Kinematic Accommodation of Novice Treadmill Runners

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of treadmill training on the kinematic accommodation and habituation process of novice treadmill runners. Six experienced male college distance runners, but novice treadmill runners, trained on a treadmill operating at 4.0 m[mdot]s⁻¹, 15 min daily for 10 days. Subjects were filmed three times each day in the frontal and sagittal planes, at Minutes 1, 8, and 14 of the run. Stride length, temporal data, and vertical and lateral horizontal displacements of the center of gravity were determined with a computer digitizer system. Analysis of variance revealed that significant alterations occurred in treadmill running kinematics between Days 1 and 2 of the 10-day treadmill training period. Further, for Days 1 through 3, significant within-day stride changes occurred between Minutes 1 and 8, but not between Minutes 8 and 14. These results suggest that minimal amounts of treadmill training are necessary for a subject to fully accommodate to the treadmill.