Movement Performance Lab

Bellin Health’s Movement Performance Lab specializes in using cutting edge technology to assess the way athletes move, providing exceptional, research-driven care for patients and for the providers who entrust their patients to us. Research has shown that exceptional outcomes can be achieved for patients when technology is used effectively in the clinical setting. 

The Movement Performance Lab (MPL) on the second floor of the Bellin Health Titletown Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Clinic offers an experience that is one of a kind. The combination of the most advanced technology, highly trained staff, and integrated functional space is unmatched in offering assessment and training options once only available to professional athletes. 

The primary goal is to biomechanically evaluate the way a patient moves to determine what may cause an increased risk of injury or limit the patient’s ability to perform at the highest level. Our team of experts uses the technology to break down the patient’s movement and provide recommendations for improving mechanics, strength and flexibility.

Bellin Health’s Movement Performance Lab Delivers Results

Examples of success include:

  • Over a two-year period, a local athletic program required over 150 visits to the school’s athletic trainer and four ACL tears. After working with the Movement Performance Lab, the team reduced its athletic training room visits the next season to just 52. Impressively only one team member missed a game all season.
  • One coach said prior to their playoff run, “We have never had a team so healthy going into the playoffs.” After winning the semi-final game in the state tournament, the coach said, “Thank you! Your program is a big reason we are here!” 
  • After engaging roughly 50 percent of a school’s football team, girls’ basketball team, girls’ soccer team and several track team members, another school’s overall injury rate decreased by 35 percent.
  • After being asked, “What were the benefits of this program for you?” a patient responded by saying, “I have great control on the soccer field; my knee does not hurt and feels stable. It is strong. I got my life back!”

Our Movement Performance Lab team delivers five elements

We promise to…

  • Discuss any current injury concerns and performance goals to tailor the individual’s program accordingly
  • Record each athlete using the most advanced SIMI motion-capture system available, to evaluate common movements for the athlete’s sport
  • Perform a hands-on evaluation of strength and flexibility looking for areas of inefficiencies and restrictions that affect performance and can lead/contribute to injury
  • Analyze the video, slow down the motion performed and explain what the athlete does well and where improvements are possible. The athlete will receive a multi-page report complete with stop-animation pictures of them at key positions during full-speed movements, scoring each movement with explanations and recommendations
  • Instruct the athlete on retraining exercises for specific areas uncovered in the motion analysis and provide written guidelines for those exercises. We will also provide recommendations for follow-up to continue to help the athlete reach their goals and reduce the risk of injury