The implications of a long-lasting mechanical load on the locomotor activity are poorly understood. The objective of the present studies was to determine an impact of excess body weight on basic spatiotemporal gait measures and to test the hypothesis that leg swing phase may account for a load-related adaptation of the stride characteristics. To this end the basic spatial and temporal stride me...

Although the movement of the leg during swing phase is often compared to the unforced motion of a compound pendulum, the muscles of the leg are active during swing and presumably influence its motion. To examine the roles of muscles in determining swing phase knee flexion, we developed a muscle-actuated forward dynamic simulation of the swing phase of normal gait. Joint angles and angular veloc...

[Purpose] Robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) using Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL, CYBERDYNE) was previously reported beneficial for stroke and spinal cord injury patients. Here, we investigate the immediate effect of a single session of RAGT using HAL on gait function for cerebral palsy (CP) patients. [Subjects and Methods] Twelve patients (average age: 16.2 ± 7.3 years) with CP received a single...

We studied the selection of preferred step width in human walking by measuring mechanical and metabolic costs as a function of experimentally manipulated step width (0.00-0.45L, as a fraction of leg length L). We estimated mechanical costs from individual limb external mechanical work and metabolic costs using open circuit respirometry. The mechanical and metabolic costs both increased substant...

It has historically been believed that the role of arm motion during walking is related to balancing. Arm motion during natural walking is distinguished in that each arm swing is with the motion of the opposing leg. Although this arm swing motion is generated naturally during bipedal walking, it is interesting to note that the arm swing motion is not necessary for stable walking. This paper att...

During stance and swing phase of a walking stick insect, the retractor coxae (RetCx) and protractor coxae (ProCx) motoneurons and muscles supplying the thorax-coxa (TC)-joint generate backward and forward movements of the leg. Their activity is tightly coupled to the movement of the more distal leg segments, i.e., femur, tibia, and tarsus. We used the single middle leg preparation to study how ...

In gravity below Earth-normal, a person should be able to take higher leaps in running. We asked 10 subjects to run on a treadmill in five levels of simulated reduced gravity and optically tracked centre-of-mass kinematics. Subjects consistently reduced ballistic height compared with running in normal gravity. We explain this trend by considering the vertical take-off velocity (defined as maxim...

Amputee golfers need to cope with the absence of sole proprioception, a decreased range of swing motion and other factors which should be recognized for training purposes. The aim of this study was to determine the kinetic and kinematic differences in the golf swing in one leg and two legs amputees. The participants consisted of two males and one female at a professional or amateur level with a...

Human gait is characterized by periodic repetitions of two phases: a stance phase in which a foot is in contact with the ground, followed by a swing phase in which the lower limb swings through after toe-off. The functional necessities of above-knee prostheses are to provide knee locking during the stance phase and damping during the swing phase. Most of the conventional above-knee prostheses a...