Altered Vertical Ground Reaction Forces in Participants With Chronic Ankle Instability While Running
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 12, 2026
Evaluating Postural Control and Lower-extremity Muscle Activation in Individuals with Chronic Ankle Instability
Published on: September 18, 2020
John Bigouette1, Janet Simon2, Kathy Liu3
1School of Biological and Population Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Context:
Altered gait kinetics may increase the risk of long-term injuries in participants with chronic ankle instability (CAI). Vertical ground reaction forces (vGRFs) can provide insight into how body loading is altered.
Objective:
To compare the components of vGRFs while running in participants with or without CAI.
Design:
Cohort study.
Setting:
University biomechanics laboratory.
Patients Or Other Participants:
Twenty-four experienced, college-aged runners. Groups were categorized by the presence (CAI group) or absence (control group) of CAI through self-reported questionnaires.
Intervention(S):
After a warm-up period, all participants ran on an instrumented treadmill for 5 minutes at 3.3 m/s. Data were collected during the last 30 seconds. Five continuous trials of heel-to-toe running were identified per participant and averaged for statistical analysis.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
The dependent variables were impact peak force (N/body weight [BW]), active peak force (N/BW), time to impact peak force (milliseconds), time to active peak force (milliseconds), and average loading rate ([N/BW]/s).
Results:
A difference was found between groups (P = .002). The CAI group had higher impact peak forces (P = .001) and active peak forces (P = .002) compared with the control group. The CAI group also had an increased loading rate (P = .001) and a shorter time to reach the active peak force (P = .001) compared with the control group. No difference was seen between groups in the time to reach the impact peak force (P = .952).
Conclusions:
Participants with CAI produced altered vGRFs and loading rates while running. Altered loading rates could predispose individuals with CAI to stress-related injuries and repetitive sprains.
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