scholarly journals Muscle forces and the demands of human walking

Biology Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Sylvester ◽  
Steven G. Lautzenheiser ◽  
Patricia Ann Kramer

ABSTRACT Reconstructing the locomotor behavior of extinct animals depends on elucidating the principles that link behavior, function, and morphology, which can only be done using extant animals. Within the human lineage, the evolution of bipedalism represents a critical transition, and evaluating fossil hominins depends on understanding the relationship between lower limb forces and skeletal morphology in living humans. As a step toward that goal, here we use a musculoskeletal model to estimate forces in the lower limb muscles of ten individuals during walking. The purpose is to quantify the consistency, timing, and magnitude of these muscle forces during the stance phase of walking. We find that muscles which act to support or propel the body during walking demonstrate the greatest force magnitudes as well as the highest consistency in the shape of force curves among individuals. Muscles that generate moments in the same direction as, or orthogonal to, the ground reaction force show lower forces of greater variability. These data can be used to define the envelope of load cases that need to be examined in order to understand human lower limb skeletal load bearing.

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150019
Author(s):  
Andriana Koufogianni ◽  
Asimakis K. Kanellopoulos ◽  
Konstantinos Vassis ◽  
Ioannis A. Poulis

Design: Cross-sectional study. Background: Osteoarthritis is one of the most common conditions in our society. A growing number of studies suggest the existence of central sensitization (CS) in a subgroup of osteoarthritic patients. One of the criteria included for the classification of CS pain is the expanded distribution of pain. As this criterion is a well-recognized sign of CS, a digital pain drawing (DPD) analysis would be useful to easily identify possible extended areas of pain distribution (PD) in patients with OA. Objective: To study the relationship between the percentage of distribution of pain in the lower limb for both knee and hip, in patients before hip or knee arthroplasty, and the Central Sensitization Inventory Questionnaire. Methods: Twenty women (mean [Formula: see text] years) with diagnosed chronic (over 3 months) knee ([Formula: see text]) and hip ([Formula: see text]) OA participated in the study, with intensity of pain from mild to severe, meaning pain [Formula: see text]/10 using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). The PD was analyzed via software created for this research, called “Pain Distribution Application”. Results: A statistically significant positive correlation between CSI and PD to the lower extremity OA (hip and knee) ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) was found. The distribution of pain has a linear correlation with the results in CSI, of patients who tested positive for CS, i.e. with a score of [Formula: see text]. Conclusions: As the distribution of pain on the surface of the body (diffusion) increases, so does the score of people who test positive for CSI. Our results showed that calculating the distribution of pain with our application may have a utility as a CS screening tool. The PD threshold of 10% of the body area is an index for CS for chronic pain lower limb OA patients.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (s1) ◽  
pp. S281-S287
Author(s):  
Zhihui Liu ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Fanlei Kong ◽  
Xia Huang ◽  
Zhi Tang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Many occupations require workers to stand for prolonged periods, which can cause discomfort, pain and even injures. Some supermarkets in life provide a foot pad for checkout staff to let them stand on it at work, thereby reducing standing fatigue caused by standing for a long time. The inclined platform is the same as the foot pad mentioned above. That is, the staff stepped on it and relieved standing fatigue to a certain extent. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to analyze how the standing angle affects fatigue among prolonged standing workers and tries to find an inclined platform with a specific angle to reduce standing fatigue. METHODS: This experiment studied fatigue of the inclined platforms with different angles on prolonged standing workers, eight participants were selected to participate in the test. The plantar pressures and sEMG (Surface Electromyography) were used to collect the physiological information change of prolonged standing participants in the lower limb and waist. The visual analogue scale was used as a subjective method to measure the psychological fatigue. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The study highlights the relationship between standing angle and lower limb fatigue. The inclination of the standing platform has different effects on the participants under different time conditions. When participants stand on inclined platforms at 0°, 5° and 10°, the iEMG (Integrated Electromyography) values of the gastrointestinal muscle were not significantly different until the third sampling point (40 minutes). After that self-regulation of lower limb muscles is better when standing on an inclined platform between 5° and 10°, it has a certain effect on alleviating lower limb fatigue. This knowledge is crucial for the design of the inclined working platforms fitting the needs of prolonged standing workers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1210-1215
Author(s):  
Tanyan Xie ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Jan Awrejcewicz ◽  
Yaodong Gu

