Masters Thesis

The effects of curved shoes on the energetics and mechanics of walking

An ever-growing population of people are looking for ways to increase calorie burn without increasing activity levels. People in the shoe industry have capitalized on this concept and created curved bottom shoes. Curved bottom shoes are believed to provide the body with an unstable walking surface, initiating greater muscle activity patterns to stabilize the body, ultimately resulting in an increase in the metabolic cost of walking in curved shoes. The metabolic cost of walking is also determined in part by the exchange of mechanical energy and the cost of swinging the legs. However, it is unclear how walking in curved shoes may affect the pendulum like exchange of mechanical energy in the body and the cost of leg swing. This study investigated the effects of curved bottom shoes on the energetics and mechanics of walking. Sixteen subjects came to the Humboldt State Biomechanics Lab for two testing sessions. They walked on a treadmill and overground at three different speeds (0.75, 1.25, 1.75m/s) and in three different shoes (flat shoes (FS), curved shoes (CS), and flat shoes weighted to match the weight of curved shoes (WFS)). The metabolic cost of walking was greater in curved bottom shoes compared to the flat shoes (p=.0001) but similar to weighted flat shoes (p=.386). However, inverted pendulum energy exchange was greater in curved shoes when compared to both flat shoes (p.0001) and weighted flat shoes (p=.001). In conclusion, walking in curved shoes allows for a greater exchange of mechanical energy via inverted pendulum mechanics but increases the metabolic cost as compared to walking in flat shoes likely as a result of an increased cost of leg swing.

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