The Evolution of Human Running | How We Ran Our Way to the Top of the Food Chain

This is an excerpt from the second lecture in the module ‘Born to Run-The Science of Human Endurance’. It recaps how our anatomy has evolved, first for walking and then running gait. It discusses how gait analysis is conducted in the laboratory setting, and elaborates on the different spationtemporal gait variables-things like cadence, step length, stride time etc. Gait kinematic are also briefly discussed. The lecture finishes with a high level overview of why we have evolved to move for efficiency.

00:00 Introduction
00:25 The disadvantage of bipedalism for sprinting
00:55 Why humans are the best marathoners
01:30 The main function of the leg during walking gait.
02:40 The kinematic principles underpinning gait efficiency
03:20 The phases of the gait cycle
04:25 Kinematic walking gait analysis
06:00 From walking to running
06:30 The kinematics of running

#barefootrunning #physiotherapy #anatomy #biomechanics #gait #locomotion #locomotionandmovement

Reference list:
https://doi.org/10.1081/SME-120022856
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2019.00999
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03052
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08723