VALD Strength & Performance Testing
Measure your strength. Understand your body. Track your progress.
At Limitless Physiotherapy & Performance, we use advanced VALD performance testing technology when clinically appropriate to give us objective information about how your body is performing.
Using our ForceDecks force plates and DynaMo strength testing system, we can measure areas such as strength, balance, power, force production and differences between sides.
Whether you’re recovering from an injury, returning to sport, trying to become stronger or simply want a better understanding of your physical capabilities, testing allows us to move beyond simply asking:
“How does it feel?”
Instead, we can measure where you are now, identify areas to work on and objectively track how you improve.
Why do we use objective testing?
Traditional physiotherapy assessments remain extremely valuable and sometimes this alone will suffice, but sometimes strength and performance can be difficult to judge accurately by observation alone.
Someone may feel stronger without yet having regained their previous capacity. Equally, a movement may look symmetrical despite measurable differences between sides. Objective testing can help us answer questions such as:
- How strong am I?
- Is one side weaker than the other?
- Has my strength actually improved?
- Am I producing force effectively?
- How is my balance and control?
- How much power can I produce?
- What areas should my rehabilitation or training focus on?
- Am I progressing towards the physical demands of my sport or activity?
The results are then interpreted alongside your symptoms, goals, clinical assessment and training history.
The numbers don’t replace clinical judgement, they give us more information to make better decisions.Get in Touch
VALD ForceDecks
More than simply standing on a set of scales.
Our VALD ForceDecks are highly sensitive force plates that measure how you interact with the ground.
Depending on your goals, we can use them for a range of assessments including:Strength
Tests such as the Isometric Mid-Thigh Pull can help us assess whole-body force production.Jumping & Power
Jump testing can provide information around:- Jump height
- Force production
- Power
- How quickly you produce force
- Differences between sides
- Landing strategy
- Reactive strength
You don’t need to be an athlete or already fit.
For many people, the most useful part is simply establishing a baseline and understanding where they are now.Balance
ForceDecks can measure changes in your centre of pressure while standing, giving us objective information about balance and postural control.Lower-Limb Testing
We can also use the plates creatively within rehabilitation to assess specific movements and muscle groups, including lower-limb strength and side-to-side differences.
VALD DynaMo Strength Testing
How strong are your individual muscle groups?
Our VALD DynaMo allows us to objectively measure force during specific strength tests.
Depending on your problem or goals, this may include testing areas such as:- Knee extension
- Knee flexion
- Hip strength
- Shoulder strength
- and other relevant muscle groups.
- Grip strength
Left vs Right
If you've injured one side, we can quantify the difference rather than estimating it.
Now vs Later
Testing can be repeated throughout rehabilitation or training to demonstrate whether you're actually getting stronger.
You vs Your Goal
Where appropriate, results can be considered alongside relevant reference data, your previous results and the demands of the activity you're trying to return to.
Who can benefit from VALD testing?
You don’t need to be an elite athlete.
We use objective testing across a wide range of people.Testing can help guide rehabilitation following problems involving the:
- Knee
- Hip
- Ankle
- Shoulder
- Back
- Tendons
- Muscles
It can help identify deficits, guide exercise prescription and measure whether rehabilitation is producing meaningful physical change.
Following significant knee injury or surgery, feeling better is only one part of recovery.
Objective testing can help us monitor strength, power and side-to-side differences as rehabilitation progresses and provide additional information when making decisions around returning to running, training and sport.
For people returning to or participating in sport, testing can help us understand whether you have the physical qualities required for the demands you’re placing on your body.
This can include assessing:
- Strength
- Power
- Reactive ability
- Asymmetry
- Force production
and relevant sport-specific qualities.
Objective testing isn’t only about injury.
Maintaining strength, muscle function, balance and power becomes increasingly important as we get older.
Testing can provide a baseline of your current physical capabilities and help us create a more targeted plan for improving the areas that matter to you.
That might mean:
- Staying strong enough to travel. Continuing to play golf or tennis.
- Feeling confident on stairs.
- Maintaining balance.
- Getting up from the floor.
- Keeping up with your children or grandchildren.
- Continuing to train well into later life.
The goal isn’t simply to produce a collection of numbers.
It’s to understand what those numbers mean for the life you want to keep living.
Testing → Training → Retesting
One of the biggest benefits of objective testing is being able to demonstrate progress.
1. TEST
Establish your baseline.
2. UNDERSTAND
Identify relevant strengths, deficits and asymmetries.
3. PLAN
Use the findings alongside your assessment to guide rehabilitation or training.
4. TRAIN
Work on the qualities that matter.
5. RETEST
Measure what's changed.
This creates a much clearer rehabilitation and training journey.
Instead of:
“I think I'm getting stronger.”
we can begin to answer:
“How much stronger have I actually become?”
What could we test?
Your testing battery will depend on your goals rather than everybody completing exactly the same tests.
For example, a broader Strength & Physical Capacity Assessment could include:- Hip abduction strength — DynaMo
- Knee extension strength — DynaMo
- Hamstring strength — ForceDecks
- 5x Sit-to-Stand
- Countermovement Jump — ForceDecks
- Grip strength — DynaMo
- Shoulder external rotation — DynaMo
- Shoulder flexion — DynaMo
- Prone Y / shoulder strength — ForceDecks
Data that actually means something
More data isn’t automatically better.
Our physiotherapists interpret your results within the context of you.
A difference between your left and right sides isn’t automatically a problem.
A number being below a reference value doesn’t automatically mean you’re injured.
And achieving a particular number doesn’t automatically mean you’re ready to return to sport. Testing is one part of the overall picture.
We combine it with:
- Your goals
- your history
- your symptoms
- clinical assessment
- physical testing
- activity demands
to make better-informed decisions.
Our VALD ForceDecks and DynaMo technology forms part of our growing assessment, rehabilitation and performance offering at Limitless in Christchurch and New Milton.
Testing may be incorporated into appropriate physiotherapy and rehabilitation journeys or used as part of a more detailed physical performance assessment.
