Biomechanics of overground vs.

treadmill walking in
healthy individuals
Song Joo Lee and Joseph Hidler

J Appl Physiol 104:747-755, 2008. First published 29 November 2007;

doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.01380.2006
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J Appl Physiol 104: 747755, 2008.

First published November 29, 2007; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01380.2006.

Biomechanics of overground vs. treadmill walking in healthy individuals

Song Joo Lee1,2 and Joseph Hidler1,2
1

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Catholic University, and 2Center for Applied Biomechanics and Rehabilitation
Research National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia
Submitted 5 December 2006; accepted in final form 21 November 2007

OVER THE LAST DECADE, THERE has been a steady shift in gait
training strategies in neurorehabilitation clinics where bodyweight-supported treadmill training is now considered a viable
intervention for treating gait impairments following neurological disorders such as stroke (12, 13) and spinal cord injury (9).
Treadmill training has numerous advantages compared with
overground gait training, where the training can be done in
small area, a larger volume of steps can be achieved, walking
speed can be well controlled, and because the subject is
stationary and often elevated, the positioning of the therapist is
more optimal for providing assistance. Additionally, overhead
body weight-support systems can be utilized, relieving the
subject of a portion of their weight, which allows them to train
safely and earlier in their recovery period (see Ref. 10 for a
review).
Because the goal of all patients is to walk overground and
not on a treadmill, it is important that the motor control
strategy utilized during each type of walking modality be
similar so that improvements in treadmill ambulation will
transfer to overground walking. In theory, if the belt speed of
the treadmill is constant, biomechanically, there should be no
differences between the two walking modalities (31). A num-

ber of previous studies have compared temporal gait parameters (1, 5, 24 26, 29, 33), joint kinematics(1, 5, 24, 25, 29), and
muscle activation patterns (2, 24, 25) between overground and
treadmill walking, however, the results are often conflicting
and inconclusive. For example, Murray et al. (24) reported no
statistical differences in temporal gait parameters but claimed
that during treadmill walking, subjects demonstrated trends for
shorter step lengths, higher cadences, shorter swing phases,
and longer double-limb support. They also reported that despite no statistical differences in muscle activity except for
quadriceps, EMG activity was, in general, higher on the treadmill. This is in contrast to the reports by Arsenault et al. (2),
who reported no differences in muscle activity in the soleus,
rectus femoris, vastus medialis, or tibialis anterior between the
two walking modalities. These investigators did report elevated
activity in the biceps femoris and the variability was lower in
muscle firing patterns on the treadmill. Alton et al. (1) found
that during treadmill ambulation, subjects had a shorter stance
time, higher cadence, larger hip range of motion, and greater
maximum hip flexion angle. Unfortunately, the experimental
procedures in that study were questionable, because the walking speeds between the two conditions were never accurately
matched, and the method for estimating the joint angles,
particularly at the hip, was problematic.
Although the studies described above have looked at temporal gait parameters, kinematics, and muscle activation patterns, only one has looked at joint moments and powers while
walking on a treadmill (29). In that study, it was reported that
joint moments and powers were statistically different, yet
because these differences were within the variability of the
kinetic measures, it was concluded that treadmill and overground joint moments and powers are similar. This study only
reported on the maximum and minimum moments and powers
during stance, and it did not report on muscle activation
patterns for these trials.
Although the study by Riley et al. (29) provides the first look
at kinetic patterns during treadmill walking, it is important to
look at these behaviors across the gait cycle and also to
examine the corresponding muscle activation patterns. Because
motor coordination, synergy patterns, energy expenditure, and
other control strategies can be best observed by looking at
kinetics and muscle activity, having a detailed understanding
of these behaviors for treadmill and overground gait may
provide important insight into developing gait training protocols for neurological subjects and for understanding how treadmill-based interventions may be limited. It may also help
explain the therapeutic benefits of body weight-supported
treadmill training for individuals with lower limb impairments.

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: J. Hidler, Dept. of

Biomedical Engineering, Catholic Univ., Pangborn Hall, #104b, 620 Michigan
Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20064 (e-mail: hidler@cua.edu).

