Injury prevention / performance enhancement gait assessment

This assessment has been designed for runners and other sports people who are not injured but who wish to prevent future injury. It is also ideal for those individuals which wish to start running (or take up a sport which involves running) and avoid injury.   A preliminary gait assessment might well be the best investment you will make in relation to you chosen sport. Our practitioners at The London Podiatry Centre assess many patients each year whose injuries might well have been prevented if they had received an injury prevention programme, following gait analysis.  Injuries can often be prevented by simple measures like correct shoe selection or a specific programme to deal with gait asymmetries. 

Many recreational athletes, especially runners, do not have the benefit of a dedicated sport coach or gait expert and can develop poor technique, often exacerbated by imperfections in their biomechanical make up.  For example, an imbalance such as a leg length difference will cause a runner to run with a lower hip on one side but even after correction with orthoses or footwear adjustment, the runner may continue to run in the same manner because of continued secondary power and flexibility deficits and, to some extent, habit.  This is where coaching, physiotherapy and re-education is used to re-establish normal function.