Effects of Obesity on the Biomechanics of Walking at Different Speeds

Abstract

Greater sagittal-plane knee moments in the obese subjects suggest that they walked with greater knee-joint loads than normal-weight adults. Walking slower reduced GRF and net muscle moments and may be a risk-lowering strategy for obese adults who wish to walk for exercise. When obese subjects walked at 1.0 versus 1.5 m.s(-1), peak sagittal-plane knee moments were 45% less. Obese subjects walking at approximately 1.1 m.s(-1) would have the same absolute peak sagittal-plane knee net muscle moment as normal-weight subjects when they walk at their typical preferred speed of 1.4 m.s(-1).

In-Shoe Plantar Pressures and Ground Reaction Forces During Overweight Adults' Overground Walking

“…Corroborating our data, higher absolute Fz1 (Browning & Kram, 2007Messier et al, 1996, 968^21 N vs. 756^17 N) and lower normalized Fz1 (1.00^0.01 N/BW vs. 1.03^0.01 N/BW) for overweight compared with normal-weight individuals (Browning & Kram, 2007) have already been demonstrated. This behavior suggests an adaptation in the overweight GRF pattern to relieve the consequences of their extra BW on the musculoskeletal system.…”

“…When the mechanical effect of overweight is subtracted from the analyses by scaling data to the body weight (BW), one could expect similar values between overweight and normal-weight individuals. However, a contradiction is observed in these normalized analyses: One article refers to similar horizontal components (anterior-posterior and medial-lateral) and lower vertical GRF (Browning & Kram, 2007), while another observed higher anterior-posterior propulsive force and similar vertical GRF (Lai et al, 2008). Thus, while the absolute GRF values clearly indicate an overall overloading during overweight people's gait, the normalized values suggest some alterations on its pattern, which are not clear.…”

“…Higher absolute GRF in healthy overweight (no pathology other than overweight) adults compared with normal-weight individuals (Browning & Kram, 2007) and a positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and absolute GRF components (anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, and vertical) in older overweight adults with osteoarthritis have already been described (Messier et al, 1996). When the mechanical effect of overweight is subtracted from the analyses by scaling data to the body weight (BW), one could expect similar values between overweight and normal-weight individuals.…”

“…To combat overweight, the most cited approach is to combine exercise and a dietary intervention (Hill & Peters, 1998). Although walking might be critical in terms of biomechanical loading on the musculoskeletal system, this activity is highly recommended and popular for prevention and treatment of overweight (Browning & Kram, 2007). Obesity is associated with a range of disabling musculoskeletal conditions in adults (Anandacoomarasamy, Caterson, Sambrook, Fransen, & March, 2007).…”

“…Assessment of these issues might provide information regarding the behavior of the forces on the interface foot insole, which are not related directly to the excessive BW, and could therefore provide new insights about the adaptations in gait patterns of overweight people. Moreover, because previous studies (Browning & Kram, 2007;Messier et al, 1996) showed differences in the horizontal GRF component when overweight people walked, a more detailed approachexploring differences in medial and lateral regions-for the midfoot and rearfoot would be interesting to investigate.…”