The relationship between body alometry and gait transition speed of human locomotion

Abstract

Walking and running represent the two basic, fundamental patterns of human locomotion. The lowest speed at which a man spontaneously switches from walking to running is called preferred transition speed (PTS). There are a considerable number of inconsistencies regarding the importance and influence of body size and muscle factors in the phenomenon of gait transition speed, in the previous research findings. The objectives of this study were to determine: (1) the relationship between longitudinal, transversal and circular dimensions of the body and PTS; (2) the relationship between body proportions and PTS; (3) the relationship between body composition variables and PTS; (4) the predictive power of human allometry in determination of PTS. The sample comprised 59 male subjects (age 21.76 ± 1.93 years) heterogeneous in physical dimensions. We measured 15 anthropometric variables, body composition, and determined individual PTS using the standard increment protocol. Statistical analysis included Pearson correlation and Multivariate linear regression. The value of PTS in this study was 7.96 ± 0.38 km h-1. the highest correlations with PTS were recorded for variable lower leg length (r = -0.488), foot length (r = 0.418) and leg length (r = -0.410, p < 0.01). Body proportions showed higher correlations with the PTS in compare to individual anthropometric variables, and the highest correlation was observed between the proportion of the thigh length/lower leg length and PTS (r = 0.521, p < 0.01). The amount of body fat and percentage of body fat had low inverse correlation with PTS (r = -0.250, p < 0.05). Linear regression showed that 31% of the PTS variance can be explained by the variables lower leg length and foot length. Results of hierarchical regression showed that the 50.4% of the PTS variance can be explained through four body proportions. The main results of this experiment indicate that the proportions of the body are better PTS predictors in compare to the individual anthropometric variables. This means that body constitution, and especially the proportions between the leg segments and percent of the leg muscle mass, are more important PTS determinants than length of individual body segments.