Bilateral asymmetry of running gait in competitive, recreational and novice runners at different speeds.

Bilateral asymmetry of running gait in competitive, recreational and novice runners at different speeds. Hum Mov Sci. 2020 Mar 12;71:102600 Authors: Mo S, Lau FOY, Lok AKY, Chan ZYS, Zhang JH, Shum G, Cheung RTH Abstract The mechanisms and underlying causes of bilateral asymmetry among healthy runners of different levels remain unclear. This cross-sectional laboratory study aimed to investigate the effects of running speed and running experience or competitive level on bilateral symmetry during running. Eleven competitive runners, 9 recreational runners and 11 novice runners were recruited in this study. They ran on an instrumented treadmill for 3 min at each of 5 fixed speeds (8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 km/h) in a randomized order. Bilateral asymmetry was evaluated and quantified using symmetry index (SI) of temporal and kinetic parameters. Overall, SI ranged between 0.8% for stride time and 21.4% for vertical average loading rate. Significant speed effects were observed on SI of flight time (p = .012), which was significantly higher at 8 km/h than that of the other 4 speeds (p = .023, 0.005, 0.023 and 0.028, respectively). Group-by-speed interactions were detected on SI in time to peak vertical ground reaction force (p = .032) and vertical average loading rate (p = .002). The competitive runners presented linear reduction in the SI with increasing speed from 8 to 12 km/h (R2 > 0.94); for the recreational runners, SI chang...
Source: Human Movement Science - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Hum Mov Sci Source Type: research