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Gait transition

Discussion in 'Biomechanics, Sports and Foot orthoses' started by Simon Spooner, Apr 6, 2016.

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    Question:

    Why do we transition from a walking gait to a running gait to a sprinting gait?

    Gait transition seems to vary between individuals (Obvs), and is obviously related to metabolic cost. But what exactly is the CNS picking up on to make the decisions as to the required gait for the given velocity?
     
  2. I would say metabolic cost is important

    but so is the ability to control the rise and fall of the Center of mass keeping that wave " smooth" will be I think a major reason for changing the type of gait at certain velocity?s
     
  3. Simon:

    There has been quite a bit of research on walk-run transition. The CNS obviously uses metabolic cost as a method of altering gait patterns (and other movement patterns) and probably uses muscle, joint and tendon receptors for input on position and discomfort, input from eyes and inner ear on movement path and velocity along with other factors. I am unaware of any specific research in this regard. However, I do know that during my exercise physiology days of over 35 years ago, the research on this subject was very sparse.
     
  4. A little more background on my interest here: recently Ian Griffiths and I were lecturing in Valencia. One of the sessions involved taking running subjects and manipulating gait parameters. If memory serves we were running one of the subjects at 10 or 11 km per hour, he had a "cross-over" running gait at this treadmill speed. We then placed a line down the centre of the treadmill and asked him to strike either side of the line, i.e. increase his base of gait. With the treadmill set at the same speed, (by definition) he stopped running and was now walking- double support phase was evident. Hell of a fast walk, but by many definitions he was now walking. What was going on here?
     
  5. Further thoughts: what if the CNS get's it wrong? Can the CNS pick the wrong gait strategy for the forward velocity? Our subject "walking" at the same velocity he was previously "running" at is an anomaly. Was the conscious over-ride that we asked our subject to attempt playing havoc with the sensory feedback system resulting in him "walking" at a velocity he should have been running at? This thinking brings me back to the Robbins-Gouwe hypothesis: if we modify sensory input are we at risk of selecting the wrong gait? Just a thought.

    Never been a big fan of the Robbins-Gouwe hypothesis, but its got me thinking...

    When the conscious brain is thinking about "running style", modifying it and in so doing over-riding the unconscious brain's decisions on the required gait??? Is this the root of the problem here?- Just a thought.

    Is relax, listen to some music (take the conscious brain elsewhere) the solution? Always listened to music when running and I've never had a running related injury so it must be right ;-)
     
  6. efuller

    efuller MVP

    If the CNS gets it "wrong" the answer in why it gets it wrong will probably be related to why we think one style of gait is better at any given velocity.

    If we choose to move at a particular velocity, we have many choices to achieve that. For example, trying to run really slowly makes it seem like there would be too much impact and too much effort (energy cost).

    If one tries to walk really fast.... what makes it feel better to run. Perhaps running would require a lower stride frequency and have a longer stride length. Moving the legs does take energy.

    My two cents
    Eric
     
  7. I'm beginning to think that it is conscious over-ride in decision making that is making it wrong. It seems to me that the unconscious brain has access to all of the sensory feedback and probably makes decisions regarding gait based mainly upon metabolic efficiency, pain/ injury avoidance. Yet if the "arrogant" conscious mind tries to over-ride this, that's when problems arise. Obvious implications for the emerging field of "gait retraining"...

    Take a game such as soccer or rugby in which players are running a lot, yet their minds are on things other than the way they are running. Then compare to "runners" during which the mind and participation is focused upon their running... I know there are differences in surface etc. But I don't recall seeing the same degree of "running related injuries" in sports which involve lots of running, other than in "running",
     
  8. The base of gait in walking is generally, almost always, more wide than the base of gait of running. It is possibly that it was metabolically more efficient to walk at a fast speed of walking than to run at a slow speed of running.

    In running, due to the double float phase, the individual will tend to place their foot very close to being directly under the center of mass. In walking, however, this is never seen. My guess it was your suggestion to widen his base of gait that forced his CNS to find that walking was a more efficient way of accomplishing this wide base of gait, avoiding your center line, with the least amount of metabolic energy.
     
  9. NewsBot

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    Articles:
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    Transition from walking to running

    Human locomotion is considered to take two primary forms: walking and running. In contrast, many quadrupeds have three distinct forms of locomotion: walk, trot, and gallop. Walking is a form of locomotion defined by a double support phase when both feet are on the ground at the same time. Running is a form of locomotion that does not have this double support phase (switched into double float phase).

     
  10. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    What factors determine the preferred gait transition speed in humans? A review of the triggering mechanisms
    Stacey M.KungaPhilip W.FinkbStephen J.LeggcAjmolAlidSarah P.Shultza
    Human Movement Science; Volume 57, February 2018, Pages 1-12
     
  11. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    Prediction of walk-to-run transition using stride frequency: A test-retest reliability study
    Ernst Albin Hansen et al
    Gait and Posture; Article in Press
     
  12. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    What factors determine the preferred gait transition speed in humans? A review of the triggering mechanisms
    Stacey M.KungaPhilip W.FinkbStephen J.LeggcAjmolAlidSarah P.Shultza
    Human Movement Science
    Volume 57, February 2018, Pages 1-12

    •Proprioceptive and perceptual feedback mechanisms help regulate human gait patterns.
     
