Can changes in midsole bending stiffness of shoes affect the onset of joint work redistribution during a prolonged run?

Čigoja, Saša; Fletcher, Jared R.; Nigg, Benno M.

doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2020.12.007

Cited by 27 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 43 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To support this proposition, frontal plane mechanics change 38,61 and joint work redistributes to more proximal joints during a run to exhaustion which could be less economical, 62 an effect that can be mitigated by increasing the longitudinal bending stiffness of footwear. 63,64 Similar results would be expected for a shoe that could emulate or augment the "springlike" behavior of the subtalar joint and maintain work contributions from distal joints.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

2021 ISB World Athletics Award for Biomechanics: The Subtalar Joint Maintains “Spring-Like” Function While Running in Footwear That Perturbs Foot Pronation

Asmussen

Lichtwark

Maharaj

2022

Journal of Applied Biomechanics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans have the remarkable ability to run over variable terrains. During locomotion, however, humans are unstable in the mediolateral direction and this instability must be controlled actively—a goal that could be achieved in more ways than one. Walking research indicates that the subtalar joint absorbs energy in early stance and returns it in late stance, an attribute that is credited to the tibialis posterior muscle-tendon unit. The purpose of this study was to determine how humans (n = 11) adapt to mediolateral perturbations induced by custom-made 3D-printed “footwear” that either enhanced or reduced pronation of the subtalar joint (modeled as motion in 3 planes) while running (3 m/s). In all conditions, the subtalar joint absorbed energy (ie, negative mechanical work) in early stance followed by an immediate return of energy (ie, positive mechanical work) in late stance, demonstrating a “spring-like” behavior. These effects increased and decreased in footwear conditions that enhanced or reduced pronation (P ≤ .05), respectively. Of the recorded muscles, the tibialis posterior (P ≤ .05) appeared to actively change its activation in concert with the changes in joint energetics. We suggest that the “spring-like” behavior of the subtalar joint may be an inherent function that enables the lower limb to respond to mediolateral instabilities during running.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

2021 ISB World Athletics Award for Biomechanics: The Subtalar Joint Maintains “Spring-Like” Function While Running in Footwear That Perturbs Foot Pronation

Asmussen

Lichtwark

Maharaj

2022

Journal of Applied Biomechanics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In line with the results, Kelly et al (2016) observed that compared with barefoot, the compression and recoil of the MLA reduced, and peak FDB activation was greater when running with shoes. According to previous studies, the magnitude of MLA compression decreased accompanied by an increased muscle activation due to the replacement of the spring-like function of the MLA with muscle work, which may increase the metabolic cost ( Alexander, 1991 ; Stearne et al, 2016 ; Cigoja et al, 2021 ). Stearne et al (2016) observed that limiting the MLA compression by the use of custom insoles, which restricted arch compression to 20 and 40%, resulted in increases of 1 and 2.5% in metabolic energy cost, respectively.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Effects of Barefoot and Shod on the In Vivo Kinematics of Medial Longitudinal Arch During Running Based on a High-Speed Dual Fluoroscopic Imaging System

Zhang

et al. 2022

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Shoes affect the biomechanical properties of the medial longitudinal arch (MLA) and further influence the foot’s overall function. Most previous studies on the MLA were based on traditional skin-marker motion capture, and the observation of real foot motion inside the shoes is difficult. Thus, the effect of shoe parameters on the natural MLA movement during running remains in question. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the differences in the MLA’s kinematics between shod and barefoot running by using a high-speed dual fluoroscopic imaging system (DFIS). Fifteen healthy habitual rearfoot runners were recruited. All participants ran at a speed of 3 m/s ± 5% along with an elevated runway in barefoot and shod conditions. High-speed DFIS was used to acquire the radiographic images of MLA movements in the whole stance phase, and the kinematics of the MLA were calculated. Paired sample t-tests were used to compare the kinematic characteristics of the MLA during the stance phase between shod and barefoot conditions. Compared with barefoot, shoe-wearing showed significant changes (p < 0.05) as follows: 1) the first metatarsal moved with less lateral direction at 80%, less anterior translation at 20%, and less superiority at 10–70% of the stance phase; 2) the first metatarsal moved with less inversion amounting to 20–60%, less dorsiflexion at 0–10% of the stance phase; 3) the inversion/eversion range of motion (ROM) of the first metatarsal relative to calcaneus was reduced; 4) the MLA angles at 0–70% of the stance phase were reduced; 5) the maximum MLA angle and MLA angle ROM were reduced in the shod condition. Based on high-speed DFIS, the above results indicated that shoe-wearing limited the movement of MLA, especially reducing the MLA angles, suggesting that shoes restricted the compression and recoil of the MLA, which further affected the spring-like function of the MLA.

