3D Movement Analysis Auckland with VALD HumanTrak
You know how you feel. HumanTrak helps us measure how you move.
Pain is easy to notice.
The way it changes movement can be much harder to see.
You may have started shifting away from one leg without realising it. Your shoulder may feel significantly better, yet it may still move differently from the other side. A knee may tolerate everyday life but behave very differently when you squat, jump or return to training.
Traditionally, much of this has been judged by eye. At Movement Mechanics, we can measure it.
VALD HumanTrak is a markerless 3D movement analysis system that allows us to objectively assess joint movement, range of motion, left-to-right differences, and selected functional movement patterns in real time.
There are no reflective markers to attach and no biomechanics laboratory required.
You move. HumanTrak measures.
We interpret what the information actually means for you. And when we reassess later, we can compare where you started with where you are now. Because progress should be something you can feel.
Sometimes it should also be something you can see.
See What We Can Measure
Browns Bay · Auckland North Shore · 45-minute assessments available
“Am I Actually Getting Better?”
It is one of the most important questions in rehabilitation. It is also surprisingly difficult to answer from pain alone.
Pain may improve before strength and movement have fully recovered. Movement may improve while an area remains sensitive. You might feel significantly better in daily life but still favour one side when squatting, reaching or landing. Or you may simply want reassurance that the work you have been putting into rehabilitation is producing a meaningful change.
This is where objective movement analysis becomes useful. HumanTrak allows us to establish a baseline and revisit the same movement later. Rather than relying entirely on:
“That looks a bit better.”
we can ask:
Has your range actually changed?
Has the difference between sides reduced?
Are you achieving the movement differently?
Is a previously restricted joint moving further?
Has the strategy you use during a squat or functional task changed?
The number does not replace how you feel.
It gives that experience context.
Movement Is More Than a Number
At Movement Mechanics, we have deliberately avoided building our approach around arbitrary ideas of “perfect movement”.
There is no single ideal squat for every body. Small differences between the left and right sides are normal. And an asymmetry on a screen does not automatically explain why something hurts. That matters.
Movement-analysis technology becomes far less useful when every difference is labelled a dysfunction that needs correcting. The real value is in asking better questions.
Is this finding relevant to your symptoms?
Does it match what we found clinically?
Is it limiting something you need to do?
Has it changed following injury?
Does it improve as rehabilitation progresses?
That is why HumanTrak is not used in isolation at Movement Mechanics. The data forms one part of a wider clinical picture that may include your history, symptoms, strength, joint examination, neurological findings, previous injury, imaging, training demands and the activities that matter to you. Technology gives us information. Clinical reasoning gives that information meaning.
What Is VALD HumanTrak?
HumanTrak is a markerless 3D movement-analysis system developed by VALD, whose assessment technologies are used across healthcare, rehabilitation, professional sport and human performance.
Instead of attaching multiple reflective markers to the body and analysing movement inside a laboratory, HumanTrak uses camera-based motion capture to construct a digital representation of the person moving in front of it.
The system can then quantify aspects of selected movements, including joint angles, range of motion, left-right differences and compensatory movement.
Results appear immediately and can be saved, compared and included within an individual report.
This makes sophisticated movement analysis much more practical within a normal clinical environment.
For us, that is important. We do not want data for the sake of having more data. We want information that can influence a decision during an appointment and be revisited later when we need to know whether something has genuinely changed.
From Looking at Movement to Measuring It
There is enormous value in an experienced clinician watching someone move. Human observation gives context that a single number cannot. But the human eye also has limitations.
Imagine you raise your arm and your shoulder appears to move more freely than it did four weeks ago.
How much more?
Five degrees?
Fifteen?
Twenty?
Did the shoulder itself move further, or did you achieve the additional range by leaning your trunk?
Now imagine trying to remember that movement accurately a month later. HumanTrak gives us another layer. VALD specifically designed the system to provide contextual information around movement rather than presenting isolated measurements alone.
Depending on the task, the system can identify relevant compensatory movement and provide live video alongside the measured result. The clinician still watches. We simply have more to work with.
What Can We Measure?
A HumanTrak assessment is not a standard battery that everybody completes. The movements are selected according to the question we are trying to answer.
For someone recovering from a shoulder problem, that may look very different from an athlete returning after a knee injury or an adult trying to understand why one side feels restricted during a squat.
Joint Range of Motion
HumanTrak can quantify selected shoulder, hip and other joint movements, allowing range to be recorded in degrees rather than described simply as limited or unrestricted.
