Inefficiency of wide-based walking from the perspective of lateral center of gravity, gluteus medius muscle myoelectric activity, and cardiopulmonary parameters.
Ryoko Hori, Makoto Sasaki
PMID 35527839WHAT IT FOUND
In 20 healthy young men, walking with a 20-cm stride width raised oxygen use, breathing rate, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and side-hip muscle activity versus normal walking.
This paper is retracted, so it should not change practice.
Key findings
01During wide-based walking, side-to-side body movement was 7.6 cm, compared with 3.2 cm during normal walking.
02During wide-based walking, side-hip muscle (gluteus medius) activity was 51.9% of maximum voluntary contraction, compared with 34.6% during normal walking.
03At the end of exercise, oxygen use was 11.8 mL/kg/min during wide-based walking, compared with 10.2 mL/kg/min during normal walking.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a retracted publication, so its findings should not be used to guide patient care. The study included only 20 healthy male university students, not people with balance disorders or wide-based gait. Wide-based walking was imposed as a 20-cm stride width on a treadmill at 4.0 km/h for 5 minutes, so it may not match a patient's natural gait or daily walking. Perceived exertion did not differ between conditions, so the higher physiological measures did not show that participants felt more effort. No correlations were found between changes in side-to-side movement or side-hip activity and changes in cardiopulmonary measures or perceived exertion. Only the right gluteus medius was measured, so other muscles may have contributed to the differences.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that correcting a patient's wide-based gait will make walking easier. The paper is retracted, and it tested 20 healthy young men walking on a treadmill at 4.0 km/h, not patients with balance disorders.