  13. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    PUBLIC RELEASE: 20-DEC-2018
    For gait transitions, stability often trumps energy savings
    Test results from mammals and birds emphasize risk reduction


    A dog's gait, according to the American Kennel Club, is "the pattern of footsteps at various rates of speed, each distinguished by a particular rhythm and footfall." When dogs trot, for example, the right front leg and the left hind leg move together. This is an intermediate gait, faster than walking but slower than running.

    In the December 12, 2018 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a multi-institutional team of researchers based at the University of Chicago Medicine take a novel and wide-ranging approach to understanding such speed-related gait transitions. The generally accepted approach has long focused on reducing locomotor costs, essentially finding the least taxing way to ramp up from one gait to a faster one without wasting energy.

    The researchers, however, uncovered a different explanation. They chose to focus less on energy conservation and more on locomotor instability--in layman's terms, reducing the risk of stumbling or toppling over. Their findings suggest that gait transitions represent "predictive, anticipatory switching of movements to minimize unstable dynamic states."

    "We found that gait transitions occur when the stability of a gait decreases so much that switching to a new gait improves stability," said Michael Granatosky, PhD, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral student in the department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. "The mammals and birds we studied tend to make gait transitions at critical points to provide a more rhythmic, less unstable locomotor state."

    These transitions, he added, can minimize "high inter-stride variation and unstable dynamic states, reducing the risk of inter-limb interference, such as tripping or falling."

    This wide-ranging study focused on gait transitions in nine animal models--seven mammals and two birds. The researchers started with Virginia opossums, tufted capuchins ("organ grinder" monkeys) and domestic dogs.

    They subsequently found similar data on gait transitions in six additional species: American minks, Australian water rats, brush-tailed bettongs (small marsupials also known as rat kangaroos), ostriches, North American river otters and the Svalbard rock ptarmigan.

    All of the initial animals--dogs, monkeys and opossums--were trained to exercise at a range of speeds on a treadmill within a plexiglass metabolic chamber. This familiarized the animals with the treadmills while improving their physical fitness. By the end of the training period, all of the animals could sustain six to ten minutes of vigorous running at "speeds required for metabolic movements."

    Once the training was completed, the researchers began testing. They monitored oxygen uptake, carbon-dioxide production, temperature, moisture levels, barometric pressure and air flow. Each animal ran in the chamber two to five times a day. From these metrics it was possible to determine the energetic costs of running at a particular speed.

    These energetic costs were collected over a range of speeds during walking and running. Variations in stride cycle duration were collected for each speed interval.

    Based on the data collected from this broad phylogenetic range of species, the authors determined that the assumptions of the energetic minimization hypothesis for gait transitions were rarely met.

    Instead, most animals choose not to switch gaits when it was most energetically efficient. In this study, dogs, ptarmigans, ostriches and otters, showed no significant change in the energy cost of transport while switching from a walk to a faster mode. In contrast, almost all of the other species demonstrated high variability near gait transitions. They subsequently reduced variability after switching to a new more stable gait.

    "Energy savings do not predict gait transition patterns," the authors conclude. Instead, gait transitions "maintain dynamic stability across a range of speeds."

    "Our data," the authors conclude, "suggest that gait transitions represent predictive, anticipatory switching of movement types to minimize high variability and avoid unstable dynamic states." Birds and mammals, they added, appear to have evolved sensorimotor mechanisms for monitoring inter-stride stability during locomotion and for triggering gait transitions at critical levels of variation.
     
  14. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    Is Cadence A Better Predictor Of The Walk-to-run
    Transition Than Speed And/or The Froude Number?

    Colleen J. Sands, Scott W. Ducharme, Elroy J. Aguiar,
    Christopher C. Moore, Zachary R. Gould, Catrine Tudor-Locke,
    ACSM ANNUAL MEETING
    May 28 – June 1, 2019 – Orlando, Florida
     
  15. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    Human walk-to-run transition in the context of the behaviour of complex systems
    M.VoigtM.K.HyttelL.S.JakobsenM.K.JensenH.BalleE.A.Hansen
    Human Movement Science; Volume 67, October 2019
     
  16. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    Using Cadence to Predict the Walk-to-Run Transition in Children and Adolescents: A Logistic Regression Approach
    Scott W. Ducharme et al
    Journal of Sports Sciences: 30 Dec 2020
     
  17. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    The puzzle of the walk-to-run transition in humans
    MichaelVoigtErnst A.Hansen
    Gait & Posture; Volume 86, May 2021, Pages 319-326
     
  18. NewsBot

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    Articles:
    1
    The effect of sex, stature, and limb length on the preferred walk-to-run transition speed
    NiamhGill et al
    Gait & Posture 13 August 2022
     
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