Objective: Although it is widely reported that high-heeled changes gait pattern in terms of motions and forces throughout the body, the biomechanics while high-heeled squatting has not been examined. This study aimed to explore the acute effects of different heel heights on muscle morphology and plantar loading during high-heeled squatting. Methods: Fourteen healthy females performed squats on high-heeled shoes with different heights: flat (0.8 cm), moderate (4.0 cm), and high (7.0 cm). Muscle thickness and pennation angle of selected lower limb muscles were measured by ultrasound imaging. Plantar pressure distribution and COP trajectory during an entire squatting motion were recorded. Results: As the heel height increased, the average and peak pressure consistently increased in the heel and hallux regions, while reversely changed in MF and LF regions. In addition, the selected lower limb muscles except for the lateral gastrocnemius and vastus medialis showed significant differences in muscle thickness and pennation angle between heel heights. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that increased heel height would enhance the immediate effects on muscle morphology as well as plantar pressure redistribution potentially causing lower limb muscle fatigue and injuries.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas A. Correa ◽  
Anthony G. Schache ◽  
H. Kerr Graham ◽  
Richard Baker ◽  
Pam Thomason ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Kenneth P. Clark ◽  
Andrew B. Udofa ◽  
Laurence J. Ryan ◽  
Peter G. Weyand

Running impact forces have immediate relevance for the muscle tuning paradigm proposed here and broader relevance for overuse injuries, shoe design and running performance. Here, we consider their mechanical basis. Several studies demonstrate that the vertical ground reaction force-time (vGRFT) impulse, from touchdown to toe-off, corresponds to the instantaneous accelerations of the body’s entire mass (Mb) divided into two or more portions. The simplest, a two-mass partitioning of the body (lower-limb, M1=0.08•Mb; remaining mass, M2=0.92•Mb) can account for the full vGRFT waveform under virtually all constant-speed, level-running conditions. Model validation data indicate that: 1) the non-contacting mass, M2, often accounts for one-third or more of the early “impact” portion of the vGRFT, and 2) extracting a valid impact impulse from measured force waveforms requires only lower-limb motion data and the fixed body mass fraction of 0.08 for M1.


2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 760-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. N. Gambelli ◽  
D. Theisen ◽  
P. A. Willems ◽  
B. Schepens

Landing on the ground on one's feet implies that the energy gained during the fall be dissipated. The aim of this study is to assess human motor control of landing in different conditions of fall initiation, simulated gravity, and sensory neural input. Six participants performed drop landings using a trapdoor system and landings from self-initiated counter-movement jumps in microgravity conditions simulated in a weightlessness environment by different pull-down forces of 1-, 0.6-, 0.4-, and 0.2 g. External forces applied to the body, orientation of the lower limb segments, and muscular activity of 6 lower limb muscles were recorded synchronously. Our results show that 1) subjects are able to land and stabilize in all experimental conditions; 2) prelanding muscular activity is always present, emphasizing the capacity of the central nervous system to approximate the instant of touchdown; 3) the kinetics and muscular activity are adjusted to the amount of energy gained during the fall; 4) the control of landing seems less finely controlled in drop landings as suggested by higher impact forces and loading rates, plus lower mechanical work done during landing for a given amount of energy to be dissipated. In conclusion, humans seem able to adapt the control of landing according to the amount of energy to be dissipated in an environment where sensory information is altered, even under conditions of non-self-initiated falls.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 140449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Cleather ◽  
Anthony M. J. Bull

Traditional approaches to the biomechanical analysis of movement are joint-based; that is the mechanics of the body are described in terms of the forces and moments acting at the joints, and that muscular forces are considered to create moments about the joints. We have recently shown that segment-based approaches, where the mechanics of the body are described by considering the effect of the muscle, ligament and joint contact forces on the segments themselves, can also prove insightful. We have also previously described a simultaneous, optimization-based, musculoskeletal model of the lower limb. However, this prior model incorporates both joint- and segment-based assumptions. The purpose of this study was therefore to develop an entirely segment-based model of the lower limb and to compare its performance to our previous work. The segment-based model was used to estimate the muscle forces found during vertical jumping, which were in turn compared with the muscular activations that have been found in vertical jumping, by using a Geers' metric to quantify the magnitude and phase errors. The segment-based model was shown to have a similar ability to estimate muscle forces as a model based upon our previous work. In the future, we will evaluate the ability of the segment-based model to be used to provide results with clinical relevance, and compare its performance to joint-based approaches. The segment-based model described in this article is publicly available as a GUI-based M atlab ® application and in the original source code (at www.msksoftware.org.uk ).


