The effects of arm swing amplitude and lower-limb asymmetry on gait stability
Allen Hill 
Julie Nantel
Changes to arm swing and gait symmetry are symptomatic of several pathological gaits associated with reduced stability. The purpose of this study was to examine the relative contributions of arm swing and gait symmetry towards gait stability. We theorized that actively increasing arm swing would increase gait stability, while asymmetric walking would decrease gait stability. Fifteen healthy, young adults (23.4 ± 2.8 yrs) walked on a split-belt treadmill under symmetric (1.2 m/s) and asymmetric walking (left/right, 5:4 speed ratio) with three different arm swings: held, normal, and active. Trunk local dynamic stability, inter-limb coordination, and spatiotemporal gait variability and symmetry were measured. Active arm swing resulted in improved local trunk stability, increased gait variability, and decreased inter-limb coordination (p < .013). The changes in local trunk stability and gait variability during active arm swing suggests that these metrics quantify fundamentally different aspects of stability and are not always comparable. Split-belt walking caused reduced local trunk stability, increased gait variability, and increased lower limb asymmetry (p < .003). However, the arm swing symmetry was unaffected by gait asymmetry, this suggests that the decreases in gait stability are linked to the increases in gait asymmetry rather than increases in arm swing asymmetry.
gait analysis, arm swing, gait asymmetry, dynamical systems
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Citation
@article{hill2019,
author = {Hill, Allen and Nantel, Julie},
publisher = {Public Library of Science},
title = {The Effects of Arm Swing Amplitude and Lower-Limb Asymmetry
on Gait Stability},
journal = {PLOS ONE},
volume = {14},
number = {12},
pages = {e0218644},
date = {2019-12-20},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0218644},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0218644},
langid = {en},
abstract = {Changes to arm swing and gait symmetry are symptomatic of
several pathological gaits associated with reduced stability. The
purpose of this study was to examine the relative contributions of
arm swing and gait symmetry towards gait stability. We theorized
that actively increasing arm swing would increase gait stability,
while asymmetric walking would decrease gait stability. Fifteen
healthy, young adults (23.4 ± 2.8 yrs) walked on a split-belt
treadmill under symmetric (1.2 m/s) and asymmetric walking
(left/right, 5:4 speed ratio) with three different arm swings: held,
normal, and active. Trunk local dynamic stability, inter-limb
coordination, and spatiotemporal gait variability and symmetry were
measured. Active arm swing resulted in improved local trunk
stability, increased gait variability, and decreased inter-limb
coordination (p \textless{} .013). The changes in local trunk
stability and gait variability during active arm swing suggests that
these metrics quantify fundamentally different aspects of stability
and are not always comparable. Split-belt walking caused reduced
local trunk stability, increased gait variability, and increased
lower limb asymmetry (p \textless{} .003). However, the arm swing
symmetry was unaffected by gait asymmetry, this suggests that the
decreases in gait stability are linked to the increases in gait
asymmetry rather than increases in arm swing asymmetry.}
}