Metabolically Optimal Gait Transitions in Cross-Country Skate Skiing
Date
2014-09-04
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Abstract
Animals change gait patterns to minimize metabolic cost. Horses walk at slow speeds, trot at intermediate speeds, and gallop at high speeds. Likewise, cross-country skiers use the 2-skate technique at slow speeds, the 1-skate technique at intermediate speeds, but then, in contrast to everything known about animal locomotion, they revert to the previously rejected 2-skate technique at high speeds.
I determined the oxygen cost for the 1- and 2-skate technique while measuring forces in the skis and poles for eight athletes skiing at speeds ranging from 6-35km/h.
I found that the oxygen cost curves for the two techniques intersected twice, and that propulsion comes primarily from the poles for the 1-skate and the skis for the 2-skate technique. Furthermore, the arm action becomes metabolically much more costly with increasing speeds of skiing than the leg action, thereby partly explaining the non-intuitive gait transitions in skiers.
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Physiology, Biophysics, Engineering--Biomedical
Citation
Killick, A. (2014). Metabolically Optimal Gait Transitions in Cross-Country Skate Skiing (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26883