Carrying Asymmetric Loads While Walking on a Treadmill Interferes with Lower Limb Coordination

Junsig Wang, Mitchell L. Stephenson, Chris J. Hass, Christopher M. Janelle and Mark D. Tillman
Additional contact information
Junsig Wang: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Arkansas for Medical Science, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA
Mitchell L. Stephenson: Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Montana Western, Dillon, MT 59725, USA
Chris J. Hass: Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Christopher M. Janelle: Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Mark D. Tillman: Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL 32211, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-10

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different load carriage modes on coordinative patterns in the lower extremities during walking. Twenty-five university students walked on a treadmill at their preferred pace under three different load conditions: symmetric load (5% of body mass in messenger bags on each shoulder hanging vertically and against the hips), asymmetric load 1 (10% of body mass in a messenger bag on one shoulder hanging vertically against the ipsilateral hip), and asymmetric load 2 (10% of body mass in a messenger bag on one shoulder with the bag draped across the trunk to the contralateral hip). Altered thigh-shank and shank-foot couplings were found for the loaded side during the stance of gait when comparing the asymmetric 1 and 2 to the symmetric load. In addition, thigh-thigh coupling was changed during gait when comparing the asymmetric load 2 and symmetric load. However, we did not find any significant differences in intralimb and interlimb couplings between the two different asymmetric load conditions. The results suggest potential benefits when carrying symmetrical loads in order to decrease abnormal limb coordination in daily activities. Thus, it may be advisable to distribute load more symmetrically to avoid abnormal gait.

Keywords: asymmetric load; gait kinematics; continuous relative phase; treadmill walking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4549/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4549/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4549-:d:543049

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().