Anthropological investigations for economical walking speed and gait transition speed as an environmental adaptation

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26440266
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied anthropology
• Research Institution: Kyushu Sangyo University
• Principal Investigator: Abe Daijiro 九州産業大学, 健康・スポーツ科学センター, 講師 (10368821)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 直立二足歩行 / 経済速度 / 至適速度 / 移行速度 / ロコモーション / 筋電図 / 適応進化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Erect bipedalism is inherent in human locomotion, while it involves many biological disadvantages, such as back pain, knee pain, hemorrhoids, fall risk, and slow maximal running speed. One of the most important biological benefits of the erect bipedalism has been known to be economical. There is a U-shaped relationship between energy cost of transport per unit distance (CoT) and walking speed (v), meaning that there exists a specific walking speed minimizing the CoT. Such a specific walking speed is called economical speed (ES). A linear relationship exists between CoT and running speeds, indicating that there is an intersection between those CoT-v relationships. It is termed ‘energetically optimal transition speed’ (EOTS). The ES and EOTS were examined under normobaric hypoxia, hyperoxia, and normoxia at different gradients. Muscle activities and mean power frequency of the lower leg extremities were also investigated to examine the mechanisms for explaining the gait transition.

Free Research Field

生理人類学