The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment
of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement
in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

gait; motion analysis; electromyogram

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Lee SJ, Hidler J. Biomechanics of overground vs. treadmill walking

in healthy individuals. J Appl Physiol 104: 747755, 2008. First published November 29, 2007; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01380.2006.The
goal of this study was to compare treadmill walking with overground
walking in healthy subjects with no known gait disorders. Nineteen
subjects were tested, where each subject walked on a split-belt
instrumented treadmill as well as over a smooth, flat surface. Comparisons between walking conditions were made for temporal gait
parameters such as step length and cadence, leg kinematics, joint
moments and powers, and muscle activity. Overall, very few differences were found in temporal gait parameters or leg kinematics
between treadmill and overground walking. Conversely, sagittal plane
joint moments were found to be quite different, where during treadmill walking trials, subjects demonstrated less dorsiflexor moments,
less knee extensor moments, and greater hip extensor moments. Joint
powers in the sagittal plane were found to be similar at the ankle but
quite different at the knee and hip joints. Differences in muscle
activity were observed between the two walking modalities, particularly in the tibialis anterior throughout stance, and in the hamstrings,
vastus medialis and adductor longus during swing. While differences
were observed in muscle activation patterns, joint moments and joint
powers between the two walking modalities, the overall patterns in
these behaviors were quite similar. From a therapeutic perspective,
this suggests that training individuals with neurological injuries on a
treadmill appears to be justified.

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BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

Fig. 1. A: ADAL treadmill manufactured by Techmachine

(Andrezieux Boutheon, France). The split belt treadmill sits
on top of 8 tri-axial Kistler force sensors, 4 per half-treadmill,
labeled 1 4 in B. See text for detailed description. Note
picture is not to scale.

METHODS

Subjects
Nineteen healthy individuals with no known gait impairments
participated in the study. Eight subjects (4 men, 4 women) were in the
age range of 50 70 yr old (means SD: 56.0 5.6), while 11
subjects (5 men, 6 women) were between 18 and 30 yr old (means
SD: 23.5 3.3 yr). Our original goal was to determine whether there
were age-related differences in treadmill vs. overground walking.
However, with analysis of the data, we found that there were no
age-related differences in any of the metrics we examined.1 As such,
we collapsed all subject data into the analysis.
Exclusion criteria included cardiac arrhythmia, hypertension, or
any known gait abnormality such as an orthopedic injury, lower limb
pain, or neurological injury that would bias the results of this study.
All subjects were required to provide informed consent approved by
the Institutional Review Boards of Medstar Research Institute. All
experiments were conducted at the National Rehabilitation Hospital
(Washington, DC).
1
It should be noted that the older subjects tested in this study were
extremely fit, and they often walk on a treadmill as part of their normal
exercise routine.

J Appl Physiol VOL

Instrumentation
The primary equipment used in this study was an ADAL3D-F/
COP/Mz instrumented split-belt treadmill (TECHMACHINE, Andrezieux, France; see Ref. 3 for detailed description). As shown in
Fig. 1, each half of the treadmill is mounted on 4 Kistler triaxial
piezoelectric sensors (Winterthur, Switzerland). This allows for
ground reaction forces to be resolved in the vertical, anterior-posterior, and medial-lateral planes while subjects ambulate on the device.
These forces could then be used to calculate the center of pressure
under each foot during stance.
Compared with previous studies that compared treadmill with
overground walking (1, 2, 5, 24 26, 33), one of the distinct advantages of our experimental setup is that the floor in our laboratory is
raised to be level with the ADAL treadmill. Thus, for the overground
experiments, the treadmill motors were turned off and the subjects
simply walked across the treadmill. Utilizing the same force plates
for both treadmill and overground walking trials eliminated any
experimental bias that might have been introduced into the ground
reaction force measurements had the overground gait analysis been
done using standard force plates. In that setting, the sensors of the
different force plates may have different dynamic response characteristics. More importantly, the surfaces of the force plates in the two
walking modalities would be different (e.g., rubber treadmill vs. hard
overground). Changes in surface stiffness and damping result in
significant changes in muscle EMG activity (23), suggesting the
importance of consistent test conditions. It should be noted that before
the study, we checked for belt slippage during overground walking
trials by placing motion analysis markers on the surface of the belt as
subjects walked across the treadmill. We did not observe any belt
slippage during these overground test trials.
The kinematics of lower limbs were measured using a CodaMotion
system (Charnwood Dynamics). A single Codomotion CX1048 infrared camera station was used to capture the three-dimensional coordinates of markers on the subjects lower limbs. To minimize marker
movement artifacts that come from direct contact to subjects skin,
custom-made clusters were used to track the markers. Each cluster
consisted of four Codamotion active markers attached to custommade Aquaplast shells, where the marker locations could be adjusted
for each subject to minimize marker dropout.
Muscle activity was recorded differentially from the tibialis anterior, medial gastrocnemius, medial hamstrings, vastus medialis, rectus

