Grasping the handrails during treadmill walking does not alter sagittal plane kinematics of walking

Objective: To determine whether grasping the handrails during treadmill walking affects sagittal plane kinematic parameters selected to describe walking style. Design: Crossover trial. Setting: A university motion analysis laboratory. Participants: A convenience sample comprised of 15 apparently healthy college-age volunteers. Intervention: After being acclimatized to treadmill walking, subjects were videotaped while completing two treadmill walking bouts. Each bout was 10 minutes in duration and was conducted at a walking speed of 1.5m/sec. Subjects were instructed to grasp the handrails in one bout (GRASP) but to refrain from using the handrails in the other (FREE). Both bouts were conducted in a single session and were separated by a 10-minute rest period. The order in which subjects completed the bouts was randomized. Main Outcome Measures: Five successive strides occurring during the last 30 seconds of each bout were digitized. The coordinate data were numerically filtered and the following parameters derived: stride length, percentage of stride cycle spent in double-support, and the hip, knee, and ankle angles at heel-strike and toe-off. The results for the five strides in each bout were averaged and the average value was used in the statistical analysis. The FREE and GRASP conditions were compared with t tests for dependent samples (p less than or equal to .05). Results: There were no differences between the FREE and GRASP conditions for any of the parameters assessed. Conclusions: Subjects may grasp the treadmill handrails without affecting sagittal plane kinematic parameters of walking style. (C) 1997 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.