Movements at the low back during normal walking

Abstract

We present a technique for measuring the kinematics of the functional low back during normal gait. We have used a similar technique previously to measure low back movement simultaneously with hip, knee, and ankle movement during the toe-touching manoeuvre. We noted that movements at the low back were biphasic. The greatest low back movements were found to occur in the transverse plane (mean = 23 degrees), whereas a mean of 17 degrees movement occurred in the coronal plane and only 5 degrees movement in the sagittal plane. These findings confirm, using a non-invasive technique, that there are significant ranges of movement at the low back during walking and lend some support to the theory that rotational movement at the low back is a major component of human locomotion.

The Relationship Between Lumbar Spine Kinematics during Gait and Low-Back Pain in Transfemoral Amputees

“…The triplanar lumbar spine ROM measurements obtained from the control group in our study fall within the ranges measured from healthy control groups in other studies. 25,31,32 Although it was not the primary aim of this study, comparison of TFAs with controls demonstrates greater sagittal plane lumbar spine excursions during walking in TFAs. This is consistent with the generally greater pelvic and thorax excursions during gait found in other studies of TFAs.…”

Quantitative Analysis of Rotational Movements of Knee in Healthy Subjects During Treadmill Barefoot Walking

“…Recent studies performed overground at self selected speed analysed the walking timing during stance and swing phase [5], stride length and width, gait speed and cadence [9-11, 24, 25], while in the current study the knee joint ROM was investigated during treadmill walking at standardized speed.…”

“…OSS are similar to binocular human vision and provide real-time quantitative analysis of movement. OSS allow the assessment of both overground and treadmill walking [3][4][5].…”

“…Cinematic analyses of human locomotion are widely carried out in clinical and research laboratories [6][7][8]. Indeed, data referred to frequency, length and width step [5,9], to knee torque and to sex-related differences during overground barefoot walking [6,7], and to age-related differences in overground velocity [10,11], are available. Overall, overground walking is considered more natural; its assessment may provide data with an easier practical application.…”