Understanding gait analysis
If you want to avoid injury, reduce your chances of falling or feeling dizzy, improve your posture, or increase your confidence with movement, you can benefit from gait analysis.
Gait analysis is used to identify abnormalities in everyday movement. It’s most often recommended for runners and serious walkers. However, a gait analysis can help anyone looking to improve their walking skills, decrease their risk of injury from falls, and increase their independence. Since walking and balance are closely related, improving one will impact the other – and a gait analysis examines both.
Because gait patterns are so complex, involving factors such as weight, height, sex, age, personality, neurological conditions, and any history of trauma, it’s important to get a gait analysis from a trained professional such as a physical therapist (PT).
What are the benefits of a gait analysis?
A gait analysis can determine what kind of therapy or correction you might need r to help you run, walk, and move efficiently and without pain. From your results, a PT can put together a custom plan to help you improve your balance and posture, increase your range of motion, and optimize your cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and strength.
Who can benefit from a gait analysis?
A gait analysis can be useful for a variety of conditions. People with cerebral palsy, seniors at risk for falls, patients who have undergone total arthroplasty and total knee replacement, those experiencing sciatic nerve injury, myelopathy, and other muscle diseases, bone disorders, amputees, and those whose ability to walk is impaired by injury or trauma are all candidates for gait analysis. So are athletes who want to improve their game and prevent injury.
What is it like to get a gait analysis at Fyzical?
During a gait analysis, your PT will look at the way you walk and run and evaluate your gait to detect potential problems with strength and posture. You will be asked to perform simple movements to test your balance. These movements can include:
- Leg lifts while seated in a chair, or “knee marching”
- Standing on one leg
- Walking heel-to-toe
- Visual tracking, or following the movement of your thumb with your eyes
These basic assessments enable us to determine what to focus on in terms of therapy. Once we know what your needs are, your therapeutic program can include gait training and balance, general fitness and fall prevention exercises, manual therapy, vestibular rehabilitation, and/or functional training.
Book a gait analysis at Fyzical Therapy and Balance Center of Lanham
Let us help you regain your confidence with movement. Reach out to us today to book your gait analysis. Give us a call at (301) 220-2316 or get in touch with us here.