Question

Your client comes to you with the question, I am thinking of paying for a gait analysis and want to know your professional opinion. Is it worth the cost? And will changing my biomechanics decrease my risk of injury?

Answer 1

A gait analysis is a method for identifying biomechanical abnormalities in the gait cycle, dont be alarmed, in simple words what it means is that,it's a tool used to assess the way in which you walk and run, if you are proffesional runner and tech savy than definetly you can give it a miss, but if you are running for fitness sake, or if you are just started running, or if you are prone to injuries, than it would be great idea to consider gait analysis, the main advantage of doing this analysis is that  it can identify any overactive or underactive muscles in the feet, which could lead to potential injuries and inefficiencies in the future, one of the most important condition for running is that you have to limit injuries or prevent injuries from happening rather than waiting for injury to happen and than get treated, at the end of the by doing gait analysis and it requires you to buy a proper shoes that minmise discomfort and prevent injury, then it is better to do gait analysis.

The gait analyses takes into account parameters like, stride length, step length, foot angle, hip angle, speed, forces involved in the production of movement, all these data can be used to evaluate a proper running style and a proper shoes tha can fit, all this could decrease the risk of injury and develop an efficient running style, the bottom line is that, A good gait analysis can identify sources of nagging injuries and inefficient running style, in the process you could loose a few dollars, but definetly it would be worth a try.