Force Pattern and Acceleration Waveform Repeatability of Amateur Runners

Abstract

Although accelerometers’ responses during running are not perfectly understood, they are widely used to study performance and the risk of injury. To outline the typical tibial acceleration pattern during running, this study aims to investigate the repeatability of acceleration signals with respect to the ground reaction force waveforms. Ten amateur runners were asked to perform ten trials along a straight line. One participant was asked to perform this protocol over ten sessions. Tibial accelerations and ground reaction forces were measured during the stance phase. The coefficient of multiple correlation R was computed to study the intra- and inter-test and subject repeatability of accelerometric and force waveforms. A good (R>0.8) intra- and inter-test repeatability was observed for all measured signals. Similar results were observed for intra-subject repeatability. A good inter-subject repeatability was observed only for the longitudinal acceleration and vertical and antero-posterior forces. Typical accelerometric signatures were outlined for each case studied.

Impact of exhaustion level on tibial acceleration signature of amateur runners

“…Indeed, as each participant presents different CMD, each participant seems to present a different acceleration signature for the 30 strides tested regardless of the exhaustion level. These results are different from previous study (Lariviere et al 2020) that highlight that each runner owns his own acceleration signature. However, this difference can be explained for several reasons, notably because this study is performed on a treadmill which can influence the running signals (Schache et al 2001).…”

“…Composed of several sensors, and particularly accelerometers, the latter have already demonstrated their ability to give a lot of relevant information on the practice of running (Giandolini et al 2014). Previous studies have shown that it is possible to extract repeatable and reproducible acceleration signals in running (Lariviere et al 2020). If these signals nevertheless seem extremely sensitive to the quality of the cushioning and may differ from one runner to another, the longitudinal axis of the leg seems to present signals with significant similarities within a same group of amateur runners.…”

Using Wearable Accelerometers to Develop a Vertical Ground Reaction Force Prediction Model during Running: A Sensitivity Study

“…The first set (set #1) was composed of data from the participant who completed 10 sessions (N = 100 trials). As the intra-and inter-test repeatability of these signals had been controlled and considered acceptable in a previous study [24], set #1 was considered as one group of 100 stance measurements. Set #1 was used to train and validate the proposed model.…”

“…The second set (set #2) comprised data from participants who completed only one session each. As the intra-subject repeatability of these signals had been controlled and considered acceptable in a previous study [24], set #2 was considered as eight groups of 10 stance measurements. This set was used to test the model (test phase) which had previously been trained and validated using set #1.…”

“…Third, as the stance duration differed among the trials, the signals were standardized to a uniform length of 5000 sample points (representing 100% of the stance). Fourth, as the intra-and inter-test repeatability of these signals had been controlled and considered acceptable in a previous study [24], the selected stance signals were averaged to extract the mean VGRF signal and six mean acceleration signals. To study the sensitivity of the developed model to the size of the training dataset, the models were developed using the mean signals of the 10th, 30th, 50th, 70th, or 90th first stance signals.…”