Gait Cycle Phases, Events and Normalization
Channel: Stuart McErlain-Naylor
Date: 08/11/2021

What is a gait cycle? What are movement phases and events in biomechanics research? What do these have to do with normalization? This video answers these questions through an example analysis of technique factors associated with running economy. Tips and software are provided for biomechanical analysis of time series data.

The discussion includes research questions, dependent and independent variables, biomechanical time series and joint angles. This is as well as linear length normalization, piecewise linear length normalisation, and their effect on mean and peak values. The biomechanics toolbar in Microsoft Excel is recommended for normalization and many other data analysis processes, as well as the interp1 function in Matlab.

Events mentioned include initial ground contact, midstance, toe-off, mid-swing, and initial contact again.
Gait cycle phases include the stance and swing phases, which are broken into the braking, propulsion, flight, initial swing, and terminal swing phases.

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00:00 Gait cycle phases, events and normalisation
00:19 Biomechanics research question: Running economy
00:30 Dependent variable: Running economy
00:42 What is a biomechanical time series?
01:00 What is a gait cycle?
01:20 Biomechanical events / key instants
01:33 What is a movement phase?
01:39 Phases and events of the gait cycle
02:48 What is time normalization?
03:26 Extracting means and peaks from time normalized data
03:56 Piecewise linear length normalization
04:25 Matlab and the Excel biomechanics toolbar
04:42 Statistical parametric mapping (SPM)

Running economy study: https://dx.doi.org/10.1249%2FMSS.0000000000001245 
Time normalization article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2010.09.015 
Matlab interp1 function: https://uk.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/interp1.html 
Excel biomechanics toolbar: http://www.biomechanicstoolbar.org/ 
Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) tutorial: https://youtu.be/nKyNpoU6-_I 

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