The influence of walking speed on dynamic loading on the human musculoskeletal system

Purpose: A study was conducted to investigate the effects of walking speed on the magnitude of the heel strike initiated shock waves that propagate throughout the human musculoskeletal system. Methods: Subjects walking on a treadmill at various speeds were used to acquire the experimental data regarding the heel strike-initiated shuck waves. Fifteen young healthy men participated in this study. Each one walked on the treadmill at five various speeds, and their associated cadences. while the heel strike induced shock waves were recorded at the tibial tuberosity for each speed during a 16-s period at a sampling rate of 1 kHz. Results: The obtained data reveal a significant increase in the dynamic loading experienced by the human musculoskeletal system with an increase in the walking speed. Conclusion: The analysis of the recorded acceleration suggests that an increase in walking speed contributes to an increase in dynamic loading on the human musculoskeletal system. Further, the evidence indicates that dynamic loading increases with the increase in speed at five times the rate of the ground reaction force increase.