Apparel concept design for analyzing range of motion at the hip to prevent injury

Range of Motion (RoM) testing can identify the underlying causes of an athlete’s pain at the hip, be it muscular (extra-articular) or damage to the joint itself (intra-articular). The purpose of this study was to design a device which could detect characteristics of hip injuries from the motions and forces applied to the joint. Hence supplying a coach with a method to analyse and diagnose injuries in real time. A design to measure the RoM and gait at the hip was developed and later manufactured for testing on recreational athletes. Findings supported the device in its potential to identify gait events and competitive motion at the hip, despite the accuracy measuring less than that of the two-degree accuracy of the goniometer, competitive performance analysis within the study is evidence of a conceptual design. With development, apparel such as ours has the potential to supplement a coach’s quantitative analysis, identifying responsible motions and performance metrics at hip responsible for injuries at the joint and the lower limbs using correlative data between motion and the onset of injuries.