The influence of walking speed on mechanical joint power during gait

To study how walking speeds influence joint power and determine normal mechanical power output by the muscles about the hip, knee and ankle joints, we investigated ten healthy children in our gait laboratory. We found that walking speed does influence the mechanical work at the hip, knee and ankle. The work generated at the knee had the greatest increase with speed. The work at the hip was also sensitive to speed changes but to a lesser degree. Surprisingly, the joint power at the ankle remained constant despite increasing speed. This also supports the theory that the role of the calf muscle in propulsion is related to walking speed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.