The main goal of this master's thesis was to monitor the kinematics of heel under conditions of increased speed, increased inclination, and the occurrence of fatigue, as it is an important cause of the occurrence of running-related injuries.
Eight test subjects (age: 28.38 ± 12.45 years; body height: 167.5 ± 4.57 cm; body weight: 58.78 ± 6.54 kg) participated in this study. They were all recreational runners and heel strikers. The biomechanical analysis of heel movement was performed using the passive markers "Qualisys Sports Marker Set", and "IORfoot Marker Set" as well as the Qualisys Oqus camera system.
The running protocol consisted of five one-minute runs – at speeds of 10 km/h, 12 km/h and 14 km/h on flat terrain, and at a speed of 10 km/h on slopes at 5° and 10° inclines. The running protocol was followed by 30 minutes of fatigue session at 80% HRreserve, after which the running protocol of five runs was repeated.
Biomechanical data processing took place in Qualisys Track Manager, Visual 3D and MATLAB programs. Statistical data processing took place in the RStudio software environment with the help of mixed models. Planned comparisons of means using Tukey's correction were used to determine the statistical significance of differences.
The results showed that due to fatigue, the heel strike angle, the maximum angle and the total heel eversion amplitude did not change in any running condition. Also, no differences were observed with the increase of running speed. Increasing the running incline by 10° increased the heel strike angle (p = 0.02) and decreased the overall heel eversion amplitude (p = 0.004) but had no effect on the maximum angle.
The study found that fatigue and increasing running speed had no effect on heel kinematics. The heel kinematics was influenced only by running at 10º slope.
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