stacey A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to NYC to see and participate in a run gait analysis with the knowledgeable staff at Prehab.
In coaching and endurance sport, we will see injuries. Sometimes we know the cause of the injury such as a bike crash or a fall while running. Other times we see chronic issues in hips, knees, ankles. Pulling apart what is causing chronic pain can be a tricky road. I am not a Dr, PT, or Orthopedist by any means so getting outside insight for a chronic issue can be extremely valuable. Often athletes find it frustrating and they work through a pain issue and that can create long term problems.
I also think you can always learn more about each sport, how to work with athletes and how to collaborate with others in building the best possible programs for your athletes.
I went to Prehab, with an athlete who has had some chronic calf issues for a while. We had pulled apart some of the issues with her form but we were looking to dive a little deeper into what options might help. While we were in NYC, I had the opportunity to do the gait analysis as well. The information that was provided through this was really fascinating.
We ran on a Woodway Treadmill that had cameras attached to it to capture angles of your movement and foot strike. The software was able to capture your time in the air and your ground contact. Where you were landing in relation to your body and also the symmetry between the left and right. It all came up on a screen that looked like this:
From here, the staff at Prehab was able to identify the limiters in each of our running form. Whether it was knee lift or foot strike you could see exactly where you needed to work. This is great information for anyone to have, as there is always room to improve in each sport. If you are injury prone or have a chronic issue, I highly recommend investing in this experience.
After we had gathered all the information, it was time to learn some drills and exercises that might help work on the issues that were identified.
Alex and his staff were great about showing us the exercises that would help and developing an at home program to work on improving form. Following our in person assessment, they delivered a video assessment and a written evaluation of their recommendations. Looking forward to working on some of the form limiters and seeing progress this fall.