This can be particularly useful when tracking change over time.
Independent research examining HumanTrak shoulder measurements found adequate reliability across the movements studied, with good repeatability for measures including shoulder flexion and abduction.
That gives us greater confidence when using an appropriate HumanTrak measurement to monitor change.
Left-to-Right Differences
Humans are not perfectly symmetrical. Nor should they be. A left-to-right difference only becomes interesting when there is a reason for it to matter.
Perhaps one side has recently been injured.
Perhaps a previously operated knee behaves differently during a squat.
Perhaps one shoulder has lost substantial range.
HumanTrak allows selected bilateral measures to be compared objectively. The aim is not to make both sides mathematically identical. It is to understand whether the difference is relevant to the person standing in front of us.
Squat and Functional Movement
A squat can tell us far more than whether someone can get down and stand back up. Depending on the assessment, we may be interested in trunk movement, hip and knee position, depth or how the strategy changes between repetitions.
Research published in the Journal of Biomechanics found HumanTrak provided good-to-excellent reliability for peak trunk flexion across most of the squat conditions studied, including repeat testing on different days.
That does not mean every HumanTrak movement has identical reliability. It means specific measurements can provide useful repeatable information when used appropriately.
Shoulder Movement
A shoulder can appear to have regained movement while the person has actually found another way to achieve the task. For patients recovering from shoulder pain, restriction, or surgery, quantifying shoulder flexion or abduction can help us document progress alongside pain, strength, and function.
Research comparing HumanTrak with conventional goniometric assessment found it to be a valid and reliable method for measuring shoulder movements in healthy adults. Again, the value is not that technology replaces examination. It makes change easier to quantify.
The Most Valuable Measurement May Be the Second One
One HumanTrak assessment gives us a snapshot.
Two assessments begin to tell a story.
At your first assessment, we establish where you are now. That baseline is stored. Following treatment, rehabilitation or a period of training, we can repeat the relevant movements under similar conditions and compare the results.
This changes the conversation. Instead of only asking:
“Does it feel better?”
we can look at whether an objective movement measure has also changed.
Perhaps shoulder flexion has increased.
Perhaps a squat is being completed with less trunk movement.
Perhaps a meaningful side-to-side difference has reduced.
Or perhaps the numbers have barely changed despite symptoms improving.
That last result can be useful too. It may tell us that pain relief and physical recovery are not moving at the same rate, or that the aspect of movement we measured was never the main problem in the first place. A good assessment should be able to confirm our thinking. It should also be capable of challenging it.
What the Research Actually Tells Us
We use HumanTrak because there is a growing body of research on validation and reliability for specific measurements within the system. That does not mean every output should be treated as laboratory-perfect. And it certainly does not mean movement analysis can predict with certainty who will become injured.
Those are important distinctions. Studies have reported good-to-excellent reliability for a range of HumanTrak shoulder, hip, knee and squat measurements. Research comparing selected lower-limb HumanTrak outputs with laboratory marker-based motion capture has also demonstrated good validity for many of the movements examined.
There are limitations. Reliability can vary depending on the movement, plane of motion, and measurement used. Research has found some movements to be less reliable than others. For us, this makes the technology more useful, not less.
It tells us where measurements deserve greater confidence and where they need to be interpreted with greater caution.
We would rather explain those limitations than make the technology sound more powerful than it is.
What Movement Analysis Cannot Tell You
HumanTrak cannot look at a movement and tell us with certainty why you are in pain.
It cannot predict every future injury.
It cannot tell us that an asymmetry is automatically pathological.
And it cannot replace an experienced clinical assessment.
Movement data should be interpreted, not obeyed.
A restriction could be relevant to your symptoms.
Or completely incidental.
A left-to-right difference might represent a meaningful post-injury deficit.
Or simply normal individual variation.
A different squat strategy might need rehabilitation.
Or it may be an entirely effective way for your body to solve the task.
The clinician’s job is to determine the difference.
That is why at Movement Mechanics, the question is never simply "What does HumanTrak say?"
It is, "Does what we measured matter for what you are trying to achieve?"
Who Is Movement Analysis For?
You do not need to be an elite athlete.
You simply need a reason to want better information about how you move.
You Are Recovering From Injury
Following an injury, pain often changes movement.
HumanTrak can help establish a baseline and provide objective measures that can be revisited as rehabilitation progresses.
