A biomechanical model to determine lumbosacral loads during single stance phase in normal gait

A dynamic biomechanical model to determine loads (joint forces) attained at the lumbosacral joint-centre during the stance phase of normal level walking was developed. The biomechanical model was based on rigid free body-segments; namely, the foot, shank, thigh, pelvis and head, arms and trunk (HAT) segments. In this biomechanical model, the forces and moments acting on the lumbar spine are derived from body-segment mass and movements of the trunk. These external forces and their moments must be equilibrated by internal forces, that is, contributions from the erector spinae or rectus abdominus muscle group, and abdominal pressures from within the trunk together with spine forces. Three-dimensional co-ordinate and ground-reaction force data were captured from five healthy young male subjects performing normal level walking in the motion analysis laboratory of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National University of Singapore. These data were captured using the VICON motion analysis system. Both of these data sets were pre-processed, and together with relevant anthropometric parameters and physical measurements of the subject, were passed into the biomechanical model to compute the resultant loads at the lumbosacral joint-centre. The results of this study showed that the peak resultant loads at the lumbosacral joint-centre were between 1.45 and 2.07 times body-weight.