Abstract

Minimalist shoes are proposed to promote walking gait patterns more similar to natural barefoot gait. While there is already considerable research evaluating the effects of minimalist shoes on running biomechanics, little has been reported about the effects of minimalist shoes on kinematic and kinetic parameters during normal gait. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare biomechanical gait parameters between walking in non-cushioned minimalist shoes, in conventional cushioned shoes and barefoot. Kinematic (cadence, step length, foot progression angle, length of CoP) and kinetic (vGRF) parameters of 32 healthy adults were collected at preferred walking speed on an instrumented treadmill. ANOVA or Friedman- Tests were applied for between condition comparisons. In case of significant (p < 0.05) main effects, post-hoc analyses were implemented for pairwise comparisons. Significant main effects of footwear conditions were found for all parameters (p ≤ .001). Post-hoc analyses revealed that increased cushioning properties of the applied footwear are associated with increased step lengths, lengths of CoP trajectory and foot progression angle as well as a reduced cadence. Additionally, decreased cushioning resulted in increased vGRF, especially of the forefoot and rearfoot. Results indicate that footwear significantly affects biomechanical gait parameters in a group of healthy adults. The findings have implications on the use of footwear during walking gait, with special emphasis on the cushioning properties of the different conditions.

摘要

建议使用极简鞋以促进更类似于自然赤足步态的步行步态模式。虽然已经有大量研究评估极简鞋对跑步生物力学的影响，但很少有关于极简鞋对正常步态期间运动学和动力学参数的影响的报道。因此，本研究的目的是比较穿着非缓冲极简鞋、传统缓冲鞋和赤脚行走之间的生物力学步态参数。在仪表跑步机上以首选的步行速度收集 32 名健康成年人的运动学（节奏、步长、足部前进角度、CoP 长度）和动力学 (vGRF) 参数。在条件比较之间应用方差分析或弗里德曼检验。在显着的情况下（p < 0.05) 主效应，对成对比较进行了事后分析。发现鞋类条件对所有参数的显着主要影响 ( p ≤ .001)。事后分析表明，所应用的鞋类增加的缓冲性能与增加的步长、CoP 轨迹的长度和足部前进角度以及降低的节奏有关。此外，缓冲减少导致 vGRF 增加，尤其是前足和后足。结果表明，鞋类显着影响一组健康成年人的生物力学步态参数。这些发现对步行时穿鞋有影响，特别强调了不同条件下的缓冲性能。