Speed influences on the scaling behavior of gait cycle fluctuations during treadmill running [An article from: Human Movement Science]

This digital document is a journal article from Human Movement Science, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The current study examined the temporal structure of gait cycle fluctuations in running. Participants ran at 80%, 90%, 100%, 110% and 120% of preferred running speed for 8min trials. Kinematic and kinetic gait cycle variables were generated from ground reaction force data. Mean, SD and CV of the kinematic and kinetic variables changed linearly with speed, whereas U-shaped functions were found for the scaling exponent @a in 5 of the 8 variables investigated. Our findings reveal that long range correlations are present in both kinetic and kinematic variables of the gait cycle. The dependent structure of the stride interval is reduced at preferred running speed and this is hypothesized to be related to the enhanced stability and flexibility of this gait speed.