MOVEMENT ANALYSIS
At The Gait Lab, we utilize cutting-edge, research-grade technology that elevates running and movement analysis beyond standard practices. Led by Dr. Laura LaMarche, we offer an advanced 3D motion capture system and a state-of-the-art research-grade force-plate treadmill, ensuring the most precise data and insights available.
Whether you're an elite athlete, a serious recreational athlete, or just getting started: our tools and expertise provide unparalleled support for your goals.
UNPARALLELED PRECISION
Your movement is unique to you. With the ability to dive deep into your biomechanics, we can start to understand where issues are stemming from. We can only do this if we feel completely confident in the data we collect.
The Gait Lab is one of the only clinics in the country that brings this level of research-grade equipment to a clinical setting. You can be guaranteed to learn more about your biomechanical strengths and weaknesses with a Gait Analysis Test.
Movement understood
At The Gait Lab, our advanced data capture technology provides us with a detailed, accurate understanding of your unique movement patterns. This allows us to tailor our recommendations based on data we can trust, ensuring that every insight is grounded in precision.
By pinpointing the root causes of your challenges, we can develop personalized strategies to help you become a more efficient, resilient athlete—empowering you to achieve your full potential with confidence.
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The Treadmetrix treadmill is equipped with a precision-engineered force plate embedded directly into its deck, providing unparalleled accuracy in measuring the forces generated with each footfall. This advanced system offers a tri-planar reading of forces, allowing us to analyze vertical impacts, braking and propulsive forces, as well as medial and lateral vectors. By leveraging this detailed vector data, we can identify potential areas in your movement that may increase your risk of injury or hinder your performance, giving you the insights needed to optimize your running mechanics and stay ahead of the curve.
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A gait analysis provides valuable insights into how you move, regardless of whether you run. Everyday activities like walking, standing, and even sitting can be impacted by your gait. By assessing your movement patterns, a gait analysis can help identify imbalances, inefficiencies, or areas of stress that could lead to discomfort, injury, or reduced mobility over time. Whether you're looking to improve posture, reduce pain, or simply move more efficiently, a gait analysis can offer personalized recommendations to enhance your overall quality of movement.
How does a gait analysis help athletes with previous injuries?
Solid research shows that sports-related injuries can leave lasting effects for years, even after recovery. For example, athletes who have had ACL repairs often experience subtle loading issues in the affected knee for up to five years. In a gait analysis, this may appear as stiffer knee flexion during landing or while on the ground, compared to the uninjured side. Gait analysis can also reveal ongoing instability in the ankle, knee, or hip.
These lingering issues can increase the risk of future injuries. However, with the detailed data from our gait analysis, we can detect imbalances throughout the kinetic chain, helping you address weaknesses and build resilience—no matter your sport.
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Most research-grade gait analysis systems use reflective markers placed throughout the entire trunk, hips, and legs/feet. This setup is extremely time-consuming and can lead to poor data if they are not set up exactly the same as each session. The Gait Lab’s marker-less software is very precise and repeatable from session to session. Without having to labor through a time-consuming setup, we can get straight to work on analyzing your mechanics and take multiple captures easily for gait retraining.
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While the 3D motion capture system is great for analysis, it is also excellent for gait re-training. We will use this motion capture system for first-appointment testing and throughout the treatment of your running injury or performance assessment.
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Your Gait Analysis will be summarized in a thorough report that includes stride metrics (like cadence, step length, and step width), ground reaction data, and kinematic data from your 3D analysis. You will learn elements of your run, like how far out in front of you your foot strikes, how much your knee buckles inward (knee valgus measurements), and how you hold your posture, to name a few. The report will be a resource for you to look back on long after your gait analysis test at The Gait Lab.