Plantar Pressure Differences Between Nordic Walking Techniques (original) (raw)
Related papers
Effects of Walking Speeds and Durations on Peak Plantar Pressures
Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association, 2022
Background: Walking at various speeds and durations may result in different peak plantar pressure (PPP). However, there is no study comparing the effect of walking speeds and durations on PPP. The purpose of this study was to explore whether different walking speeds and durations significantly change PPP and establish a normal response in healthy people. Methods: An in-shoe plantar pressure system was used to measure PPP under the first toe, first metatarsal, second metatarsal, and heel regions in 12 healthy, young people. All participants performed six walking trials at three speeds (3, 6, and 9 km/h) and for two durations (10 and 20 min). The 3 × 2 two-way analysis of variance was used to examine the main effects of speeds and durations and their interaction. Results: The results showed that walking speeds significantly affected PPP and that walking duration did not. No interaction between the walking speed and duration was observed. Peak plantar pressure values under the first to...
Effect of shod walking on plantar pressure with varying uphill gradients
Asian Journal of Medical Sciences
Background: Uphill walking is biomechanically stressful. Changes in plantar pressure, is one of the important predictors of this stress and increased risk of foot injuries. It has been reported that civilians as well as different occupational workers have to walk over uphill gradient with footwear which may cause changes in plantar pressure. Till date published data on plantar pressure is not available of Indian population during shod walking with uphill gradients. Aims and Objective: The present study was aimed to generation of data base on plantar pressure and find out the effect of shod walking (wearing occupational boot) on plantar pressure at different uphill gradients. Materials and Methods: Twenty healthy male participated in this study. Plantar pressure was recorded using the pressure measurement system during walking at 4 km/hr speed on treadmill at level and different uphill gradients. Results: It was observed that the PP at all the five regions of both right and left foot...
Acta of Bioengineering and Biomechanics, 2020
Purpose: It is not known how gait speed affects plantar pressure characteristics in flatfoot. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of gait speed on plantar pressure variables in flatfoot by comparing it to normal foot posture. Methods: Thirty individuals with flatfoot and 30 individuals with normal foot posture were recruited. Plantar pressure variables were obtained by a pressure-sensitive mat at self-selected slow, normal, and fast speeds. All assessments were performed on the dominant foot, and three satisfactory steps were obtained for each gait speed condition. The order of gait speeds was randomized. Results: In the flatfoot group, the contact area was higher in the midfoot, third metatarsal, and hallux at all speeds, also in the second metatarsal at slow and normal speeds than the normal foot posture group (p < 0.05). The maximum force was higher in the midfoot and hallux at all speeds in the flatfoot group (p < 0.05). Also, the maximum force was lower in...
Effects of walking speeds and durations on the plantar pressure gradient and pressure gradient angle
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2022
Background: Walking exercise has been demonstrated to improve health in people with diabetes. However, it is largely unknown the influences of various walking intensities such as walking speeds and durations on dynamic plantar pressure distributions in non-diabetics and diabetics. Traditional methods ignoring time-series changes of plantar pressure patterns may not fully capture the effect of walking intensities on plantar tissues. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of various walking intensities on the dynamic plantar pressure distributions. In this study, we introduced the peak pressure gradient (PPG) and its dynamic patterns defined as the pressure gradient angle (PGA) to quantify dynamic changes of plantar pressure distributions during walking at various intensities. Methods: Twelve healthy participants (5 males and 7 females) were recruited in this study. The demographic data were: age, 27.1 ± 5.8 years; height, 1.7 ± 0.1 m; and weight, 63.5 ± 13.5 kg (mean ± standard deviation). An insole plantar pressure measurement system was used to measure plantar pressures during walking at three walking speeds (slow walking 1.8 mph, brisk walking 3.6 mph, and slow running 5.4 mph) for two durations (10 and 20 min). The gradient at a location is defined as the unique vector field in the two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system with a Euclidean metric. PGA was calculated by quantifying the directional variation of the instantaneous peak gradient vector during stance phase of walking. PPG and PGA were calculated in the plantar regions of the first toe, first metatarsal head, second metatarsal head, and heel at higher risk for foot ulcers. Two-way ANOVA with Fisher's post-hoc analysis was used to examine the speed and duration factors on PPG and PGA. Results: The results showed that the walking speeds significantly affect PPG (P < 0.05) and PGA (P < 0.05), and the walking durations does not. No interaction between the walking duration and speed was observed. PPG in the first toe region after 5.4 mph for either 10 or 20 min was significantly higher than 1.8 mph. Meanwhile, after 3.6 mph for 20 min, PPG in the heel region was significantly higher than 1.8 mph. Results also indicate that PGA in the forefoot region after 3.6 mph for 20 min was significantly narrower than 1.8 mph. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that people may walk at a slow speed at 1.8 mph for reducing PPG and preventing PGA concentrated over a small area compared to brisk walking at 3.6 mph and slow running at 5.4 mph.
Quantitative Analysis of Foot Plantar Pressure During Walking
Medical Science Monitor
Background: There are many methods of dynamic analysis of foot loading, however, we still need a simple, easily applicable system for foot plantar pressure analysis. In this study we asked the question: "Can a new system for foot evaluation, the ITE System, provide a good quantitative dynamic foot pressure analysis? Can it be used in clinical practice?". Material/Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers, 8 females and 12 males, aged 20 to 25 years old took part in this study. Normal static foot loading was tested using a typical pedobarographic platform, followed by a dynamic analysis using the foot-pressure ITE System. A new algorithm for data analysis (from 8 sensors) was proposed. Results: The sum of all maximal values from sensors was 11.71 N mean, with relatively low standard deviation (SD) of 1.81. Loading of sensor 1 (heel) was the highest-on average 29.84%. Sensor 2 (medial midfoot) received the lowest loading-normal range for this segment would be 0-4%. The manner of loading heel/toes, dynamics of changes in loading during gait was quite diverse; when analyzing courses of changes on sensors, 4 gait patterns were observed. Conclusions: Use of the ITE System creates a new possibility for dynamic foot evaluation, drawing from pedobarography and methods of gait analysis. The proposed data analysis algorithm is simple and can be applied in all cases. Normally, 30% of the sum of all pressures during stance phase falls on the rearfoot; 39% falls on forefoot.
Journal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology, 2011
The aim of this study was to investigate the foot plantar pressure distribution and the effect of different step width during walking. Methods: Nineteen female volunteers who aged 18~30 years old and with no history of lower extremity injury were considered. Subjects walked at a pre-determined set speed with varied step width (5 cm, 10 cm, and 20 cm) for three trials at each step width. This study used an in-sole plantar pressure measurement system to collect the peak pressure, maximum ground reaction force, pressure–time integral, and force–time integral data of eight different foot regions. Results: The data revealed that the peak plantar foot pressure on the medial arch increased with wider step width (p < 0.05). In contrast, maximum ground reaction force, peak plantar pressure, pressure–time integral, and force–time integral on the lateral arch and lateral side of the metatarsals decreased with wider step width (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study revealed tha...
2014
Plantar pressure provides useful information to assess the feet's condition. These systems have emerged as popular tools in clinical environment. These systems present errors and no compensation information is presented by the manufacturer, leading to uncertainty in the measurements. Ten healthy subjects, 5 females and 5 males, were recruited. Lateral load distribution, antero-posterior load distribution, average pressure, contact area, force, and peak pressures in 12 plantar regions were recorded. The aims of this study were to assess repeatability of the EcoWalk system and identify the range of pressure values observed in the normal foot. The coefficient of repeatability was less than 4\% for all parameters considered. The peak pressure was found to be repeatable when it was analyzed by region. Index Term— Pressure sensors, contact area, peak pressures, stability, repeatability.
The nature of functional variability in plantar pressure during a range of controlled walking speeds
During walking, variability in step parameters allows the body to adapt to changes in substrate or unexpected perturbations that may occur as the feet interface with the environment. Despite a rich literature describing biomechanical variability in step parameters, there are as yet no studies that consider variability at the body–environment interface. Here, we used pedobarographic statistical parametric mapping (pSPM) and two standard measures of variability, mean square error (m.s.e.) and the coefficient of variation (CV), to assess the magnitude and spatial variability in plantar pressure across a range of controlled walking speeds. Results by reduced major axis, and pSPM regression, revealed no consistent linear relationship between m.s.e. and speed or m.s.e. and Froude number. A positive linear relationship, however, was found between CV and walking speed and CV and Froude number. The spatial distribution of variability was highly disparate when assessed by m.s.e. and CV: relatively high variability was consistently confined to the medial and lateral forefoot when measured by m.s.e., while the forefoot and heel show high variability when measured by CV. In absolute terms, variability by CV was universally low (less than 2.5%). From these results, we determined that variability as assessed by m.s.e. is independent of speed, but dependent on speed when assessed by CV.
Temporal patterns of plantar pressures and lower-leg muscle activity during walking: effect of speed
Gait & Posture, 2004
Plantar pressure assessment is a tool useful for study of the gait cycle. In this study, we present a means of assessing the gait cycle using a temporal analysis of plantar pressures and lower-leg muscle activities. Plantar pressures and surface electromyography (EMG) of the tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscles were recorded as 19 men walked on a treadmill at seven speeds between 0.45 and 1.79 m/s. A typical 'heel strike to toe off' gait pattern was observed. Speed had minimal effects on the shapes of the muscle EMG root-mean-square-and plantar pressure-time curves except for the pressure-time curves in the heel and midfoot. A linear relationship was found between speed and peak pressures in the heel, medial forefoot, and toes; pressures in these regions increased by 91-289% going from 0.45 to 1.79 m/s. The temporal pressure changes in the forefoot and toes were paralleled by changes in MG muscle activity (i.e., cross-correlations of 0.90); TA muscle activity was not cross-correlated with the temporal pressure patterns in any region. However, the peak values of TA muscle activity were found to be highly correlated across speeds with peak pressures in the heel and toes (i.e., r 0.98); similar high correlations were found between peak values of MG muscle activity and heel pressure. In summary, these data collected on able-bodied persons during motorized treadmill walking can be useful for comparison to those of patients undergoing treadmill evaluations for atypical gait cycle patterns and for tracking the progress of patients during gait rehabilitation.
Comparative Analysis of Dynamic Plantar Pressure Distribution on Different Areas of the Foot
Leather and Footwear Journal, 2016
The plantar distribution between the foot and the contact surface provides valuable information about the foot's structure and functions. The plantar footprints were taken from 60 young women, aged between 20-30 and their foot typology was established by the authors in a previous study. The average values of the plantar pressures recorded on ten foot segments, in case of the four groups: normal foot, high arched foot, flat foot and Hallux-Valgus foot were analyzed in the present study. By comparing the pressures for the four identified groups, it was demonstrated that there are no significant differences between subjects, the maximum values being registered on the third metatarsal head bone, followed by the second metatarsal head bone and the heel. The findings of a Pearson correlation analysis demonstrate that some pressure areas are directly proportional to others (like for example toe areas with first, second, fourth metatarsal head bones and median area of the foot) and other pressure areas are indirectly proportional to others (like for example lateral heel, with second to fifth toe). An important result of the performed analysis is the negative correlation between toe area and the third and fifth metatarsals head bones. Therefore, when creating the footwear bottom components, the designer should use different materials and structures and design in order to redistribute the plantar pressures according to areas of the foot. KEY WORDS: plantar footprint, gait, pressure areas, footwear ANALIZA COMPARATIVÃ A DISTRIBUÞIEI PRESIUNILOR PLANTARE ÎN DINAMICÃ PE DIFERITE ZONE ALE PICIORULUI REZUMAT. Distribuþia presiunii manifestate între talpa piciorului ºi planul de sprijin furnizeazã informaþii valoroase privind structura ºi funcþiile piciorului. Într-un studiu anterior autorii au preluat amprentele plantare la un numãr de 60 femei, cu vârsta cuprinsã între 20-30 de ani ºi au stabilit tipologia piciorului acestora. În cadrul prezentului studiu au fost comparate valorile medii ale presiunilor pe zece segmente al suprafeþei plantare, pentru fiecare din cele 4 grupe: picior normal, picior scobit, picior plat ºi picior cu Hallux-Valgus, identificate de autori într-un studiu anterior. Comparând presiunile pentru cele 4 grupe de subiecþi s-a observat cã nu existã diferenþe semnificative între aceºtia, presiunea maximã înregistrându-se de fiecare datã pe metatarsianul al treilea, urmat de metatarsianul al doilea ºi cãlcâi. Printr-o analizã statisticã folosind coeficientul de corelaþie Pearson s-a demonstrat cã anumite zone de presiune sunt direct proporþionale cu altele (de exemplu zona degetelor cu primul, al doilea ºi al patrulea metatarsian, precum ºi cu zona medianã a piciorului) ºi alte zone de presiune sunt indirect proporþionale cu altele (de exemplu zona exterioarã a cãlcâiului cu degetul cinci). Un rezultat important al acestei analize statistice este corelaþia negativã identificatã între zona degetelor ºi al treilea ºi al cincilea metatarsian. În consecinþã, în momentul proiectãrii ansamblului inferior al încãlþãmintei, proiectantul trebuie sã aibã în vedere echilibrarea distribuþiei presiunilor plantare pe zonele piciorului, prin forma ºi structura modelului ºi prin tipul materialelor folosite. CUVINTE CHEIE: amprentã plantarã, mers, zone de presiune, încãlþãminte