Characteristics of the vertical ground reaction force component prior to gait transition.

The purpose of the study was to examine the vertical ground reaction force component when approaching the gait transition point from either a walk-to-run or run-to-walk perspective. The vertical ground reaction forces (VGRF) of five steps before gait transitions for both walk-to-run and run-to-walk were collected on a motor driven treadmill with embedded force plates. Transition specific characteristics of the VGRF were observed for both types of gait transition. Running peak force and time to peak force reduced dramatically in a quadratic fashion as approaching to the run-to-walk transition. The walking VGRF first peak increased linearly, and the second peak decreased quadratically prior to walk-to-run transition. Walking VGRF appearing to be more sensitive to acceleration than the running VGRF.