Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Matt Bundle
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Integrative Physiology and Athletic Training
Abstract / Artist's Statement
The energy cost to the human body during walking with and without a load has been the focus of scientific study for over a century. Our lab previously studied this physiology in a large cohort of young adults, and found that over 1/3rd of the 233 individual measures exceeded literature based expectations by greater than 20%, compared to the three most accepted and current models. Here, we attempted to explain why some individuals can vary from expectation by up to 45%. Because the muscular contribution, and thus rates of ATP hydrolysis during walking are reduced by the effectiveness of the exchange of kinetic and potential energy that happens within a walking stride, we asked whether individuals with unexplainably high rates of energy use during walking were relatively poor at performing these mechanical transfers. We specifically expected that the energy recovered by the pendular exchange occurring during the walking gait would be less in individuals with unexplainably high metabolic costs. The data for this project was acquired with the help of the students participating in the fall 2020 IPAT capstone research experience. As part of this class, and due to Covid19 precautions students were trained to administer on themselves without anyone else being present in the lab thereby preventing the spread of SARS-CoV2, the following: cardio-pulmonary exercise testing and simultaneously measure the kinetics of human gait from an instrumented treadmill. The students completed 5 min walking trials at speeds of 1.0, 1.3, 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1 with and without a load (20.5 kg). Our results indicate that measures from our group of students in the unloaded condition conformed fully to literature expectation. However, in the loaded condition we identified 4 individuals whose measured values were poorly predicted from current techniques. We now explore the relationship of pendular energy exchange in the individuals with high metabolic cost of walking, as the basis for further study.
Category
Life Sciences
Presentation recording
Why are some people expensive walkers?
The energy cost to the human body during walking with and without a load has been the focus of scientific study for over a century. Our lab previously studied this physiology in a large cohort of young adults, and found that over 1/3rd of the 233 individual measures exceeded literature based expectations by greater than 20%, compared to the three most accepted and current models. Here, we attempted to explain why some individuals can vary from expectation by up to 45%. Because the muscular contribution, and thus rates of ATP hydrolysis during walking are reduced by the effectiveness of the exchange of kinetic and potential energy that happens within a walking stride, we asked whether individuals with unexplainably high rates of energy use during walking were relatively poor at performing these mechanical transfers. We specifically expected that the energy recovered by the pendular exchange occurring during the walking gait would be less in individuals with unexplainably high metabolic costs. The data for this project was acquired with the help of the students participating in the fall 2020 IPAT capstone research experience. As part of this class, and due to Covid19 precautions students were trained to administer on themselves without anyone else being present in the lab thereby preventing the spread of SARS-CoV2, the following: cardio-pulmonary exercise testing and simultaneously measure the kinetics of human gait from an instrumented treadmill. The students completed 5 min walking trials at speeds of 1.0, 1.3, 1.5, 1.8, and 2.1 with and without a load (20.5 kg). Our results indicate that measures from our group of students in the unloaded condition conformed fully to literature expectation. However, in the loaded condition we identified 4 individuals whose measured values were poorly predicted from current techniques. We now explore the relationship of pendular energy exchange in the individuals with high metabolic cost of walking, as the basis for further study.