Muscle coordination of support, progression and balance during stair ambulation

Abstract

Stair ambulation is more physically demanding than level walking because it requires the lower-limb muscles to generate greater net joint moments. Although lower-limb joint kinematics and kinetics during stair ambulation have been extensively studied, relatively little is known about how the lower-limb muscles accelerate the whole-body center of mass (COM) during stair ascent and descent. The aim of the current study was to evaluate differences in muscle contributions to COM accelerations between level walking and stair ambulation in 15 healthy adults. Three-dimensional quantitative gait analysis and musculoskeletal modeling were used to calculate the contributions of the individual lower-li..