Walking is something that we probably don’t give much thought to. It’s our most basic method of transportation, but an inability to walk or be mobile can drastically change a person’s life. It can impact our independence and create significant health problems over both the short and long term.

Many people can move about with abnormal or asymmetrical gait patterns for years without any symptoms. However, when someone experiences an injury or pain, normal gait can be altered, resulting in abnormal walking that can lead to bigger health issues, for example, musculoskeletal problems (from altering movements to compensate for pain or discomfort), cardiovascular health issues (due to inactivity) etc.

This is why Gait Analysis is important. When we study the way a person walks or runs, we can identify individuals’ unique movements, determine normal gait patterns, diagnose issues causing pain, and also implement and evaluate treatments to correct abnormalities.

• Our highly experienced sports medicine doctor performs your gait analysis to evaluate the way in which you walk and/or run.

• In doing so, we are looking to find inefficiencies and to identify any postural or movement-related problems in patients with or without injuries.

• Patients with current injuries will benefit from gait analysis as the process helps the physical therapist identify the driver, or true source of the pain.

• At FitSol, we perform both visual and video gait analysis.

Gait analysis information is used to direct a personalized treatment plan and progression for future treatments.

Once we identify any dysfunctions you may have, various manual therapy techniques may be used to improve or correct the poor movement patterns. The end result is often reduced pain and/or improved performance.

Because past traumas or postural problems can cause dysfunction and lead to future injuries, a preventative gait analysis is recommended for almost everyone as it reveals movement-related issues that can be treated before they become painful and problematic.