What is an Individualized Running Assessment? (and Why Get One?)

Your physiotherapist will ask you questions regarding your running and past injury history as well as any recent changes in your life or any special considerations that may affect your running performance.

The practical run assessment will screen you with a deep squat (so full flexion screen), followed by lunges on a step pushing off the back foot (full ext screen) and then a standing rotation.

Depending on what is found in the screen, they will look at more specific joint/soft tissue contributions to restriction.

Areas of interest would be single leg stability and even just being able to stand on one leg. Another consideration is to look at strength/ability to activate muscles in the feet, strength of the calves, hips and glutes.

During the gait assessment, you will run on a treadmill and your physiotherapist will quantify your impact force, measure cadence, and do a visual analysis by recording your running.

The video recording analysis will show where your foot lands, how your foot strikes the ground, your general body position/alignment, and your arm swing.

Your physiotherapist will then determine which intervention may benefit your running injury or performance and repeat the video analysis to see if there is any change. Interventions will vary depending on the person; we tried reducing the interface by removing shoes with this patient as an example.

Depending on what’s found in your assessment, treatment plans will vary. In general, most runners will benefit from:

1. reducing load by increasing cadence (steps/min) 170-190
2. optimizing control and stability of the lower limb (this might be strengthening, improving proprioception, decreasing interference with ground)
3. planning, progress and preparation!