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Research Article
A low-cost method for carrying loads during human walking
Christopher J. Arellano, Obioma B. McReynolds, Shernice A. Thomas
Journal of Experimental Biology 2020 223: jeb216119 doi: 10.1242/jeb.216119 Published 4 December 2020
Christopher J. Arellano
Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
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  • ORCID record for Christopher J. Arellano
  • For correspondence: carellano@uh.edu
Obioma B. McReynolds
Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
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Shernice A. Thomas
Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA
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ABSTRACT

Humans often perform tasks that require them to carry loads, but the metabolic cost of carrying loads depends on where the loads are positioned on the body. We reasoned that carrying loads at the arms’ center of mass (COM) during walking might be cheap because arm swing is thought to be dominated by passive pendulum dynamics. In contrast, we expected that carrying loads at the leg COM would be relatively expensive because muscular actuation is necessary to initiate and propagate leg swing. Therefore, we hypothesized that carrying loads at the arm COM while swinging would be cheaper than carrying loads at the leg COM. We further hypothesized that carrying loads at the arm COM while swinging would be more expensive than carrying loads at the waist, where the mass does not swing relative to the body. We measured net metabolic power, arm and leg motion, and the free vertical moment while subjects (n=12) walked on a treadmill (1.25 m s−1) without a load, and with 8 kg added to the arms (swinging versus not swinging), legs or waist. We found that carrying loads on the arms or legs altered arm swinging amplitude; however, the free vertical moment remained similar across conditions. Most notably, the cost of carrying loads on the swinging arms was 9% less than carrying at the leg COM (P<0.001), but similar to that at the waist (P=0.529). Overall, we found that carrying loads at the arm COM is just as cheap as carrying loads at the waist.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

  • Author contributions

    Conceptualization: C.J.A., O.B.M.; Methodology: C.J.A., O.B.M.; Software: C.J.A.; Validation: C.J.A.; Formal analysis: C.J.A., S.A.T.; Investigation: C.J.A., O.B.M., S.A.T.; Resources: C.J.A.; Data curation: C.J.A., O.B.M., S.A.T.; Writing - original draft: C.J.A.; Writing - review & editing: C.J.A., S.A.T.; Visualization: C.J.A.; Supervision: C.J.A.; Project administration: C.J.A.; Funding acquisition: C.J.A.

  • Funding

    This work was supported by the Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Margie Sterr Scholarship (awarded to O.B.M.).

  • Received October 3, 2019.
  • Accepted October 22, 2020.
  • © 2020. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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Keywords

  • Arm swing
  • Metabolic cost
  • Energetics
  • Locomotion
  • Biomechanics

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Research Article
A low-cost method for carrying loads during human walking
Christopher J. Arellano, Obioma B. McReynolds, Shernice A. Thomas
Journal of Experimental Biology 2020 223: jeb216119 doi: 10.1242/jeb.216119 Published 4 December 2020
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Research Article
A low-cost method for carrying loads during human walking
Christopher J. Arellano, Obioma B. McReynolds, Shernice A. Thomas
Journal of Experimental Biology 2020 223: jeb216119 doi: 10.1242/jeb.216119 Published 4 December 2020

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