The Fatigable Runner

There has been an ongoing debate for a long time as to which running form is the optimal for performance for endurance, long distance running. Numerous personal accounts for improvement in performance has been reported by everyday athletes all the way to world champion triathletes describing a number of modified components to their running form that have helped in making them run faster and more efficiently. But none of which has really been well documented scientifically. Though this project is only a tiny step toward analyzing differences in running forms with preliminary data, it provides a platform for future biomechanists to examine the key differences in running forms of different individuals.This is an extremely difficult question to answer since there is almost no way to experimentally test the differences between running forms. This is because it is impossible to have adequate controls. Every runner is different in height, weight, fitness level, muscular strength, etc. Every runner also runs differently. It’s not possible for one runner to replicate many different styles in an experiment as every runner has his/her own natural style. However, if different running motion kinematics can be replicated with one model of runner, the differences may be well observed.Utilizing opensim software, simulations can be performed using the same runner and replicating different running styles. Computed muscle controls also allows muscle activations to be calculated and compared. An additional feature is the adding custom muscle model that fatigues to mimic an endurance running event. Since there has been no model with fatigable muscle implemented before, there are a lot of questions that can only be answered through simulation with fatigable muscles. Differences in running form may be analyzed without considering muscle fatigue, but inducing muscle fatigue may provide more insight. <br/><br/>This project includes the following software/data packages: <br/> <ul> <li> <a href="https://simtk.org/frs?group_id=864#pack_1407">OSIM Muscle Changer </a> : This package takes an osim model with Thelen2003Muscles and puts in a Millard2013Muscle with default force curves. </li> </ul>

长久以来，关于何种跑步姿势对于耐力型、长距离跑步性能而言最为优化的争论一直持续不断。众多运动员的个人经历均报告了性能提升，从普通运动员到世界冠军铁人三项运动员，他们描述了一系列对跑步姿势的改良，这些改良有助于他们更快、更有效地奔跑。然而，这些改良尚未得到科学上的充分记录。尽管本项目仅是分析跑步姿势差异的初步数据中的一小步，但它为未来的生物力学研究者提供了一个平台，以便研究不同个体跑步姿势的关键差异。由于几乎无法通过实验手段测试跑步姿势之间的差异，这是一个极为棘手的问题。这是因为难以实现充分的控制。每位跑者的身高、体重、体能水平、肌肉力量等方面都有所不同。每位跑者的跑步方式也有所不同。在实验中，无法让一位跑者复制多种不同的跑步风格，因为每位跑者都有其独特的自然风格。然而，如果能够使用同一模型跑者的跑步运动学来复制不同的跑步风格，差异可能得到更清晰的观察。利用 opensim 软件，可以使用相同的跑者模型进行模拟，复制不同的跑步风格。计算肌肉控制还可以计算并比较肌肉激活。一个额外的特点是添加定制肌肉模型，以模拟耐力型跑步事件中的疲劳。由于之前尚未实现具有疲劳肌肉的模型，因此有许多问题只能通过具有疲劳肌肉的模拟来回答。在不考虑肌肉疲劳的情况下分析跑步姿势的差异可能是有益的，但诱导肌肉疲劳可能会提供更深入的见解。本项目包含以下软件/数据包：

<ul>
<li><a href="https://simtk.org/frs?group_id=864#pack_1407">OSIM Muscle Changer</a>：该软件包将带有 Thelen2003Muscles 的 osim 模型替换为带有默认力曲线的 Millard2013Muscle。</li>
</ul>