Video Running Gait Assessment or Analysis

What is Video Running Gait Assessment and How Does it Work?

Video gait analysis is taking video of you running from different angles and planes and then analyzing that video in slow motion, using still frames and frame by frame motion assessment to determine how each joint is moving while you’re running, how the muscles throughout your whole body are working to control the joint movements and compare how you are moving – comparing one side to the other to pick out any asymmetries, any motions that are abnormal by comparing yours to “normative” values that we have found in the literature in uninjured and in injured runners, and also comparing your movements to hundreds of running analyses on runners I have performed throughout the past years. By analyzing how you move while you run, I can provide you with insight into how you can decrease the stress to the injured area (if you are feeling pain); I can give you gait retraining strategies to make your running more efficient (even if you’re not experiencing pain); I can provide hands on manual therapy or techniques specific to what you need to be able to run more efficiently and with less pain; and I can even let you know your risk of developing injuries in the future if you continue to run the way you currently do.

Dr. Brown Budde performing a Video Running Gait Analysis

Why are Running Gait Assessments Awesome?

Running gait assessments are THE BEST way to learn about your running form or diagnose repetitive running pain and injuries for a few key reasons:

Customized to Your Form: Everyone is unique. One-size-fits-all solutions or best practices are great for learning the best general principles, but everyone’s bodies and running style is unique, and these slight differences can have major implications on the most important things for you to do to improve your running or eliminate your pain
Entire Body Analysis: The most common running injury, repetitive knee pain, is frequently a result of hip tightness or lack of mobility, or a gait asymmetry due to previous injury, or foot strike pattern, or weak core muscles, or many other root causes. Most current methodologies for diagnosing and treating knee pain (as well as most other pains) only analyze the knee. Thus, while they might immediately provide some relief, the pain is likely to return because the root cause was not addressed.
Analyzed While You Are Running…. In Detail: Assessments done on a table in most clinical settings rely on a combination of how your legs behave while they are on a table or in a clinic (ie not running) and what you remember from when they were running. Strength assessments taken on a table will usually test as “strong”, however, there is no way that a practitioner can provide the same amount of load during a table based strength test that your body weight puts on the muscles and joints during running. Flat out, because a video running gait assessment is derived from primary evidence taken during your running activity, it is more likely to accurately assess the issues in play.

Video Running Gait Analysis

Which Runners Should Have a Video Running Gait Assessment?

Running video gait assessments combine the latest clinical and academic knowledge of the running gait with a 100% customized analysis of the way you run. The runners who will benefit most from a running video gait assessment include runners who:

Have had an injury or combination of past injuries
Are frustrated because the standard diagnosis they received for their running pain does not seem to be addressing the root cause of their pain
Love running and want to ensure that as much as possible, their running form today is not going to lead to injuries down the road
Want to run faster and more efficiently, and want to see precisely what in their running form could be modified to do so

Video Running Gait Analysis

What Makes a RefinedRun Video Running Analysis Unique?

Many video running gait assessments performed today utilize sophisticated technology to compare your gait to the exact gait of an elite runner or another un-injured runner. All running gait styles are unique to that individual – I will not change the way you run to mimic someone else – but each runner has normative ranges of the angles their joints should move and ideal speed / control of the muscles around each joint during running. Therefore, each runner can still have an ideal gait for them, while continuing to be efficient and have their own individual running gait style. Research has shown that modifying how a person runs (gait retraining) can decrease loading and stress to joints in the feet, legs, spine and throughout your whole body. Gait retraining can increase your muscle control, and allow you to run further and faster! By using research based evidence and treatment techniques as well as clinical experience from what has worked well for runners just like you, you and I can work together to make you a more efficient, pain free, and faster runner for life!

Evidence – based analysis of your gait compared to injured, uninjured and elite runners
Clinical experience – based analysis of your gait compared to injured, uninjured and elite runners
Personal – based experience from the perspective of a serial racer from 5ks to the marathon
Research – based gait retraining to provide you the best possible strategies to run more efficient, and pain-free for your lifetime!
Individualized program based on your personal video gait analysis
Making you the best, healthiest and fastest runner you can be!

What do I get With My Personalized Video Running Gait Assessment?

What are you REALLY purchasing? You are receiving the insight I have gained through years of specialized schooling, years of performing similar gait analysis on others, years of running myself, and years of reading every running magazine, academic journal, textbook, tweet or article I can get my hands on. You are receiving insights into your running and recommended modifications that could: