Landing-Takeoff Asymmetries Applied to Running Mechanics: A New Perspective for Performance

Conclusion: The elastic bouncing was optimized in runners of the best performance level, demonstrating a better use of elastic components. Introduction Individual differences in locomotor performance depend on specific biomechanical patterns. In bouncing terrestrial gaits, the body is idealized as a spring-mass composition thereby acting as a simple elastic system. The elastic mechanism is a well-recognized trait of human running to minimize the energy expenditure. It is known that animals, such as kangaroos (Kram and Dawson, 1998) and ostriches (Rubenson et al., 2011), make better use of the elastic mechanism and can achieve high speeds at a lower energy cost than humans. In humans, biological development and aging limit the utilization of elastic bouncing (Cavagna et al., 2008b), but this function is fully developed in adulthood, and it is related to the optimization of the use of muscle-tendon units (Legramandi et al., 2013). More than unveiling the function of single joints, the elastic model denotes whole-body aspects converging to the passive/non metabolic function of elastic energy storage and recovery (Blickhan, 1989; McMahon and Cheng, 1990). However, the role of performance level on elastic bouncing is not completely understood in distance runners. The elastic function of muscle-tendon units during distance running is determined by two main asymmetries: the landing-takeoff asymmetry and the asymmetry of rebound (Cavagna, 2009). The former occurs partitionin...
Source: Frontiers in Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research