Author(s)

Yoichiro Sato^1,2*, Norimasa Yamada³

¹Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hokkaido University of Science, Sapporo, Japan.
²Laboratory of Human Movement Science, Graduate School of Education, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
³Department of Sport and Physical Education, School of Health and Sport Sciences, Chukyo University, Toyota, Japan.

To better understand interlimb coordination during the double stance phase at fast walking speeds, we analyzed ground reaction forces generated by the leading and trailing limbs during the double stance phase at multiple speeds. Ground reaction forces were recorded during the double stance phase at slow, self-selected, and fast walking speeds in eleven healthy volunteers. We calculated the instantaneous phase of the ground reaction forces for the vertical and anterior-posterior components, and then calculated the relative phase between the leading and trailing limbs for each component. For the vertical component, the relative phase showed a significantly lower value in the fast condition than in the other two conditions in the early-double stance phase (fast vs. self-selected, p < 0.01; fast vs. slow, p < 0.001). For the anterior-posterior component, the relative phases in the early- and late-double stance phases in all speed conditions were significantly smaller than those in the mid-double stance phase. These findings suggest that interlimb coordination of the forces exerted by the leading and trailing limbs in the early-double stance phase would be an important factor for walking at fast speed.

Fast Walking Speed, Interlimb Coordination, Double Stance Phase, Relative Phase, Healthy Young Adults

Sato, Y. and Yamada, N. (2018) Interlimb Coordination of Ground Reaction Forces during Double Stance Phase at Fast Walking Speed. Advances in Physical Education, 8, 263-273. doi: 10.4236/ape.2018.82024.