Luke Hopper

ADVANCED
BIOMECHANICS
HPE 660
Today’s Lecture and Lab
Introduction to Gait Analyses

Temporal parameters of the gait cycle

General kinematics and kinetics

Treadmill gait analysis

Evolutionary Adaptations for Human Endurance
Running
Anatomical adaptations
 Bipedalism places COM directly over
base of support
 Tendon length and size enable energy
storage
 Longitudinal foot arch for shock
absorption and energy storage
 Enlarged knee joint articular surfaces
 Gluteus maximus size
 Evolutionary Advantages for Human
Endurance Running
Bramble & Lieberman, 2004. Endurance running and the
evolution of Homo. Nature, 432, 345-52

 Relatively slow max speed

 Human jogging range beyond trot to gallop transition
of small to medium quadripeds
 Quadriped panting capacity
reduced during galloping
 Hunting success may have
improved over long distance
 Walking

 Inverted pendulum model

 Translation strategy of movement
 Energy and force dissipated through
bones and joint tissue
 COM height increases

during mid stance

Running Blickhan, 1989. The spring-mass model
for running and hopping. Journal of
Biomechanics. 22 (11-12), 1217-27.
Mass spring model
 Leg obeys stiffness properties
of a spring
Stiffness = Force/distance = Nm-1

 Compression of leg reacts to

opposing JRF and GRF
 VGRF and braking forces
result in spring compression
and energy storage
 COM vertical displacement
behaves in opposition to
walking
Human gait cycle
 Stance phase
Foot contact (footstrike) until foot leaves the
ground (toe-off)
 Swing phase
Toe-off to footstrike
 Stride
Toe-off to ipsilateral toe-off
 Step
Toe-off to contra lateral toe-off (footstrike to
contra lateral footstrike)
Human gait cycle

 Walking:
Alternating single
and double leg
support
 Running:
Alternating
sequences of
support and non-
support
Data from Vaughan 1984.

Notice stance phase decreases as speed increases

Temporal-Spatial Parameters (TSP’s)
 Walking speed
Distance/time
(Cadence x stride length)/ 120
 Cadence
Number of steps per minute (divide by 120
to get strides/second)
 Stride length
(120 x speed)/cadence
Speed x stride time
Normative data for “TSP”
Speed (m/s) Cadence Stride length (m)
(steps/min)
Men 1.3-1.6 110-115 1.4-1.6
Women 1.2-1.5 115-120 1.3-1.5

 Other factors which influence TSP:

Shoes vs No shoes
○ Longer support barefoot
Age
Treadmill
○ Stride length ↓
○ Cadence ↑
 Effect of speed on time, phase & stance

Implications for
force
development?

(b) Adapted from J. Nilsson and A. Thorstensson 1987.

Kinematics of running speed...
 SL for initial
increase in speed
Trained
 SR later
 SL increases
Untrained
require less energy
 Trained athletes are
able to maximise
SL Data from Saito et al. 1974.
Kinematics with speed...
 Knee joint kinematics
change with speed
increase
 Greater flexion during
swing and at IC
 Consider walking and
running models

Shaded area = stance phase (IC to TO

0 rad = extension at knee

Data from C.L. Vaughan 1984.

General kinematics and muscle activation
during walking

Kirtley, C. (2006). Clinical gait analysis: Theory

and practice. Philadelphia: Elsevier. Whittle, M. (2007). Gait analysis: an
introduction. Philadelphia: Elsevier.
2-D Analysis of gait kinematics
 Can give some quick
valuable information
but the downfalls
include:
Parallax error
○ Movement away from
the optical axis of the
camera
○ Increase toward
periphery
2-D Analysis of gait kinematics (2)
 Perspective error
Out-of-plane movement causes an apparent change in
length
Reduced by increasing camera distance and zooming in to
compensate for subject size

Segment length
(l) is reduced
by amount (e)
when it moves
distance (d)
GRF during normal walking gait
 Rise and fall above or
below BW = extra
acceleration
A = IC rises quickly
B = above BW early in
stance phase
C = below BW in mid-
stance
D = terminal support,
transfer to contra lateral
limb
E= swing phase
Winter, 1991
Shear components during normal gait

 Be familiar with
shearing forces
FAP
○ Smaller than vertical
○ Posterior (braking) for 1st
50% of stance and
anterior (propulsive) late
stance
FML
○ Medially in response to
lateral motion of body
○ Size proportional to stride
width
 Speed and AP shear force
 Closely related to stride length
 Braking AP shear (in % BW) = 31 – normalized SL x 8.36
 Propulsive AP shear = 30 x normalized SL – 6.4
r2 = 0.99
The double support phase
 Sum of GRF from
each side
 Normally smooth
pattern is irregular
in double support
 GRF of L and R are
not necessarily
symmetrical even in
healthy populations