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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Substantiating Appropriate Motion Capture Techniques for the Assessment of Nordic Walking Gait and Posture in Older Adults
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Cardiac and gait rhythms in healthy younger and older adults during treadmill walking tasks

Matthew W Wittstein1, Joseph M Starobin2, Randy J Schmitz2

  • 1Elon University, 2525 CB, Elon, NC, 27244, USA. mwittstein@elon.edu.

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research
|May 20, 2018
PubMed

Insights

This study shows that gait synchronization tasks, not fast walking, alter cardiac and gait rhythms in adults. These findings suggest that gait and cardiac rhythms can be influenced simultaneously.

Area of Science:

  • Physiology
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Gerontology

Background:

  • Physiological subsystems change with aging and pathology, altering inter-subsystem dynamics.
  • Cardiac and gait rhythms are examples of physiological patterns that change during physical activity.
  • Understanding these changes is crucial for assessing health and mobility.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To simultaneously monitor cardiac and gait rhythms during treadmill walking tasks.
  • To investigate changes during normal speed, fast speed, and metronome-synchronized walking.
  • To compare these changes in younger and older healthy adults.

Main Methods:

  • Examined cardiac and gait rhythms in healthy younger and older adults during treadmill walking.
  • Compared preferred speed walking with fast walking and gait synchronization tasks.
  • Analyzed rhythm variability using mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, DFA α, and sample entropy.

Main Results:

  • Gait synchronization significantly affected all gait variables.
  • Fast walking did not show significant effects on gait variables.
  • Cardiac rhythms showed decreased mean and increased DFA α exclusively during gait synchronization.

Conclusions:

  • Adults of all ages displayed similar cardiac and gait rhythm changes during treadmill tasks.
  • Cardiac rhythms were uniquely altered during gait synchronization.
  • Findings suggest the potential to simultaneously influence cardiac and gait rhythm variability and structure.
Abstract

Keywords:
Dynamic systemsGaitLoss of complexityVariability

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