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The role of plantigrady and heel-strike in the mechanics and energetics of human walking with implications for the evolution of the human foot

Webber, James T., Raichlen, David A.·2016·Journal of Experimental Biology
DOI 10.1242/jeb.138610
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Abstract

Human bipedal locomotion is characterized by a habitual heel-strike (HS) plantigrade gait, yet the significance of walking foot-posture is not well understood. To date, researchers have not fully investigated the costs of non-heel-strike (NHS) walking. Therefore, we examined walking speed, walk-to-run transition speed, estimated locomotor costs (lower limb muscle volume activated during walking), impact transient (rapid increase in ground force at touchdown) and effective limb length (ELL) in subjects (n=14) who walked at self-selected speeds using HS and NHS gaits. HS walking increases ELL compared with NHS walking since the center of pressure translates anteriorly from heel touchdown to toe-off. NHS gaits led to decreased absolute walking speeds (P=0.012) and walk-to-run transition speeds (P=0.0025), and increased estimated locomotor energy costs (P<0.0001) compared with HS gaits. These differences lost significance after using the dynamic similarity hypothesis to account for the effects of foot landing posture on ELL. Thus, reduced locomotor costs and increased maximum walking speeds in HS gaits are linked to the increased ELL compared with NHS gaits. However, HS walking significantly increases impact transient values at all speeds (P<0.0001). These trade-offs may be key to understanding the functional benefits of HS walking. Given the current debate over the locomotor mechanics of early hominins and the range of foot landing postures used by nonhuman apes, we suggest the consistent use of HS gaits provides key locomotor advantages to striding bipeds and may have appeared early in hominin evolution.

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  • The use of a flatter foot contact and absence of a clear heel strike may affect walking economy by reducing the total distance travelled by the body's centre of mass during a given step and/or increasing the amount of mechanical work needed to accelerate the body's centre of mass between steps.

    “The use of a flatter foot contact and absence of a clear heel strike may affect walking economy, as it may reduce the total distance travelled by the body's centre of mass during a given step (Webber & Raichlen, 2016) and/or increase the amount of mechanical work needed to accelerate the body's centre of mass between steps (Adamczyk & Kuo, 2013; Holowka & Lieberman, 2018).”

    From Forest terrains influence walking kinematics among indigenous Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon (2022) · cites this paper as Webber & Raichlen, 2016

  • The data presented here and in previous studies suggest that some of the kinematic features that are believed to give humans their edge in walking economy, such as use of extended legs and heel strikes, are compromised on irregular natural terrains.

    “However, the data presented here and in previous studies suggest that some of the kinematic features that are believed to give humans their edge in walking economy, such as use of extended legs and heel strikes (Pontzer & Kamilar, 2009; Webber & Raichlen, 2016), are compromised on irregular natural terrains.”

    From Forest terrains influence walking kinematics among indigenous Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon (2022) · cites this paper as Webber & Raichlen, 2016

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Metadata

Authors
Webber, J. T., & Raichlen, D. A.
Affiliations
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
ORCID
Webber, James T.
Venue
Journal of Experimental Biology
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Published
2016-12-01
Volume
219
Issue
23
Pages
3729-3737
ISSN
  • 1477-9145
  • 0022-0949
DOI
10.1242/jeb.138610
Cited by
37
References
0
Language
en
Licence
www.biologists.com/user-licence-1-1/ (vor, 182 d)
Funders
University of Arizona

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