Search results for "walking"
showing 10 items of 443 documents
Medial gastrocnemius muscle behavior during human running and walking.
2007
Utilization of elastic energy in the tendinous tissues (TT) of the human skeletal muscle may be task dependent. The present study was designed to investigate this problem by comparing the fascicle-TT interaction of the medial gastrocnemius muscle (MG) during ground contact of running and walking. Seven subjects ran and walked with a natural cadence. Ankle and knee joint angular data were recorded by electrogoniometers for estimating the entire MG muscle-tendon unit (MTU) length, together with the ground reaction forces. The MG fascicle length was measured by using the high-speed ultrasound image scanning during movements. The results showed that in running, after the rapid early fascicle st…
EMG, heart rate, and accelerometer as estimators of energy expenditure in locomotion.
2014
AB Purpose: Precise measures of energy expenditure (EE) during everyday activities are needed. This study assessed the validity of novel shorts measuring EMG and compared this method with HR and accelerometry (ACC) when estimating EE. Methods: Fifty-four volunteers (39.4 +/- 13.9 yr) performed a maximal treadmill test (3-min loads) including walking with different speeds uphill, downhill, and on level ground and one running load. The data were categorized into all, low, and level loads. EE was measured by indirect calorimetry, whereas HR, ACC, and EMG were measured continuously. EMG from quadriceps (Q) and hamstrings (H) was measured using shorts with textile electrodes. Validity of the met…
Effect of static foot posture on the dynamic stiffness of foot joints during walking
2018
Background The static foot posture has been related to the development of lower limb injuries. Research question This study aimed to investigate the dynamic stiffness of foot joints during gait in the sagittal plane to understand the role of the static foot posture in the development of injuries. Methods Seventy healthy adult male subjects with different static postures, assessed by the Foot Posture Index (FPI) (30 normal, 20 highly pronated and 20 highly supinated), were recruited. Kinematic and kinetic data were recorded using an optical motion capture system and a pressure platform, and dynamic stiffness at the different stages of the stance was calculated from the slopes of the linear r…
Flexible multibody simulation approach in the analysis of tibial strain during walking.
2007
Strains within the bone tissue play a major role in bone (re)modeling. These small strains can be assessed using experimental strain gage measurements, which are challenging and invasive. Further, the strain measurements are, in practise, limited to certain regions of superficial bones only, such as the anterior surface of the tibia. In this study, tibial strains occurring during walking were estimated using a numerical approach based on flexible multibody dynamics. In the introduced approach, a lower body musculoskeletal model was developed by employing motion capture data obtained from walking at a constant velocity. The motion capture data were used in inverse dynamics simulation to teac…
Dynamic Flexion Stiffness of Foot Joints During Walking
2016
Background: Dynamic stiffness can be used for studying foot pathologic abnormalities and for developing prostheses and orthoses. Although previous works have studied the role of ankle joint stiffness during gait, other foot joints have not yet been analyzed. We sought to characterize the dynamic stiffness of the ankle, midtarsal, and metatarsophalangeal joints during normal walking.Methods: Kinematics and contact data from four healthy individuals during walking were registered with a three-dimensional motion analysis system and a pressure platform. Stance phases with flexion moment-angle linear relationships were identified, and dynamic stiffnesses were calculated from the slope of their l…
Treadmill versus overground and barefoot versus shod comparisons of triceps surae fascicle behaviour in human walking and running
2013
Studies of human locomotion are commonly performed on a treadmill or overground, as well as with or without footwear. These testing modalities have been suggested to influence kinematics, kinetics and/or spatio-temporal variables differently. However, it is unclear whether they influence contractile behaviour at the level of the muscle fascicles. This has major relevance because results from studies performed with different combinations of the testing modalities are often compared. The present study used ultrasound to examine fascicle behaviour of the medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus muscles of ten young, healthy males during walking and running on a treadmill and overground, as well as…
Spatial variability of muscle activity during human walking: The effects of different EMG normalization approaches
2015
Human leg muscles are often activated inhomogeneously, e.g. in standing. This may also occur in complex tasks like walking. Thus, bipolar surface electromyography (sEMG) may not accurately represent whole muscle activity. This study used 64-electrode high-density sEMG (HD-sEMG) to examine spatial variability of lateral gastrocnemius (LG) muscle activity during the stance phase of walking, maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) and maximal M-waves, and determined the effects of different normalization approaches on spatial and inter-participant variability. Plantar flexion MVC, maximal electrically elicited M-waves and walking at self-selected speed were recorded in eight healthy males aged 2…
One-year persistence of individual gait patterns identified in a follow-up study – A call for individualised diagnose and therapy
2017
Abstract Although a hunch about the individuality of human movements generally exists, differences in gait patterns between individuals are often neglected. To date, only a few studies distinguished individual gait patterns in terms of uniqueness and emphasised the relevance of individualised diagnoses and therapy. However, small sample sizes have been a limitation on identifying subjects based on gait patterns, and little is known about the permanence of subject-specific characteristics over time. The purpose of this study was (1) to prove the uniqueness of individual gait patterns within a larger sample and (2) to prove the long-term permanence of individual gait patterns. A sample of 128…
Whole body frontal plane mechanics across walking, running, and sprinting in young and older adults
2016
This study investigated the whole body frontal plane mechanics among young (26 ± 6 years), early old (61 ± 5 years), and old (78 ± 4 years) adults during walking, running, and sprinting. The age-groups had similar walking (1.6 m/s) and running (4.0 m/s) speeds, but different maximal sprinting speed (young 9.3 m/s, early old 7.9 m/s, and old 6.6 m/s). Surprisingly, although the old group exerted much lower vertical ground reaction force during running and sprinting, the hip frontal plane moment did not differ between the age-groups. Kinematic analysis demonstrated increased hip adduction and pelvis drop, as well as reduced trunk lateral flexion among old adults, especially during sprinting. …
Human walking along a curved path. II. Gait features and EMG patterns
2003
We recorded basic gait features and associated patterns of leg muscle activity, occurring during continuous body progression when humans walked along a curved trajectory, in order to gain insight into the nervous mechanisms underlying the control of the asymmetric movements of the two legs. The same rhythm was propagated to both legs, in spite of inner and outer strides diverging in length (P < 0.001). There was a phase lag in limb displacement between the inner and outer leg of 7% of the total cycle duration (P = 0.0001). Swing velocity was greater for outer than inner foot (P < 0.001). The duration of the stance phase diminished and increased in the outer and inner leg (P < 0.01), respect…