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The Effects Of Footwear Longitudinal Bending Stiffness On The Energetics And Biomechanics Of Uphill Running, Justin Angelo Ortega

Masters Theses

There has been a prevalence of long-distance running footwear incorporating carbon-fiber plates within their midsoles, effectively increasing their longitudinal bending stiffness (LBS). This modification of modern racing footwear has occurred concurrently with large improvements in running times (Bermon et al., 2021), putting into question how these footwear components affect performance (Muniz-Pardos et al., 2021). The current literature has investigated this at level running, but with the increasing popularity of trail running, it is of interest to investigate whether the benefits found during level running translate to graded running. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to investigate the effects …

Gait Changes During Exhaustive Running, Nathaniel I. Smith

Masters Theses

Runners adopt altered gait patterns as they fatigue which may increase energy expenditure and susceptibility to certain overuse injuries. Previous investigations have described changes in muscle performance and kinematic gait variables resulting from running fatigue. The purpose of this investigation was to characterize changes in joint moment patterns that develop as runners fatigue in order to better understand the kinetic bases for kinematic fatigue effects. It was hypothesized that when fatigued, runners would demonstrate increases in stance time, peak stance phase knee flexion angle, peak knee extension moment, peak swing phase hip flexion moment, and hip extension and plantarflexion angular …

Does Footfall Pattern In Forefoot Runners Change Over A Prolonged Run?, Carl W. Jewell

Masters Theses

There has been much debate on the benefits of a forefoot versus rearfoot strike pattern in distance running in terms of performance and injury prevalence. Shock attenuation occurs more prominently in soft tissues at impact in forefoot runners compared to the passive skeletal loading in rearfoot runners. Recent studies indicate that a forefoot strike pattern may not be maintainable over long distance efforts. Therefore, this study tested the hypothesis that habitual forefoot runners could not maintain their strike pattern throughout a prolonged, intensive run.

Fourteen forefoot runners ran to voluntary exhaustion on an instrumented force treadmill (average run duration: 15.4±2.2 …

Kinetic Asymmetries During Submaximal And Maximal Speed Running, Devon H. Frayne

Masters Theses

An important issue for sports scientists, coaches and athletes is an understanding of the factors within a running stride that can enhance or limit maximal running speed. Previous research has identified many sprint-related parameters as potential kinetic limiters of maximal Center of Mass velocity (Chapman and Caldwell, 1983b; Weyand et al., 2001). Bilateral asymmetry is present for many of these parameters during running; however the degree to which such asymmetries change as running speed increases is unknown. It was hypothesized that asymmetries in key sprinting parameters would be larger at maximal speed than all other tested speeds. Kinematics and kinetics …