lower limbs, right through to examining the specific way your feet strike the ground and how these processes impact the rest of your body.
What is Gait Analysis?
It is not only vital for those wishing to remain in top health, improved fitness and mobility, but also for those seeking to improve their function in competitive sports. Through assessment and analysis we will find the main underlying problem that compromises your ability to move effectively and what causes the problems aches and pain, in order to fulfill our goal of providing all patients with a long-term and sustainable solution.
“Gait” is the term expressed to describe the process of moving specific elements of your body.
“Gait Analysis” therefore, is the term we use to describe a professional assessment of the way your body moves from a holistic viewpoint as well as placing particular emphasis on your feet and lower limbs. This is not to be compared to a running shop or other "perceived" gait analysis assessing individual.
Why book a Gait Analysis?
At Kinetic Podiatry Clinic, Gait Analysis is fundamental in helping us detect underlying problems in your feet and lower limbs. The analytics provides us with crucial information about your muscle flexibility, strength conditioning, your style of walking and running and your level of pronation (the way your foot rolls inwards.) It can help us to detect biomechanical irregularities and imbalances (often unseen by the untrained eye) enabling us to correctly diagnose and treat your feet or lower limbs. In many circumstances, if we detect and treat misalignment in the structure of your feet, any corresponding pain in your feet, knee, hip, back (and possibly even your neck) may be significantly reduced or even completely eliminated.
During a Gait Analysis we take into consideration the stress on your entire body, not just the stress placed on your lower limb area. We analyse weight load (your body weight and how it is distributed.) We also look at how your body twists and turns in movement and the associated interaction of your muscles, bones and soft tissue through to that final impact as your foot strikes the ground.
We carefully analyse how much you excessively pronate. If you are inclined towards over-pronation, your feet roll inward; conversely under-pronation is when your feet don’t roll inward enough. Most patients suffer from one or the other, more so excessively pronated feet.
Through corrective treatment following your Gait Analysis we are able to counter-balance asymmetrical degrees of pronation and many other irregularities. This may involve advising you on the correct footwear and strengthening and stretching programmes or providing you with foot supports or Orthotics (bespoke insoles.) All of our recommendations are based on our aim of effectively treating your pain and problem areas, reducing your risk of injury and improving your overall functionality. Our patients can, on average, be expected to be resolved within four to five appointments.
Whether you take part in professional or amateur sports, or regularly enjoy extreme physical activities such as running, athletics, gym classes, body attack, body pump, spinning, dance and other competitive pursuits, or simply want to remain pain free and mobile for as long as possible, undergoing a Kinetic Podiatry Clinic specialist Gait Analysis is a crucial method for helping you to improve and sustain the levels of fitness you require and lessen potential injury.
In summary, any treatment following our Gait Analysis can significantly aid your functionality and help you to walk, run and move more efficiently, more importantly, PAIN FREE!
