ArticleJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2021
Using a simple rope-pulley system that mechanically couples the arms, legs, and treadmill reduces the metabolic cost of walking.
Article in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03689647 (Reducing Metabolic Cost of Walking by Exploiting Arm Swing to Drive Leg Swing), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Reducing Metabolic Cost of Walking by Exploiting Arm Swing to Drive Leg Swing
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Metabolically efficient walking assistance using optimized timed forces at the waist.Science robotics · 2022Article
- Step-to-step variability indicates disruption to balance control when linking the arms and legs during treadmill walking.PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEmphasizing the active use of the arms and coordinating them with the stepping motion of the legs may promote walking recovery in patients with impaired lower limb function. Yet, most approaches use seated devices to allow coupled arm and leg movements. To provide an option during treadmill walking, we designed a rope-pulley system that physically links the arms and legs. This arm-leg pulley system was grounded to the floor and made of commercially available slotted square tubing, solid strut channels, and low-friction pulleys that allowed us to use a rope to connect the subject's wrist to the ipsilateral foot. This set-up was based on our idea that during walking the arm could generate an assistive force during arm swing retraction and, therefore, aid in leg swing.
methodsTo test this idea, we compared the mechanical, muscular, and metabolic effects between normal walking and walking with the arm-leg pulley system. We measured rope and ground reaction forces, electromyographic signals of key arm and leg muscles, and rates of metabolic energy consumption while healthy, young subjects walked at 1.25 m/s on a dual-belt instrumented treadmill (n = 8).
resultsWith our arm-leg pulley system, we found that an assistive force could be generated, reaching peak values of 7% body weight on average. Contrary to our expectation, the force mainly coincided with the propulsive phase of walking and not leg swing. Our findings suggest that subjects actively used their arms to harness the energy from the moving treadmill belt, which helped to propel the whole body via the arm-leg rope linkage. This effectively decreased the muscular and mechanical demands placed on the legs, reducing the propulsive impulse by 43% (p < 0.001), which led to a 17% net reduction in the metabolic power required for walking (p = 0.001).
conclusionsThese findings provide the biomechanical and energetic basis for how we might reimagine the use of the arms in gait rehabilitation, opening the opportunity to explore if such a method could help patients regain their walking ability.
trial registrationStudy registered on 09/29/2018 in ClinicalTrials.gov (ID-NCT03689647).
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