show abstract

“…Notably, locomotor adaptations to equalize muscle efforts have also been noted among the healthy population. The phenomenon called distal-to-proximal shift in joint kinetics is a wellrecognised adaptation mechanism in older adults' gait [17,18] and is also noted to occur in runner's gait due to fatigue [19,20]. Specifically, in this gait adaptation, the kinetic contribution from the ankle joint during stance phase is progressively reduced and replaced by a greater contribution from more proximal knee and/or hip joint musculature [17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The phenomenon called distal-to-proximal shift in joint kinetics is a wellrecognised adaptation mechanism in older adults' gait [17,18] and is also noted to occur in runner's gait due to fatigue [19,20]. Specifically, in this gait adaptation, the kinetic contribution from the ankle joint during stance phase is progressively reduced and replaced by a greater contribution from more proximal knee and/or hip joint musculature [17][18][19][20]. Previous studies have attributed this distal-to-proximal shift adaptation mechanism to the fact that both walking and running require greater relative efforts from the ankle extensors compared to more proximal lower limb muscle groups [12,14,21,22], thereby indicating a lower force reserve at the ankle extensors to buffer any loss of muscle capacity that may occur due to ageing, fatigue or disease.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

A test of the effort equalization hypothesis in children with cerebral palsy who have an asymmetric gait

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Healthy people can walk nearly effortlessly thanks to their instinctively adaptive gait patterns that tend to minimize metabolic energy consumption. However, the economy of gait is severely impaired in many neurological disorders such as stroke or cerebral palsy (CP). Moreover, self-selected asymmetry of impaired gait does not seem to unequivocally coincide with the minimal energy cost, suggesting the presence of other adaptive origins. Here, we used hemiparetic CP gait as a model to test the hypothesis that pathological asymmetric gait patterns are chosen to equalize the relative muscle efforts between the affected and unaffected limbs. We determined the relative muscle efforts for the ankle and knee extensors by relating extensor joint moments during gait to maximum moments obtained from all-out hopping reference test. During asymmetric CP gait, the unaffected limb generated greater ankle (1.36±0.15 vs 1.17±0.16 Nm/kg, p = 0.002) and knee (0.74±0.33 vs 0.44±0.19 Nm/kg, p = 0.007) extensor moments compared with the affected limb. Similarly, the maximum moment generation capacity was greater in the unaffected limb versus the affected limb (ankle extensors: 1.81±0.39 Nm/kg vs 1.51±0.34 Nm/kg, p = 0.033; knee extensors: 1.83±0.37 Nm/kg vs 1.34±0.38 Nm/kg, p = 0.021) in our force reference test. As a consequence, no differences were found in the relative efforts between unaffected and affected limb ankle extensors (77±12% vs 80±16%, p = 0.69) and knee extensors (41±17% vs 38±23%, p = 0.54). In conclusion, asymmetric CP gait resulted in similar relative muscle efforts between affected and unaffected limbs. The tendency for effort equalization may thus be an important driver of self-selected gait asymmetry patterns, and consequently advantageous for preventing fatigue of the weaker affected side musculature.

show abstract

Can changes in midsole bending stiffness of shoes affect the onset of joint work redistribution during a prolonged run?

Cited by 27 publications

References 43 publications

2021 ISB World Athletics Award for Biomechanics: The Subtalar Joint Maintains “Spring-Like” Function While Running in Footwear That Perturbs Foot Pronation

2021 ISB World Athletics Award for Biomechanics: The Subtalar Joint Maintains “Spring-Like” Function While Running in Footwear That Perturbs Foot Pronation

Effects of Barefoot and Shod on the In Vivo Kinematics of Medial Longitudinal Arch During Running Based on a High-Speed Dual Fluoroscopic Imaging System

A test of the effort equalization hypothesis in children with cerebral palsy who have an asymmetric gait

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About