PhysioCentral is excited to announce the recent addition of VALD performance technology into our clinic. As a team committed to delivering premium care and the best outcomes for every person, regardless of age, fitness capabilities or goals, improving how we assess you and collect data that informs your treatment plans is always a priority. VALD’s technology allows us to do exactly this - and much more. Here’s a look into what the technology is, how you’ll see it being used at your next appointment with us, and how it’s enabling our clients to recover better.
What Is VALD Performance Technology?
VALD is a series of measurement tools that help us objectively assess a person’s movement, strength, power, balance, asymmetry, and movement dysfunctions. The results we get mean we can effectively track your rehabilitation progress and progress toward your performance goals. This means that we’re not just hoping you’re getting better relative to how you were feeling previously—we see it through the measurements collected using our VALD tools.
In physiotherapy, information is power, and VALD gives us a lot more information in real-time that we’re using to support the decisions we make about the best approach to care for you and in creating your training and rehab programs.
Why Did You Choose VALD?
When we invest in technology, we want it to benefit both you and us greatly, producing accurate, reliable, and comprehensive results. VALD products are currently trusted in over 100 countries by elite sporting teams, health and medical clinics, universities, gyms, hospitals, and defence departments. Being designed by a well-respected team of sports scientists, clinicians, and engineers, VALD ticked many of our boxes.
Traditionally, gold-standard measurement tools such as these would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, meaning that they were only available in high-tech research laboratories and for elite sporting teams. We’re grateful that VALD has changed this, making this advanced measurement technology more versatile, transportable and readily available without compromising the quality or depth of information it provides. The types of testing and analytics that VALD’s tools perform are how we knew it was an important investment for our clinic and physiotherapy team, as it was something that we could see the majority of our clients benefitting from.
What Can You Do With VALD?
- We are using VALD’s ForceDecks to go much deeper when assessing your neuromuscular performance, looking at your strength, power, movement, balance, and asymmetry. ForceDecks is described as the world’s fastest, easiest and most powerful force dual plate system. We love that it’s able to automatically analyse over 20 common test protocols, including ballistic, dynamic, isometric, and balance tests. This gives us so much data to leverage - and saves you time from us having to complete manual analyses, meaning we have more time to talk through your treatment plan, go through exercises, and answer any questions you have. To clarify, ForceDecks isn’t just a force plate you stand on - we use it to assess jumping, squatting, landing, completing push-ups, pulling, and more. The dual plate system allows us to measure the force produced by each limb independently, which helps identify imbalances, asymmetries, or compensatory strategies that could impact your recovery or performance. Your assessment and how we use ForceDecks with you is completely tailored to your injury, goals, and activities you participate in.
- We are using VALD’s Dynamo tool to carry out up to 300 different strength and movement tests - all while being held in the palm of your hand (or in ours). Dynamo comes with a range of attachments that enables it to carry out this wide range of tests. It can do everything from checking your grip strength to the range of motion in your shoulder to your calf muscle strength in your legs - and everything in between. Again, for us, the software is fantastic because it allows us to see and analyse your results fast, giving us much more time to focus on you and your treatment plan and answer any questions you have.
- We are also using VALD’s ForceFrame strength testing system. As the name suggests, this is a frame that helps us measure the forces applied to it through various muscle groups - with the ability to assess (and train) over 100 movements across all major joints in the body. This includes everything from the hips and knees to the shoulders and neck, with precise and accurate sensors that give us real-time feedback on how you’re doing. We often find ourselves adjusting our client's training and rehab programs earlier based on these results as we’re able to detect imbalances and weaknesses more accurately.
VALD In Action
We appreciate that there’s a big difference between talking about the features and functionality of the VALD hardware, and understanding what it could look like in reality for you. Here are a few examples to help you understand the benefits:
If you’re experiencing one-sided leg pain, we can show you the precise differences between your two legs in weight bearing, loading and performance during standing, walking and jumping (and more). This should make it clear how and why your symptoms are occurring, and why we’re recommending specific treatments and exercises to help address the differences. Then, as you progress, you’ll be able to see the shift in your result numbers, as opposed to just feeling different or better.
Instead of measuring which shoulder is stronger by how many reps of an exercise you can perform, we can measure the force in Newtons, and check this progress at each session with us. When looking at the range of motion of these shoulders, there also will be no guesswork as to the degree of the range of motion you have, nor any terms like “the right shoulder looks to have slightly more movement than the other”. Instead, using Dynamo, we’ll both see the flexibility difference between the shoulders in degrees, and track this progress over time as you advance through your rehab plan.
Instead of relying on your ability to push against resistance bands or weights to gauge leg strength after an ACL injury, we can measure exactly how much force your quads and hamstrings are generating using the VALD tools. This way, we can see if one leg is significantly weaker than the other, and we can track improvements in force output week by week as you go through your rehab.
During rehab, it’s not always easy to tell if you’re pushing yourself just enough—not too much, not too little. With Dynamo, we can measure your muscle strength in real-time as you perform an exercise. For example, if you’re recovering from a wrist injury, we can precisely track how much grip strength you’re regaining so we know exactly when you’re ready to progress to harder exercises.
Using the VALD data, we can track the trajectory of your muscular fatigue and, hence, your injury risk. This means we’ll be able to proactively add components to your rehab program that will reduce your injury risk while also supporting your recovery.
Do I Need To Book An Appointment For A VALD Assessment?
VALD is incorporated into your regular appointments and assessments with our physiotherapy team for your pain, problem or concern, where it is relevant and beneficial. This can look like an injury, it could be that you’ve noticed you get headaches after exercise, you could have noticed that you’re weaker on one side, or you’d like to run a half marathon but don’t know where to start. We’ll use the VALD technology as part of your assessment to understand the bigger picture (which we’ll explain to you in full), and then use the information to help you get the best outcomes and track your progress along the way.
Ready to take your running or sports performance to the next level?
Book your assessment with us and get precise data on your strength, power, vertical jump, and overall movement mechanics. Our state-of-the-art testing provides insights into your unique strengths and areas for improvement, helping us tailor a training plan specifically for you.
Book your appointment using our online booking system, or call us for any questions or to make an appointment at +852 2801 4801