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With the integration of force-sensing capabilities into split-belt

treadmills (3, 22), ground reaction forces and centers of pressure can now be measured so that when combined with
kinematic data, inverse dynamics calculations of joint moments and powers during treadmill ambulation can now be
realized.
The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis
of the temporal gait parameters, joint kinematics, joint kinetics,
and muscle activation patterns utilized when subjects walk on
a treadmill compared with overground ambulation. We hypothesize that when individuals walk on a treadmill, they will
demonstrate significant differences in joint moments and powers, as well as muscle activation patterns when compared with
overground walking.

BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

femoris, adductor longus, and gluteus maximus and medius muscles

on the left leg using a Bagnoli-8 EMG system (Delsys, Boston, MA).
All force and EMG data were antialias filtered at 500 Hz before
sampling at 1,000 Hz using a 16-bit data acquisition board (Measurement computing, PCI-DAS 6402, Middleboro, MA) and custom
software (Mathworks, Natick, MA). Marker position data from Codamotion were sampled at 100 Hz. Force plate data were further
low-pass filtered using a zero-delay fourth-order Butterworth filter
with a 25-Hz cutoff frequency.
Protocol

with adequate rest breaks in between. The criteria for an acceptable

trial were that the subject made good contact with the center of the
force plate, and minimal marker dropout was observed over a full gait
cycle. The average walking speeds were calculated from the first three
overground trials, which were then used in the treadmill trials.
After the overground walking trials, subjects were allowed to
acclimate to walking on the treadmill for 3 min. During the
treadmill trials, subjects were not allowed to hold onto the handrails
because this could possibly alter their gait pattern. After the acclimation phase, the speed of the treadmill was set to the speed obtained
during the overground walking trials and data were collected for 30 s.
On completion of the walking trials, anatomic landmarks were
digitized using the C-Motion digitizing pointer, which established
relationships between landmarks and marker locations. Landmark
locations were obtained from both legs for the lateral malleolus,
lateral femoral epicondyle, greater trochanter, and the anterior iliac
crest. Additionally, anatomic measures of the foot, ankle, and knee
were taken for each subject to create subject-specific link segment
models in Visual 3D (C-Motion, Rockville, MD) (see below).
Analysis
Subject-specific models were created in Visual 3D using the
anatomic measures taken for each subject, along with body mass and

Fig. 2. Average ankle, knee, and hip joint moments in sagittal (A, C, E) and frontal (B, D, F) planes for all subjects. Gray line with shading, mean 1 SD for
overground trials; solid black line with 2 dashed lines, mean 1 SD for treadmill trials. Max Pflexor, maximum plantar flexion; Max Dflexor, maximum
dorsiflexion; MaxEV1, maximum eversion in early stance; MaxEV2, maximum eversion in late stance; MaxIN, maximum inversion; MaxEX1, maximum
extension in early stance; MaxEX2, maximum extension in late stance; MaxFL, maximum flexion; MaxFL1, maximum flexion in mid stance; MaxFL2, maximum
flexion in late swing; MaxIN, maximum inversion; MinVal, minimum valgus; MaxVal1, maximum valgus in early stance; MaxVal2, maximum valgus in late
stance; MinAB, minimum abduction; MaxAB1, maximum abduction in early stance; MaxAB2, maximum abduction in late stance.
J Appl Physiol VOL

