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A General Relationship Links Gait Mechanics And Running Ground Reaction Forces, Kenneth P. Clark, Laurence J. Ryan, Peter G. Weyand

Kenneth Clark

The relationship between gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces is widely regarded as complex. This viewpoint has evolved primarily via efforts to explain the rising edge of vertical force– time waveforms observed during slow human running. Existing theoretical models do provide good rising-edge fits, but require more than a dozen input variables to sum the force contributions of four or more vague components of the body’s total mass (mb). Here, we hypothesized that the force contributions of two discrete body mass components are sufficient to account for vertical ground reaction force– time waveform patterns in full (stance foot and …