Does an additional load modify the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments in gait initiation?

The objective of the study was to examine whether and how an additional load affects the Anticipatory Postural Adjustments (APA) in gait initiation in able-bodied individuals. Nineteen healthy participants initiated gait at a self-selected speed in two conditions: unloaded and with an overload of 15% body weight. The APA duration, the forward impulse of the APA and the duration of gait initiation increased significantly with the overload, while the other variables did not change. These results indicate that, during gait initiation with overload, able-bodied subjects modulate the APA duration to produce a higher forward impulse in order to achieve the steady-state gait at the end of the first step. These findings could have implications in clinical practice where overloading could be used to improve the gait initiation in pathologic patients. Further investigations are needed to confirm this suggestion.