If you spend a good amount of your daily run either minor or agonizing pain, there’s a good chance that gait analysis might be the foot-friendly fix you’ve been looking for.
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Gait analysis is a technique that investigates how one stands and walks in order to relieve a wide variety of different ailments. It is also the most accurate way to pinpoint inefficiencies and weaknesses in running form that could be hindering your performance or causing injury.
Standing and walking properly involves a chain of complex actions and our bodies must integrate sensory feedback from the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular systems to properly coordinate our muscles to prevent us from falling. Gait analysis is a descriptive tool that can help a physician better understand how each of these systems contributes to the way one stands and walks.
The benefits of this advanced technology range from relief of pain to the slowing of degenerative conditions and the prevention of specific muscle, bone and joint problems at remote sites. In fact, through early detection, the need for surgical procedures on the foot and other areas of the body such as the lower back and knees can often be postponed, if not eliminated.
In short, gait analysis is about your personal and unique way of moving. Every activity you do throughout the day, no matter how insignificant it may seem, represents a unique movement pattern. That pattern is bred from your habits and lifestyle, as well as your body’s mobility, stability, flexibility and strength. Every action you take represents that unique movement pattern.
If your movements include compensations, gait analysis can pinpoint the areas in the body where these losses of efficiency originate.
At Delray Beach Podiatry, Dr. Ian S. Goldbaum, a podiatric physician and surgeon with over 30 years of experience, uses a computer dynamic walking scan analysis, Gaitscan™, to create a holistic picture of the forces acting on your feet and throughout your body.
Gaitscan Results
“The information we receive from the scan can tell me many things,” said Dr. Goldbaum. “Whether a patient has a leg length discrepancy, how they’re accommodating their gait and how they’re walking. It’ll also tell me from heel strike all the way to toe-off where the position of the foot is and the pressure that is exerted on those areas.
“The feedback I receive from the test will also tell me the range of what’s going on in those joints as well. The results are color coded so it tells me if they’re out of the zone in terms of weight distribution.”
In order to attain these results, a patient is instructed to walk onto the gait mat plate designated area. The right and left foot are then walked across the area, and the patient then finishes in a stopped standing position. The sensors then calibrate the dynamics of gait in both a dynamic moving and static standing position, illustrating the loading forces and pressures.
This process generates a dynamic interaction of normal vs. abnormal gait walking abnormalities at every critical phase of gait while providing a unique, personal movement map. That map reveals the programming of everything happening within your body, from your level of mobility to your functional strength.
“It’s a whole vision of how a person walks,” said Dr. Goldbaum. “I can see how people are walking and if they need some sort of an aid. That aid can be anything from an orthotic to a walker depending on how unstable the patient is.”
For a runner looking to maximize their stride, gait analysis is the perfect way to find the imperfections in your form. This will not only help reduce the risk of injury, but also provide more comfort, especially if the analysis is used to create a custom-made orthoic.
The average cost of a computerized gait analysis is $125.00. At Delray Beach Podiatry, however, the cost is only $65.00.
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The content on this website is for informational purposes only. Do not rely or act upon information from www.DelrayBeachPodiatry.com without seeking professional medical advice. If you live in South Florida and would like a consultation with Dr. Ian Goldbaum, a podiatric physician and surgeon with over 30 years of experience, please see our contact information below:
BOCA/DELRAY
16244 S. Military Trail #290, Delray Beach, FL 33445
561-499-0033
BOYNTON BEACH
8198 Jog Road #100, Boynton Beach, FL 33472
561-499-0033
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