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What Is A ‘Biomechanical Assessment’?

biomechanical assessment

A biomechanical assessment studies the performance of different areas of your body and how they work together, for example, your spine, pelvis, lower limbs and feet. This can aid in detecting the potential of injury risk, origin of discomfort, or other related conditions. At M20 Health and Performance, we call this type of assessment an ‘Injury Risk Screening and Performance Assessment’.

What does a biomechanical assessment involve?

  • Analysing how your muscles, nerves, joints, and tendons all work together
  • Observing and taking video recordings of varied movements that relate to sport or daily activities
  • Assessing your walking or running pattern and posture
  • Analysing your strength, power and mobility in a variety of ways

When might a biomechanical assessment be recommended?

An assessment is often recommended if you:

  • Experience pain in your low back, feet or lower limbs but can’t identify a problem when you are exercising or at rest
  • Have ‘flat feet’ and this causes pain for discomfort
  • Suffer with a recurring injury or chronic pain
  • Have leg length discrepancy
  • Experience discomfort when exercising or when increasing your running mileage
  • You want to start an exercise programme safely so that it can be individualised to how you move

What does it help with?

A biomechanical evaluation can identify the likely issues contributing to discomfort or pain. These issues may originate from mobility/restriction of movement, inefficient movement control, and/or significant strength deficits. This is done by studying the operational capabilities of your musculoskeletal system during action.

A biomechanical assessment helps with:

  • Identifying underlying problems in the neuromusculoskeletal system
  • Advice on how to achieve short term pain relief
  • Planning treatment and long term prevention of future recurrence
  • Targeting an individual approach to improve the quality of your movement
  • Whether referral to a specialist is recommended or not

Key benefits of a biomechanical assessment

This type of assessment allows you to understand why you move the way you do, and therefore, why injuries, niggles or discomfort arise. This paves the way for an individualised approach to alleviate strain on challenged areas of the body, enhance your movement quality, and give you focused goals to work on, ultimately to help avert future injuries and improve your function.
It’s all about gaining a thorough grasp of your body’s mechanical aspects to tackle problem areas with precision interventions which boost the effectiveness of overall motion.

The key benefits are:

  • Pain Relief: By finding the root cause of pain, a biomechanical assessment can guide treatment to ease discomfort in the back, pelvis, lower limbs and feet.
  • Injury Risk Reduction: Recognising possible challenges or vulnerabilities in motion patterns, joint strength, balance and stability can assist in averting future injuries by actively confronting them.
  • A Personalised Approach: Everyone moves differently, so the issues and solutions are tailored to how you move and function, within your capabilities.
  • Advice on Footwear: Understanding your lower limb mechanics can lead to better footwear choices to support you when exercising.

Who might benefit from a biomechanical assessment?

  • People experiencing chronic foot, ankle, knee, or hip, back pain
  • People new to exercise who want to improve their health and fitness safely
  • Athletes looking to improve performance and reduce injury risk
  • People with recurring injuries in the back, pelvis or lower limbs

Injury Risk Screening and Gait Analysis for Runners

If you would like to reduce your injury risk as a new or experienced runner through our comprehensive analysis of your running biomechanics and physical limitations we can help.

We use a bespoke approach to analysing varied biomechanical characteristics around how you move.

Integrated videos show your running technique characteristics. Alongside an expert muscle and joint assessment, we can analyse your injury risk and set appropriate goals for optimising your running and lowering the risk of future injuries.

We Can Help

Our expert team is made up of the very best in sports rehabilitation, biomechanics, physiological testing, gait analysis, run injury screening, and run and triathlon coaching.

Avoid putting yourself in danger of developing injury niggles.

Find out more about our Injury Risk Screening, Performance Assessment, and Gait Analysis services and book an appointment here. You can also benefit from a discounted follow-up analysis to ensure your progress and success.

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