Normal gait characteristics under temporal and distance constraints.

Walking patterns of 53 males and 39 females, all in good health, were studied at slow, free, and fast speeds using a walkway system developed by the author. Three males and three females, also in good health, were then studied under constrained walking conditions such as rhythm constraint, speed coupled with constraint, walking up or down a slope, line stepping constraint, stepping onto a marked square, and starting/stopping of walking. In the first set of experiments, the following results were obtained. When increasing speed, the male had a tendency to increase step length and the female had a tendency to increase cadence. The relationships between the speed and the statistics of gait parameters, i.e. the coefficient of variation and the symmetry were examined. The data in this experiment were also applied to Grieve's gait equations which formulated the relationships between step frequency and speed, or between swing time and cycle time. In the second set of experiments the following results were obtained. Although rhythm constraint (induced by a metronome) resulted in no difference of gait between males and females, a difference did appear in the case of speed coupled with constraint. When walking up and down a slope, the ascent case showed a longer step length and a lower cadence compared with the descent. The idea of functional asymmetry, a supporting function of the left leg and a moving function of the right leg, is well accepted. However, in this study of the effect of line stepping constraints predominant right-left functional differences were found.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)