Human Gait Cycle

Introduction
As the human gait cycle is a complex system designed to help people walk efficiently on a daily basis, it is essential to understand how the gait cycle works. From this understanding, one can make accurate judgements on whether or not double leg amputees should be allowed to compete against able bodied athletes in running events. This essay will discuss in detail the biomechanical perspectives on this situation and will provide relevant examples to substantiate the argument against allowing double amputee athletes from competing against able bodied athletes in running events.
The human gait cycle is composed of the following stages: The double support phase where you have both feet in contact with the ground and then the single

Weyand and Bundle (2010) believed that double amputees can achieve faster speeds than able-bodied runners as, they are able to decrease swing times in their limbs and extending the duration of ground force applied. Their light prosthetics and adaptable limbs are able to transfer the temporal stance-phase restrictions that often prohibit fast speeds in able-bodied runners which allows amputees to have an advantage over able-bodied individuals (Weyand and Bundle, 2010). Overground speeds are extended due to the mechanical processes in the artificial limbs (Weyand and Bundle, 2010). The ground and muscular forces needed to maintain the same speed as able-bodied athletes is reduced in double amputee athletes. This is because the net ground forces needed have been spread out over a much larger proportion of the entire stride length time (Weyand and Bundle,

Human running is often viewed as a bouncing motion where ones legs act similar to a spring. The stiffness one experiences in their legs “spring” helps to determine the centre of mass (COM) mechanics of the body (McGowan et al., 2012). In stance phase of the gait cycle, ones leg swings through an arc during running and so the angle at which this swing takes place, the force at which ones foot makes contact with the ground as well as the stiffness in the leg are all components that help determine the COM and the ground reaction forces experienced by the individual (McGowan et al., 2012). The tests showed that leg stiffness for people without prostheses seemed to remain constant or increase with speed. People with prostheses stiffness in the legs decreased. All subjects seemed to increase the leg swing when they ran faster (McGowan et al., 2012). It was noted that amputees increased this swinging angle a lot more than able-bodied persons. Another finding from the tests performed was that the COM amongst the participants differed considerably (McGowan et al., 2012). Able-bodied individuals experienced knee stiffness at higher speeds but amputees do not have knees and therefore did not experience this stiffness and so they are at an advantage over the able-bodied persons (McGowan et al.,