Adherents claim many benefits from the practice of yoga, including promotion of bone health and prevention of osteoporosis. However, no known studies have investigated whether yoga enhances bone mineral density. Furthermore, none have estimated reaction forces applied by yoga practitioners. The purpose of this study was to collect ground reaction force (GRF) data on a variety of hatha yoga post...

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not the neuromuscular locomotor system is optimized at a unique speed by examining the variability of the ground reaction force (GRF) pattern during walking in relation to different constant speeds. Ten healthy male subjects were required to walk on a treadmill at 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 km/h. Three components [vertical (F(z)), an...

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a manifestation of systemic atherosclerosis significantly reducing arterial blood to the lower extremities. Up to 12 million people in the USA suffer from PAD with claudication as the most common clinical manifestation. These claudicants have an inability to ambulate with a normal gait secondary to pain and fatigue of ischemic muscles. As the affected muscle...

OBJECTIVE Claudication is the most common manifestation of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), producing significant ambulatory compromise. The gait of claudicating patients has been evaluated using primarily temporal and spatial parameters. With the present study, we used advanced biomechanical measures to further delineate the ambulatory impairment of claudicating patients. We hypothesized tha...

Research into legged robotics is primarily motivated by the prospects of building machines that are able to navigate in challenging and complex environments that are predominantly non-flat. In this context, control of contact forces is fundamental to ensure stable contacts and stability of the robot. In this extended abstract we propose a planning/control framework for quasi-static walking for ...

Quasi-Static analysis of moored vessels is vastly used for engineering designs, as a substitute to the numerical simulation of dynamic mooring analysis. Yet, the level of validity of the results of quasi-static analysis is a matter of discussion. In the present study, the validation of the assumptions behind the quasi-static analysis of mooring vessels is examined with application of a dynamic ...

Nine subjects (6 males, 3 females) ranging in body mass from 90.9 to 45.5 kg ran repeated trials across a force platform while being filmed at 50 fps. The subjects ran five barefooted trials at each of three speeds: 3.35, 3.83, and 4.47 m s-I. Force data were collected on-line and analyzed for the magnitude and temporal characteristics of the initial impact (FZ1) peak and the active (Fz2) peak ...

Crouch gait decreases walking efficiency due to the increased knee and hip flexion during the stance phase of gait. Crouch gait is generally considered to be disadvantageous for children with cerebral palsy; however, a crouched posture may allow biomechanical advantages that lead some children to adopt a crouch gait. To investigate one possible advantage of crouch gait, a musculoskeletal model ...