KINE 6/8300
Human Locomotion
Human Locomotion
Lecture Instructor: C. Armstrong
Phone: 530 – 5369
Office: HHS - 2503
Email: charles.armstrong@utoledo.edu
Text: Whittle, Michael, Gait Analysis - An Introduction, 3rd Edition,
Butterworth-Heinman Pub….Amazon, Barnes+Noble, etc.
Human Locomotion
Objectives:
#1 To provide students with an understanding of the biomechanical
principles that form the basis for human locomotion
#2 To provide students with an understanding of the kinematic,
temporal/spatial, kinetic, and electromyographic
characteristics of normal human locomotion.
#3 To provide students with a general overview of the influence on
gait of selected pathological conditions.
#4 To provide students with an understanding of the technical
procedures involved in the analysis of human gait.
Human Locomotion
Date
Topic
Reading Assignment
8/25
9/1
9/8
9/15
9/22
Course Introduction - Historical Perspective
Basics of Gait and Research
Determinants of Gait and Phasic Considerations
Normal Gait – Kinematics: Motion Patterns
2-D GaitTrak Lab
9/29
10/6
10/13
10/20
10/27
11/3
11/10
Normal Gait – Kinetics: Forces, Moments and Powers
3-D OrthoTrak Lab
Normal Gait - Muscle patterns
Gait EMG Lab
Biomechanics of Running
Energetics of Locomotion
Pathological Gait
GRF Moments, etc.
OTManual – Assigned Reading
Muscular Activity
11/17
Gait Across the Lifespan
11/24
12/1
12/8
12/15
No Class – Thanksgiving Break
Case Study
Case Study
Case Study
Gait in the Young...Elderly and
Gait in Rehab – Chaps 7 and 8
Basic Sciences and Normal Gait
Terminology, timing, determinants
The Gait Cycle
GaitTrack Manual – Assigned Reading
Gait in Rehabilitation – Chapter 4
Pathological Gait
Human Locomotion
Readings:
Gait Analysis- An Introduction, Whittle – class text
Gait in Rehabilitation, Smidt – Chapters On-Line
GT and OT Manuals – Chapters On-Line
Assignments:
#1
Research Paper - 50 %
#2
Case Study - 50%
The Study of Human
Locomotion
Historical Perspective
Significant Periods
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Antiquity Middle Ages Italian Renaissance
Scientific Revolution
Enlightenment
The Gait Century
The 20th Century
The Computer Age
650 B.C. - 200 A.D.
200 A.D. - 1450 A.D.
1450 A.D. - 1600 A.D.
1600 A.D. - 1730 A.D.
1730 A.D. - 1800 A.D.
1800 A.D. - 1900 A.D.
1900 A.D. – 1980 A.D.
1900 A.D………present
Antiquity - 650 B.C. - 200 A.D.

Significant
People/Events
• Pythagoras - all
phenomena expained
by numbers
• Hipprocrates Scientific method
applied to medicine
• Aristotle - Wrote
“About the Movement
of Animals”
• Herophilos Foundation of
modern anatomy
• Archimedes Math and
mechanics, C of
G., buoyancy
• Galen - Sports
Medicine Doc, “On
the Use of Parts”,
“On the
Movements of
Muscles”
Antiquity - 650 B.C. - 200 A.D.
Instruction concerning a dislocation of a vertebra of the neck:
“if you examine a man having a dislocation of the a vertebra of
his neck, should you find him unconscious of his arms and legs
on account of it......then you should say an ailment which
cannot be treated “
Edwin Smith Papyrus (1800) –
Egyptian circa 600 BC
Antiquity - 650 B.C. - 200 A.D.
Relevance to the study of Locomotion
• Separation of Knowledge and Myth
• Mechanical and Mathematical Paradigms
developed
• Anatomical Paradigms developed
• First Biomechanical Analysis of Human
Movement
The Middle Ages - 200 A.D. - 1450 A.D.

Significant People/Events
• Spiritualism diminished scientific inquiry
• St. Augustine - “the only type of knowledge
to be desired was the knowledge of God
and the soul”
• Arab scholars saved the work of the
Antiquity period by translating the works
into Arabic
The Middle Ages - 200 A.D. - 1450 A.D
Relevance to the Study of Locomotion
• Interest in anatomy, physiology, and
locomotion discouraged.
• Greek and Roman Art depiction of
human movement remained
The Renaissance - 1450 A.D. - 1600 A.D.

