Effect of Surface Hardness on Joint Contact Forces during Barefoot Running: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental pilot study on the effect of different surface hardness to the joint contact force during barefoot running. Peak joint contact forces during the stance phase of a male subject that running barefoot on three types of surface with different hardness level (concrete, artificial grass and rubber) were investigated experimentally. Differences in peak joint contact force at the ankle, medial tibiofemoral, lateral tibiofemoral, hip and patellofemoral due to surface effects were analysed using Freebody (Version2.1) software. The result showed that the pattern of peak joint contact force was similar for ankle with medial tibiofemoral and hip with lateral patellofemoral. The joint contact force was varied in the varying of the surface hardness. The correlation between various surface hardness and joint contact force was found at the ankle and medial tibiofemoral joint. However, the findings of this pilot study provide the insight into the method and approach selected for the experiment be suitable for an actual experiment for more subjects.