Laura Barreca, PT, DPT
Heading into the winter season here at Custom, we are beyond excited to be rolling out some new tech! Winter season means strength building and identifying weak points in your last training block. As clinicians, we are always looking for the best way to get measurable and objective data for our clients to create an individualized plan of care for each person and their lifestyle.
Some questions you might have – what is this tech and how can it help me?
We are utilizing VALD Health, specifically their force plates and handheld dynamometer to get objective measurements on force production, strength, and range of motion. In our performance services here at Custom, we are developing a new assessment for runners who are not currently injured to help understand strength asymmetries as well as force production between the right and left leg; this is to optimize efficiency and reduce injury risk. Some common tests to be run on the force plates include single leg hop testing, single leg jump testing, countermovement jumps, and single leg land and hold testing. Some common tests to be run utilizing the handheld dynamometer include hip abduction, hip adduction, hip extension and knee extension strength testing.
After initial intake gathering information about who you are as a person/athlete and after completing our testing, we are able to sit with the data and analyze exactly what is happening for our clients. The goal of all of this is to establish a baseline in which we can create programming to address your deficits and track progress over time! We are looking for our clients to be in the highest percentile for their gender/age and are hoping to reduce asymmetry risk to <10% between limbs. Our goal for each of you is to fall within normative data values and minimize injury risk/strength deficits in the future while helping to support your strongest and most successful block yet. The emphasis here surrounds growth and working on our weaknesses to make us better as overall people and stronger runners – we can’t wait to test with you!