Gait (human)

Human gait refers to locomotion achieved through the movement of human limbs. Human gait is defined as bipedal, biphasic forward propulsion of center of gravity of the human body, in which there are alternate sinuous movements of different segments of the body with least expenditure of energy. Different gait patterns are characterized by differences in limb movement patterns, overall velocity, forces, kinetic and potential energy cycles, and changes in the contact with the surface (ground, floor, etc.). Human gaits are the various ways in which a human can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training.

Human gaits are classified in various ways. Every gait can be generally categorized as either natural (one that humans use instinctively) or trained (a non-instinctive gait learned via training). Examples of the latter include hand walking and specialized gaits used in martial arts. Gaits can also be categorized according to whether the person remains in continuous contact with the ground.

The so-called natural gaits, in increasing order of speed, are the walk, jog, skip, run, and sprint. While other intermediate speed gaits may occur naturally to some people, these five basic gaits occur naturally across almost all cultures. All natural gaits are designed to propel a person forward, but can also be adapted for lateral movement. As natural gaits all have the same purpose, they are mostly distinguished by when the leg muscles are used during the gait cycle.

The walk is a gait which keeps at least one foot in contact with the ground at all times.

The walk is performed with the following steps:

Skipping is a gait children display when they are about four- to five-years-old. While a jog is similar to a horse's trot, the skip is closer to the bipedal equivalent of a horse's canter.

In order to investigate the gait strategies likely to be favored at low gravity a series of predictive, computational simulations of gait are performed using a physiological model of the musculoskeletal system, without assuming any particular type of gait; a computationally efficient optimization strategy is utilized allowing for multiple simulations. The results reveal skipping as more efficient and less fatiguing than walking or running and suggest the existence of a walk-skip rather than a walk-run transition at low gravity.

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