Stride Smart

Stride Smart.  The future of run/walk gait analysis?

“Good form is the first step in injury prevention”.

I don’t know about you but I haven’t always seen the value in run analysis.  Not because I didn’t think the information was valuable, but because I saw people’s eyes glass over when I started telling them what was wrong and how to fix it.  Great information is given to the athlete or patient, but a few days later, they revert back to doing exactly what they were doing before.  I don’t think the athlete is un-coachable, lazy or doesn’t care.  I think it is because they can’t FEEL what the coach is telling them.  They get frustrated and return to old habits.  With some advanced gait analysis software you can record and playback video so the athlete can see the issues after the fact, but when they try to actually make changes there is a brain/body DISCONNECT.

The benefits of the AlterG are endless due to its ability to allow athletes to train while they recover from surgery or injury. They recently made it even better with the launch of a new product called Stride Smart.  At the time of writing this post we are only the second facility in Texas to have this technology.  Much like my previous post about using the AlterG for performance, I am going to do something similar when discussing Stride Smart.  On the AlterG website they talk about its benefits in looking at gait post surgery, during injury, finding gait changes at certain gravities, etc etc.  Please review that information when you have a moment.

Gait Analysis for Performance

I am excited to use it to find flaws in the runner’s gait.  My thought is that if the athlete can see their feet and movement patterns WHILE they are running/walking they can make the correction and imprint the proper neuromuscular connection. They can see real time how their cadence changes, the length of their stride, and their weight distribution from right to left. We can then find the gravity at which they can hold the correction and allow the brain/body connection to take hold.  We can see if there are any structural and functional flaws which can be corrected with sport specific exercise.

I am sure I am going to have more to say about Stride Smart as we expand our use of this technology.  But until then, here are a few videos and pics from a run analysis session I did last week.

Pic 1 is a still shot of video 1

Pic 2 is a still shot of video 2