What is VALD and how can it help my training and recovery?
VALD is a testing system that can run functional movement tests that can look for asymmetries between sides of the body either pre or post injury, giving us valuable information regarding movement patterns and biases towards one limb or another.
Your Physiotherapist can use this data and compare to normative data in various populations either based on age, specific sports played and many more. These can help to guide return to play protocols for sport post injury and measure the effectiveness of gym and rehab programs.
When should I perform a VALD screening with my Physiotherapist?
Your Physiotherapist will recommend the most appropriate time to complete a full VALD assessment. The assessment will need to be booked as a longer appointment so that you can complete a full testing battery and your physiotherapist can then generate a report.
The best time to complete your first VALD assessment is at the beginning of a new training cycle or rehabilitation block. This will give you specific objective measures to compare against as you make gains through your training or rehab cycle. The assessment can also be used as a diagnostic tool and, based on your specific injury or condition, your Physiotherapist may want to complete it on your first visit to pick on up any significant deficiencies or asymmetries side-to-side.
What are VALD Force Plates?
Force Plates are mechanical sensing systems that detect and monitor human movement and forces such as those produced in ground reaction. The plates use specific sensors that are distorted when a force is applied to them, this allows them to measure force being directly applied and removed from the plates. These sensors can also detect center of pressure, center of force and movement around multiple axis. The VALD Force Plates can use this data to calculate many different metrics.
What exactly does it measure?
- Concentric force: The force produced when the muscle in question shortens. (EG; the upwards movement of the quads during a squat)
- Eccentric force: The force produced when the muscle in question lengthens. (EG; the downwards movement of the quads during a squat)
- Peak power: The maximum amount of force you can generate in the shortest amount of time.
- Jump height/ flight time: The time you spend in the air during a jump which can then be used to determine how high you have jumped.
- Weight distribution/ biases side to side on movements: The plates can detect if you bias one side more than the other during standing and dynamic movements. This is a great tool used for injury prediction and rehab.
- Contact time on the floor for quicker explosive takeoffs: EG: speed of contact during a skipping/ fast spring like movement.
- And many more depending on the test being measured…
Examples of tests:
- Double and single leg squat assessment
- Single leg hop
- Countermovement jump (a stationary jump with hands on hips)
- Single leg balance
- Push ups
- And many more tests…
What is VALD Dynamo?
Dynamo is a handheld device that can measure the strength of individual muscle groups in newtons of force. It can also accurately measure range of motion in degrees for precise measurements to track improvements to the nearest degree. This enables us to clearly track improvements and deficits left vs right for comparison.
Examples of tests:
- Rotator cuff shoulder external and internal rotation
- Hamstring and quad strength
- Hip flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction.
- Grip strength
- Range of movement testing for all joints
- And many more…
Results and how we interpret these:
This is an example of the asymmetry results for a countermovement jump. As you can see the participant has a left side bias for most of the tests above. With this knowledge we can then work on addressing this to increase right side strength and proprioception on landing.
This can be particularly important post injury to accurately assess loading patterns and ensure optimal performance when performing the movement. This can guide return to sport progression post injury being able to track the difference the previously injured side is different to the side that was not injured.
If you have any questions about VALD Force Decks or wanting to book in for a specific VALD assessment, please contact one of our physiotherapists at Back In Motion Como so we can help. Please feel free to contact the clinic!
Website: https://www.backinmotion.com.au/como
Phone Number: 9313 3414