Ankle, knee, and hip joint contribution to body support during gait.
Tsutomu Fukui, Yasuhisa Ueda, Fumiko Kamijo
PMID 27821945WHAT IT FOUND
During walking, the ankle, knee, and hip work together to support body weight.
The main joint responsible for this support shifts depending on the stance phase. This trade-off pattern helps identify which specific muscles need strengthening to improve gait.
Key findings
01The support moment, which is the sum of ankle plantar flexion, knee extension, and hip extension moments, is strongly correlated with the vertical ground reaction force in all subjects.
02The primary extensor moment changes throughout the stance phase: hip extension at initial contact, knee extension during loading response to mid-stance, and ankle plantar flexion from terminal stance to pre-swing.
03Knee and hip extension moments show a negative correlation throughout the stance, indicating that when one joint's extension moment is small, the other's is large to maintain total support.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study only included healthy young adults, so findings may not apply to older adults or those with pathologies like knee hyperextension. The support moment concept may not be useful during double support because of the influence of the contralateral leg. Metatarsophalangeal joint extension in terminal stance can affect the support moment, which was not isolated in this analysis.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this pattern applies to patients with knee hyperextension or during double support, as the authors state the support moment may be inapplicable in these conditions.