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After the subject signed the informed consent form, EMG

electrodes were attached on the subjects skin by a trained physical
therapist, after which the marker clusters were strapped on to the
subjects legs with neoprene (DuPont, Wilmington, DE) and coband (3M, St. Paul, MN). The neoprene was wrapped tightly
around the subjects shanks and thighs, which helped minimize
skin movement artifacts. Marker clusters were placed on the
subjects feet, shanks and thighs, while four individual markers
were placed on the subjects pelvis.
With all of the instrumentation in place, subjects were asked to
walk overground for a distance of 5 m at their comfortable speed. In
general, 10 trials were necessary to obtain three acceptable passes

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BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

Normalized speed: speed

(1)

H g

Normalized cadence: cadence

H
g

Normalized stride length: stride length

(2)
1
H

(3)

where H is the subjects height in meters, and g is gravity (9.81 m/s2).

Kinematic analysis. The angular range of motion in the sagittal
plane for the hip, knee, and ankle was found by subtracting the
minimum joint angle from the maximum joint angle for overground
and treadmill trials (1). Peak ankle flexion and extension, knee flexion,
and hip flexion and extension were also identified for each trial. These
values, and the phase of the gait cycle in which they occurred, were
used to evaluate the kinematic differences between treadmill and
overground walking.
Kinetic analysis. Joint moments at the ankle, knee, and hip (11, 21,
34, 35) were analyzed in the sagittal and frontal planes. For the ankle,
the maximum dorsiflexor and plantar flexor moments were calculated
in the sagittal plane, while maximum eversion and the midstance
minimum moments were determined for the frontal plane. For the
knee in the sagittal plane, the maximum extension moments generated
in early stance and late stance, along with the maximum flexion
moment were identified. In the frontal plane, the two peak valgus
moments in early and late stance were identified, along with the minimum
valgus moment in midstance. At the hip, sagittal plane maximum
extension moments were identified in early stance and late swing,
along with the maximum hip flexion moment. For the frontal plane,
peak abduction moments in early and late stance were identified
as well as the minimum in midstance. These metrics are outlined in
Fig. 2 and described in RESULTS.
Joint powers (11) were analyzed for the sagittal planes, where the
minimum and maximum joint powers were estimated for the ankle,
knee, and hip throughout the gait cycle (Fig. 3). Ground reaction
forces were examined in the vertical, medial-lateral, and anteriorposterior planes, where the maximum and minimum values were
analyzed in the gait cycle, particularly at transition points (see Fig. 4).
EMG analysis. Muscle activation patterns (16) were processed
using the technique described by Hidler and Wall (14). Briefly, the
mean EMG pattern for each muscle was rectified and then smoothed
J Appl Physiol VOL

Fig. 3. Average ankle (A), knee (B), and hip (C) joint power in the sagittal
plane for all subjects. Gray line with shading, mean and 1 SD for overground
trials; solid black line with 2 dashed lines, mean and 1 SD for treadmill trials.
Max, maximum power; Min, minimum power; Min1, first local minimum;
Min2, second local minima; Min3, third local minimum; Max1, maximum
power in early stance; Max2, maximum power in late stance.

using a 50-point root-mean-square algorithm (19). For each muscle,

the smoothed EMG was normalized to the maximum value observed
in that respective muscle across all trials so that intersubject comparisons could be made. After the average EMG profile for each muscle
was calculated, the data were broken up into seven phases as described by Perry (27). Within each of these phases, the integrated
EMG activity was calculated for each muscle.
Statistics
Two parallel statistical analyses were performed on the temporal
gait parameters, kinematic measures, joint moments, and joint powers.
A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to first compare treadmill and
overground walking. As stated above, the three overground strides
were compared with three randomly selected treadmill strides for each
subject. Temporal parameters compared included normalized walking
speed, normalized cadence, normalized stride length, stride time,
stance time, swing time, and double-limb support time. Kinematic
variables examined were maximum and minimum flexion and extension angles, and range of motion of the ankle, knee, and hip in sagittal
and frontal plane. Kinetic measures were compared by looking at
anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, and vertical ground reaction forces,
joint moments, and joint powers that have been discussed in Kinematic analysis. Interactions were also looked at across strides and
groups, as well as within groups and between strides. All statistical
tests were run using STATA (Intercooled Stats 9.2 for Windows,
Stata).

