Experimental Study on Walking and Jogging

Walking and jogging are very popular activities in daily life. Identification of stiffness and damping structure during these activities is significant in understanding movement mechanical behavior. This study aimed to provide a fundamental mathematical model for describing these activities and finding stiffness and damping coefficients in order to compare movements. A mass-spring-damper model was used to analyze the motion patterns of a group of individuals (n = 8) for jogging and walking. Nonlinear oscillating structures for damping and stiffness were extracted, and the coefficients of damping and stiffness for each participant were determined. Findings of this study show that the stiffness coefficient is higher during jogging, suggesting that the leg has a more significant spring effect in jogging compared to walking.