The impact and correlation of running landing methods on leg movement ability

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the impact of different landing methods on leg movement ability and the relationship between various parameters of leg movement. Methods This work parameters including stride, contact time, flight time, duty factor, stride angle, vertical stiffness, leg stiffness, and peak vertical ground reaction force. Thirty healthy subjects voluntarily participated in this study. In this experiment, each subject was required to perform two tests on a treadmill (using a speed of 10 km/h and 160 spm) (The interval between two experiments is 7 days). In the first test, subjects used RFS. In the second test, FFS was used. A high-speed video camera was used to collect the images and the Kwon3D motion analysis suite was used to process the images in this experiment. Results The findings of this study revealed that runners employing the forefoot strike FFS method exhibited several favorable characteristics in contrast to those using the rearfoot strike RFS method. These included shorter contact time, longer flight time, reduced duty cycle, increased stride angle, and heightened leg stiffness. Additionally, peak vertical ground reaction forces were significantly elevated in females. Conclusions While rear foot strike RFS demonstrates a notable enhancement in leg stiffness among female runners with low leg stiffness, it concurrently leads to a significant increase in peak vertical ground reaction force and imposes a greater load on the legs. However, this phenomenon is not observed among male participants.