Article

Studies of human locomotion are commonly performed on a treadmill or overground,
as well as with or without footwear. These testing modalities have been suggested
to influence kinematics, kinetics and/or spatio-temporal variables differently.
However, it is unclear whether they influence contractile behaviour at the level
of the muscle fascicles. This has major relevance because results from studies
performed with different combinations of the testing modalities are often
compared. The present study used ultrasound to examine fascicle behaviour of the
medial gastrocnemius (MG) and soleus muscles of ten young, healthy males during
walking and running on a treadmill and overground, as well as barefoot and shod.
Barefoot conditions resulted in modestly shorter step durations than
corresponding shod conditions, whereas no consistent temporal differences were
observed between overground and treadmill locomotion. For both comparisons, no
differences were observed in soleus or MG fascicle behaviour between
corresponding conditions in walking or running, although soleus consistently
exhibited smaller, lower velocity length changes than MG. It is concluded that
the examined testing modalities are equally valid for studying muscle fascicle
behaviour during locomotion. This conclusion is supported by a comparison of our
data to the results of 16 previous studies that used various combinations of
testing modalities; muscle fascicle behaviour is qualitatively similar between
studies for a given muscle and gait.
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Langue : ANGLAIS