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Mechanics of our bipedal movement are actually quite fascinating. So many muscles and joints are involved and even slight changed can push us off balance. Your feet must produce a well-coordinated movement in order to prevent you from falling and to propel you forward. Now scientists from The University of Queensland and University of Exeter took a look into human feet and how they evolved.
Human feet are unique in the animal kingdom – they allow as to run very efficiently, walk, jump and kick. Image credit: Seb2233 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Human feet are so much better than any other animal’s. We can walk and run, stand on one leg, jump, kick, swim and do much more. A lot of muscles are involved in a properly functioning foot. Now scientists were interested to see if the plantar intrinsic muscles help support the arch of the foot, which is believed to be crucial for efficient walking. Scientists say that this research could help us to improve our understanding of the human walking mechanism and help us with such issues as flat feet or the design of footwear.
Interestingly, scientists found that the plantar intrinsic muscles do not contribute to the arch of the foot. However, these muscles do help us push off the ground when walking or running. Scientists took quite an unusual approach to researching this subject. They used an epidural-like nerve block to temporarily eliminate the influence of certain muscles. Participants of the experiment had to walk and run on a treadmill, but, of course, just to ensure safety they had to wear a harness. Scientists compared the function of the feet with and without the muscle blocker and found that the plantar intrinsic muscles did not play a role of supporting the arch. They do, however, help us to produce greater propulsive forces to walk and run forward.
In other words, the plantar intrinsic muscles are needed in order to push off the ground successfully and move forward. Associate Professor Glen Lichtwark, one of the authors of the study, said: “These results have provided an important insight into how these muscles adapted to allow humans to be economical runners”. Although many people do not know that, humans can actually outrun most animals – we can hold the optimal running speed longer than anyone else – we can run further distances in shorter time. Given enough time we can, for example, outrun a horse and it seems like the plantar intrinsic muscles contribute to this ability quite a bit.
Scientists say that researches like this improve our understanding of human feet and push us closer to solving the issue of flat feet. Furthermore, better understanding of the mechanics of human feet could improve the design of both athletic and casual shoes. However, this is just a small step towards that goal and scientists still have a lot of work to do.
Source: The University of Queensland