Lower-Limb Muscle Function in Human Running

This paper provides a brief summary of work completed to date in our research laboratory investigating lower-limb muscle function during human running. Muscle function has been evaluated using a variety of methods, including muscle electromyography, inverse dynamics, and computational musculoskeletal modeling. It is evident that the coordination amongst the major lower-limb muscles changes considerably when running speed is progressed from jogging through to maximum sprinting. The ankle plantarflexor muscles appear to have a dominant role up to running speeds of around 7 ms

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. For running speeds beyond 7 ms

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, the hip flexor and extensor muscles become far more critical. These findings provide insight into the strategies used by the lower-limb muscles to maximize running performance and have implications for the design of injury prevention programs.