Significant People/Events
• Individual genius flourished
• Leonardo da Vinci - artist, scientist;
anatomical studies of bone, muscle,
nerve through dissection. He
described the mechanics of the
body during standing, walking up
and downhill, rising from a sitting
position, jumping, and human gait.
• Versalius - described muscle
function and related to movement,
advocated human dissection
The Renaissance - 1450 A.D. - 1600 A.D.
Borelli –
Estimated the center of mass of nude
men by having them stretch out on a
rigid platform supported on a knife
edge. The platform was then
repositioned until is balanced, thereby
indicating a location corresponding to
the center of mass for the entire body.
The Renaissance - 1450 A.D.- 1600 A.D.
Relevance to the Study of Locomotion
• Scientific study revived
• Foundations of modern anatomy and
physiology
• Movement and muscle studied as
connective entities
The Scientific Revolution - 1600 A.D. - 1730 A.D.

Significant People/Events
• Intellectual freedom
highly respected
• Experimentation - the
basis of the scientific
method
• Galileo - Studied human
jumping, horse gait,
structure of bone
• Harvey - described blood
flow through heart
• Descartes - Cartesian
coordinate system
• Borelli - the “Father”
of biomechanics,
wrote “Du Moto
Animalium”; used
geometry to describe
walking, running,
jumping, described
muscle contraction
• Newton - Laws of
motion and gravity
The Scientific Revolution - 1600 A.D. - 1730
A.D.
Relevance to the study of Locomotion
Experimentation and theory
linked
 Formation of Newtonian
mechanics

The Enlightenment - 1730 A.D. 1800 A.D.

Significant People/Events
• Applied Mathematics advanced
- Euler, Lagrange
• von Haller - irritabilty and
contractility of muscle
• Andre - “Orthpaedics”, muscle
imbalance causes skeletal
deformities
• Emil Du Bois-Reymond –
Action Potential
The Enlightenment - 1730 A.D. - 1800 A.D.
Relevance to the study of Locomotion
• Force, momentum, and energy
related
• Muscle function related to biochemical and electrical
phenomena
The Gait Century - 1800 A.D. 1900 A.D.

Significant People/Events
• Muybridge - motion
analysis - horses, people;
Animals in Motion, The
Human Figure in Motion
• Weber brothers - “On the
Mechanics of the Gait
Tools” 150 hypotheses
• Marey - (huge) the first
gait lab (force plate,
cinematography,
synchronized cine and
force
• Braune and Fisher 3d analysis of gait,
mathematical
analysis, “light” suits
• Duchenne - EMG
Étienne-Jules Marey
(1830-1904) Studied
soldiers…energy cost of
locomotion…..economy of
movement
Unique
techniques
Eduard Muybridg - The “Father” of
Cinematography
The Gait Century - 1800 A.D. - 1900 A.D.
Relevance to the study of Locomotion
Measurement methods devised and
applied to gait
 Electrical activity of muscle quantified
 Engineering principles applied to the
locomotion

The 20th Century - 1900 A.D. - 1980

Significant People/Events
• A.V. Hill - Structure and Function
of muscle
• Elftman - Force plates, energy
exchanges during gait
• Huxley - sliding filament theory
• 1967 - First ISB Meeting in Zurich
The 20th Century - 1900 A.D. –
1980 A.D.
Relevance to the study of Locomotion
• Biomechanics becomes a unique
“discipline”
• Biomechanics used as a clinical tool
• Professional Biomechanical and Gait
Organizations formed
The Computer Age 1980 AD ….
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Significant People/Events
• Abdel, Azziz, and Carrera developed the DLT
• Basmajian - expanded
EMG techniques and
understanding of muscle
function
• Winter - refined
experimental techniques
for the analysis of gait
• Sutherland - classic
studies on the
development of gait in
children, and influence of
CP on gait
The Computer Age 1980 AD ….
• Murray - classic studies on
adult gait
• Gage, Sutherland, and Perry integration of gait analysis in
surgical treatment of
orthopaedic disorder
• Development of the
Miocrocomputer
• Nigg, Cavanagh,Bates biomechanical assessment of
running gait
• Expansion and refinement of
video technology
• Greaves - Video Processor
• Founding of the Clinical Gait
and Movement Analysis Society
Patricia Murray – 1925 – 1984
Ph.D. Anatomy…PT …..lab at
VA Hospital in Milwaukee and
at Marquette Univ. –
neuromuscular disease and
prosthetics
The Study of Locomotion
The Future ???