Gender-related features of biomechanics and variability of treadmill walking in middle-aged people

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Dr.Biol., Professor S.I. Loginov1
PhD A.S. Kintyukhin1
PhD, Associate Professor A.S. Snigirev1
PhD R.O. Solodilov1
1Surgut State University, Surgut

Objective of the study was to identify the dependence of energy consumption on walking cadence in middle-aged people in conditions of urbanized Yugra North.
Methods and structure of the study. A total of 31 middle-aged people (mean age - 41.7±9.55, including 58% of males) were tested by walking on a treadmill with an incrementally-increasing speed of 2÷7 km/h, 5 min at each speed. We studied the correlation between the treadmill walking cadence and its metabolic cost within 3-6 MET. The following measurements were taken: oxygen (O2) consumption, respiratory rate and heart rate, step parameters (full step duration, mode amplitude, walking index, step length, foot support duration, leg transfer duration). Besides, we measured the leg length, body length and mass.
Study results and conclusions. It was found that with the increasing walking speed, the studied indices increased as well (t-test, p<0.05). The dependence of energy consumption (E, MET) on the walking cadence (WC, steps/min) rate is expressed in the equation as follows: E = 6.18-0.102WC+0.0008WC2 - in the males and E = 5.17-0.084WC+0.0007WC2 - in the females, where E is the energy consumption in MET, WC is the walking cadence rate in steps/min; 0.102, 0.084, 0.0008 and 0.0007 are empirical coefficients. With an increase in the walking speed from 2 to 7 km/h, the walking index increased 23.9 times in the males and 12.6 times in the females, which may indicate a significant tension of the neuro-locomotor mechanisms of regulation of walking with the increasing speed.
Therefore, in extreme conditions of the North, middle-aged people can be recommended walking with cadence of 74-126 steps/min for the males and 86-132 steps/min for the females within the moderate-to-high intensity range (3-6 MET) with the walking index of 816-1422 c.u. for the males, 546-1493 c.u. for the females.

Keywords: cadence, walking, walking index, oxygen (O2) consumption, students.

References

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