Knee abduction angular impulses during prolonged running with wedged insoles

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Sports Medicine
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Wedged insoles can immediately alter knee abduction impulses during running.
• The maintenance of these effects during prolonged running and fatigue is unknown.
• Understanding impulse changes is crucial for the clinical use of wedged insoles in conditions like patellofemoral pain.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if knee abduction angular impulses change during a 30-minute run with wedged insoles.
• To determine if fatigue affects the magnitude of knee abduction angular impulses.
• To compare the effects of medial versus lateral wedged insoles on knee abduction impulses.

Main Methods:

• Nine healthy runners participated in a 30-minute continuous overground running test.
• Participants were randomly assigned to either 6-mm medial or 6-mm lateral wedge conditions.
• Knee abduction angular impulses were measured at the start (0 min) and end (30 min) of the run using gait analysis.

Main Results:

• No significant interaction effects were found between wedge condition and time (p = 0.958).
• Knee abduction angular impulses did not significantly change over the 30-minute run (p = 0.384).
• Lateral wedges produced significantly lower knee abduction angular impulses than medial wedges at both 0 min (p = 0.006) and 30 min (p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

• Significant changes in knee abduction angular impulses within specific wedge conditions do not occur during a 30-minute run.
• The observed differences in knee abduction angular impulses between medial and lateral wedge conditions are maintained throughout the 30-minute run.