Poster Session 4, 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM: Room 163 [C20]

A Biomechanical Comparison of Running and Hopping

Presenter: Nicole Sylvain

Faculty Sponsor: Wouter Hoogkamer

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Kinesiology

ABSTRACT

Although hopping and running can be modeled as a spring-mass system, their mechanics begin to diverge at the muscular level (Hobara et al., 2010; Moritz et al., 2004). We aimed to directly compare running, double-legged and single-legged hopping on a muscular level at the gastrocnemius medialis (GM) and vastus laterals (VL). This allowed us to compare the muscular tendon behavior by analyzing changes in muscle fascicle length and pennation angles. Assessing similarities or differences in running, double-legged and single-legged hopping can inform us if hopping can be used as a simplified model of running. Participants completed several 1-minute bouts of running, double-legged and single-legged hopping where motion capture, ground reaction forces, and ultrasound data of the GM and VL were collected.

We hypothesized that double legged hopping would exhibit muscle fascicle behavior more like running than single-legged hopping to running. We also hypothesized that muscle fascicle activity would be greatest in single-legged hopping than double-legged hopping or running. 

We observed that GM fascicle lengthening for double and single legged hopping contained a lengthening and shortening phase and running showed fascicle shortening throughout stance phase.

VL fascicle length during stance phase of running tended to be lengthened, while we expected this to be constant; this difference can potentially be attributed to a low running speed. VL fascicle lengthening for double and singled legged hopping showed lengthening and shorting during stance. In hopping the GM and VL perform both positive and negative work. In running the VL is performs negative work and the GM performs positive work

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