Dialed in Motion Gait Analysis
23rd November, 2009, in Clinical, Retail
Choose Running Shoes for Give and For Gait.
Source: The National Dubai 16 November 2009 – Reporter: Leah Oatway
Viewing gait-analysis session at Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai.
In a weekly series leading up to the Dubai Marathon 2010 on January 22, Leah Oatway learns ways to give yourself the best chance of making it through. In this article she looks at getting fitted to the right shoes using Dialed in Motion Gait Analysis system.
A runner on gait-analysis equipment in Dubai. Duncan Chard / The National
A friend once joked that I run like Phoebe from the American television comedy Friends. After watching a slow-motion video of myself on a treadmill this week, I realised that perhaps he was not joking, after all.
It was all part of a "gait analysis" service offered to runners at Go Sport in Dubai. (Gait is the action the foot performs while in motion to support, cushion and balance the body.)
This new analysis system, called Dialed in Motion, produced by the New Zealand company Siliconcoach, involves filming a customer on a treadmill so that custom-made software can be used to analyse the movement at the runner’s normal pace. Specially trained retail assistants at Go Sport in Ibn Battuta Mall and the Mall of Emirates are using it to prescribe suitable footwear to minimise the risk of injury to customers.
Watching the video replay of my legs flying out wildly to the side before landing somewhat haphazardly in front of me, I realised I do in fact resemble the ditzy blonde in one particularly amusing episode in season six. I lean to the right in a manner that amused Graeme Burborough, general manager of Siliconcoach.
"You actually have quite a pronounced supination on the right foot, which means you run on the outside of that foot, and then when your left foot comes down you roll in slightly," he said. "You need to wear flexible, cushioned shoes to act as shock absorbers for your body."
Putting aside the embarrassment of an unflattering camera angle on such a large screen, I always assumed my feet rolled in. I had no idea one was rolling the opposite way. Five years ago an attempt at the Paris marathon ended 13 miles into my training when severe pain in my knees and shins left me unable to walk down the steps at the cinema for several months. I had invested in orthotics to prop up my arches on both feet. That, I now realise, only exacerbated the problem.
Burborough, an avid sportsman, believes access to this new-to-Dubai service might have got me through to the finish line. "When you’re running in the wrong shoe you end up compensating somewhere in the leg," Burborough said. "Where it impacts depends on the individual, but typically there are knee injuries, calf muscle strains – it can run right up to the hip."
Without the correct footwear, even those who currently feel comfortable with their chosen trainers could find themselves in agony as their mileage rises in the weeks ahead, he warned. "The more running you do, the more you are going to risk injuring yourself," he said.
"Running is a hugely stressful thing to do. At a reasonable speed you are hitting the ground at a force three times your body weight every single time your feet touch the ground. At some point you will feel it."
According to Burborough, there are typically three types of shoe available to runners to correct or support the three different gaits. The first is a controlled, stable trainer for people who over-pronate, or roll inwards, when they run – "they want a rigid shoe that stops the rolling". Then there are those supinators, who run on the outsides of their feet, who require flexible, cushioned shoes that encourage the foot to roll inwards towards a more neutral position and also provide shock-absorption. And then there is the neutral shoe with stability for those with no pronation.
"I am not a biomechanic. I have knowledge about it because this is what I do, but I would always say if you are going to get very serious about running you should go and speak to a podiatrist and biomechanist," Burborough advised.
Dialed in Motion, which is not associated with specific brands, is not the only way to measure gait available in the UAE. Tread analysis, which measures the pressure applied by the foot in motion, is also used to assess a runner’s needs, but Burborough said that while pressure analysis was important, it should not be relied on exclusively. He suggested that runners should take an old pair of trainers when buying new ones so that assistants may analyse the wear on the tread.
It is recommended that trainers be changed every 500km to 600km. According to Burborough, one of the most common mistakes runners make when purchasing shoes is letting their wallets decide what ends up on their feet.
"They go in with a budget or head straight for the specials, which is not the right thing to do," he said. "It is not necessarily about getting the most expensive shoe, the cheaper one could be the right one, but it is important to spend the time and ask someone who knows what your needs are."