This is particularly useful where the goal extends beyond simply becoming comfortable in daily life.
Your Rehabilitation Has Plateaued
Sometimes the difficult part is not knowing what still needs to change. Pain may have improved, yet something does not feel right when you return to exercise. Objective movement information can help us investigate whether a meaningful restriction, asymmetry or altered movement strategy remains.
It may also show that movement is recovering normally and direct our attention somewhere else.
You Are Returning to Sport
Return to sport should not be decided by the calendar alone.
How you move forms only one part of that decision, but it can be an informative one. HumanTrak may be used alongside clinical examination, strength assessment, symptoms and progressive sport-specific exposure to help build a more complete picture of readiness.
Sports Osteopathy & Sports Injury Treatment →
You Have Had Surgery
After surgery, the absence of pain does not necessarily mean full function has returned. Movement analysis can be useful during later rehabilitation when we want to compare range, functional movement or side-to-side performance against an earlier baseline. It does not replace surgeon or rehabilitation criteria.
It provides another measurable piece of the recovery picture.
Surgical Recovery & Prehabilitation →
You Simply Want to Understand Your Movement Better
Not everyone who books a movement analysis is injured.
Some people are curious about a persistent restriction.
Others want a baseline before beginning a new programme or increasing their training. Sometimes seeing movement represented objectively makes something that has always been difficult to describe much easier to understand.
Movement Analysis Should Change What Happens Next
Collecting numbers without changing a decision is just testing for testing’s sake. That is not how we use HumanTrak.
If the assessment identifies a meaningful limitation, the next question becomes:
What do we do with it?
That may involve rehabilitation. It may influence exercise selection. A clinically relevant joint restriction may form part of an osteopathic treatment plan. A persistent tendon problem may require a different loading strategy.
If pain or tissue irritability is preventing appropriate rehabilitation, another evidence-informed intervention may occasionally be relevant. And sometimes HumanTrak tells us that the movement we were concerned about is not changing meaningfully at all.
That information matters too.
The point of measuring movement is not to find more things wrong with you. It is to make better decisions about what actually matters.
HumanTrak + Osteopathy: Where Objective Data Meets Hands-On Care
Osteopathy has traditionally relied heavily on clinical observation, palpation and movement examination. Those skills remain valuable.
HumanTrak allows us to add objective measurement where it improves the assessment. At Movement Mechanics, this fits naturally within our Movement Matters™ philosophy.
We believe movement is fundamental to function, adaptation and recovery. But if movement matters, we should be prepared to measure it when doing so gives us useful information.
An osteopathic assessment may identify a relevant restriction or movement limitation. HumanTrak can sometimes quantify it. Treatment and rehabilitation can then be directed towards the problem. Later, we can reassess.
This creates a simple clinical loop:
Assess
Understand the history, symptoms and movement demands.
Measure
Establish objective baseline data where appropriate.
Treat
Address relevant clinical findings using the most appropriate approach.
Reassess
Repeat meaningful measures rather than relying solely on memory or perception.
Progress
Use the combination of symptoms, function and objective change to guide what comes next.
Assess. Treat. Reassess. Progress.
That is HumanTrak at its most useful.
Movement Matters™ When You Can See What Has Changed
The Movement Mechanics philosophy is built around a simple idea: Movement Matters™.
When pain, injury or surgery takes movement away, recovery is about more than getting comfortable again.
It is about restoring enough capacity and confidence to return to what matters.
HumanTrak gives us a way of making part of that journey visible.
Not because every degree needs correcting.
Not because everybody needs perfect symmetry.
And not because technology knows your body better than you do.
It gives us another objective reference point.
Something we can record.
Something we can reassess.
Something that can help both clinician and patient understand whether the plan is taking us where we intended to go.
Here are some of the questions we get about VALD HumanTrak Movement Analysis.
Stop Guessing Whether Something Has Changed
You already know how your body feels. Sometimes the missing piece is understanding how it is actually moving.
VALD HumanTrak gives us a way to establish where you are today, measure the things that matter and return to them later.
Not to chase perfect numbers. Not to manufacture problems that are not there.
To make better decisions. To show meaningful progress.
And to help turn recovery from something you hope is happening into something we can sometimes objectively demonstrate. Movement Mechanics. Movement Matters™.
Ready to See How You Move?
Book a VALD HumanTrak movement analysis at our Browns Bay clinic and receive an objective assessment tailored to the movement, injury or rehabilitation question that matters to you.