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-745
Author(s):  
Carlos Gabriel Fábrica ◽  
Paula V. González ◽  
Jefferson Fagundes Loss

Parameters associated with the performance of countermovement jumps were identified from vertical ground reaction force recordings during fatigue and resting conditions. Fourteen variables were defined, dividing the vertical ground reaction force into negative and positive external working times and times in which the vertical ground reaction force values were lower and higher than the participant's body weight. We attempted to explain parameter variations by considering the relationship between the set of contractile and elastic components of the lower limbs. We determined that jumping performance is based on impulsion optimization and not on instantaneous ground reaction force value: the time in which the ground reaction force was lower than the body weight, and negative external work time was lower under fatigue. The results suggest that, during fatigue, there is less contribution from elastic energy and from overall active state. However, the participation of contractile elements could partially compensate for the worsening of jumping performance.


Retos ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 258-260
Author(s):  
Oscar Valencia ◽  
Oscar Araneda ◽  
Marcela Cárcamo ◽  
Felipe Carpes ◽  
Rodrigo Guzmán-Venegas

Temporo-spatial parameters (TSP) are commonly used to characterize human gait. These help to differentiate population groups in different conditions of gait, but can be influenced by lower limb anthropometry. Different strategies are assumed to normalize TSP and permit comparison among people. However, it is not clear how dimensions of the different lower limb segments influence gait TSP. The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between gait TSP and length of the thigh, leg and foot in young adults. The body segments lengths were adjusted for individual height and correlated with gait TSP. We found a correlation between foot length and step width (r = 0.44). When data were adjusted for gender, step time, stride time, cadence and gait speed correlated with foot length in men (r = 0.51, 0.49, -0.49 and -0.43, respectively). Among women, these same TSP correlated only with thigh length (r = 0.43, 0.46, -0.47 and -0.37, respectively). Step and stride length correlated with leg (r = 0.46 and 0.48) and thigh length (r = 0.44 and 0.44) only in men. In conclusion, anthropometric parameters influence TSP differentially for men and women. These data should be considered when studying population groups including people from both genders.Resumen. Los parámetros temporo-espaciales (PTE) son comúnmente usados para caracterizar la marcha humana. Estos ayudan a diferenciar grupos de poblaciones en diferentes condiciones de marcha, pero pueden ser influenciados por la antropometría de miembro inferior. Diferentes estrategias asumen la normalización de PTE y permiten comparar entre personas. Sin embargo, no está claro como las dimensiones de los diferentes segmentos de miembro inferior influyen los PTE en la marcha. El objetivo de este estudio fue verificar la relación entre los PTE de la marcha y la longitud del muslo, pierna y pie en adultos jóvenes. Las longitudes de los segmentos corporales fueron ajustadas por la altura de cada persona y correlacionadas con los PTE de la marcha. Se encontró una correlación entre la longitud del pie y el ancho del paso (r= 0.44). Cuando los datos fueron ajustados por género, el tiempo del paso, tiempo de la zancada, cadencia y velocidad de la marcha correlacionaron con la longitud del pie en hombres (r = 0.51, 0.49, -0.49 and -0.43, respectivamente). Entre las mujeres, estos mismos PTE solo correlacionaron con la longitud del muslo (r = 0.43, 0.46, -0.47 and -0.37, respectivamente). La longitud del paso y la zancada correlacionaron con la longitud de la pierna (r = 0.46 and 0.48) y el muslo (r = 0.44 and 0.44) solo en hombres. En conclusión, los parámetros antropométricos influyen de forma diferente los PTE para hombre y mujeres. Estos datos podrían ser considerados cuando se estudian grupos de poblaciones incluyendo personas de ambos géneros.


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