Effect of active arm swing to local dynamic stability during walking

Wu, Y; Li, Y; Liu, A; Xiao, F; Wang, Y; Hu, F; Chen, J; Dai, K; Gu, D

Abstract

Arm swing is an essential component in regulating dynamic stability of the whole body during walking, while the contribution of active arm swing to local dynamic stability of different motion segments remains unclear.

This study investigated the effects of arm swing under natural arm swing condition and active arm swing condition on local dynamic stability and gait variability of the trunk segments (C7 and T10 joint) and lower extremity joints (hip, knee and ankle joint). The local divergence exponents (λsλs) and mean standard deviation over strides (MeanSD) of 24 young healthy adults were calculated while they were walking on treadmill with two arm swing conditions at their preferred walking speed (PWS).

We found that in medial–lateral direction, both λsλs and MeanSD values of the trunk segments (C7 and T10 joint) in active arm swing condition were significantly lower than those in natural arm swing condition (p < 0.05), while no significant difference of λsλs or MeanSD in lower extremity joints (hip, knee and ankle joint) was found between two arm swing conditions (p > 0.05, respectively). In anterior–posterior and vertical direction, neither λsλs nor MeanSD values of all body segments showed significant difference between two arm swing conditions (p > 0.05, respectively).

These findings indicate that active arm swing may help to improve the local dynamic stability of the trunk segments in medial–lateral direction.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 25, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Nov 23, 2015
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Oct 31, 2016
• Journal: Human Movement Science
• Print ISSN: 0167-9457
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Volume: 45
• Pages: 102-109
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2015.10.005
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2015.10.005