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height, which were used to normalize joint moments and joint powers,
and to define segment masses and inertial values.
The Visual 3D model assumes that each segment is a rigid body,
which is then used to calculate joint angles, joint moments, and joint
powers.
For each trial, individual gait cycles were extracted from a data
sequence, considered the interval between successive heel strikes in
the same foot. Since only one heel contact was normally made on the
force plate for the overground trials, the subsequent heel strike was
inferred from the kinematic data. Each stride cycle was resampled for
averaging purposes and time normalized, expressed as a percentage of
the total gait cycle (e.g., 0 100%). All temporal, kinematic, kinetic,
and EMG measures were calculated for each stride, which resulted in
three overground trials and 10 20 treadmill strides. To make
equivalent comparisons between the two walking conditions, 3 strides
were randomly selected from the treadmill trials for each subject,
which were then compared with the overground trials (see Statistics).
Temporal gait parameters. Temporal gait parameters were estimated for treadmill and overground walking conditions. Measures
included stance time, total double-limb support time, swing time,
stride time, step time, cadence, and stride length (see Ref. 21 for an
explanation of each gait parameter). Speed, cadence, and stride length
were normalized using the procedures described by Hof (15) to
account for individuals of various heights:

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BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

Because of the large number of comparisons being made between

treadmill and overground walking, we also analyzed the data described above using a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model,
which is an extension of linear regression model. SUR models are
systems of simultaneous equations in which the variables are not
independent. The SUR model tests the effects of a number of independent variables on each dependent variable by taking into account
the potential correlation among the error terms. Thus this modeling
technique allowed us to look for differences between treadmill and
overground walking by implicitly modeling the similarities between
the dependent variables (20). For the SUR model analysis, independent variables consisted of type of walking and stride number.
To analyze the EMG data, we used a fixed-effects regression
analysis to account for the interrelatedness between the phases of the
gait cycle and to model the unobserved factors that arise from the
multiple steps and the individual subjects. This model allowed us to
test for differences between the treadmill and the overground for each
phase of the gait cycle, assuming that the phases are part of a complete
movement rather than analyzing each phase separately across the
types of walking. Here, fixed factors in the model included type of
walking, subject, and phase of the gait cycle, while the dependent
measure was the mean integrated amount of muscle activity (see EMG
Analysis).
RESULTS

Joint Moments
General observation. With the exception of peak ankle
plantar flexion, sagittal plane joint moments during treadmill
trials were significantly different than those utilized during
overground walking. Conversely, joint moments in the frontal
plane were not significantly different between treadmill and
overground walking. A detailed listing of the mean and standard deviations of the sagittal plane joint moment features
outlined in Kinetic analysis can be found in Table 3.
Ankle moment. A representative example of the ankle moments for treadmill and overground walking can be seen in Fig.
2A. During the loading response of the gait cycle (0 10%),
subjects had a tendency to produce larger dorsiflexor moments
during overground walking. Maximum plantar flexor moments
during terminal stance phase (30 50%) were not significantly
different between overground and treadmill walking. For the
frontal plane, neither ankle inversion nor eversion moments
were significantly different between the walking conditions
(Fig. 2B).
Table 1. Temporal gait parameters for overground
and treadmill walking

Temporal Gait Parameters and Joint Kinematics

Table 1 lists means SD of the temporal parameters for both
overground and treadmill ambulation. With the exception of
swing time and stance time, none of the temporal gait parameters were significantly different between treadmill and overground ambulation. Comparing joint kinematics in the sagittal
plane, only knee range of motion was significantly different
between treadmill and overground walking. A summary of
joint kinematic parameters is listed in Table 2.
J Appl Physiol VOL

Parameter

Overground

Treadmill

P Value

Walking speed (dimensionless)

Step time, s
Stance time, s
Swing time, s
Double-limb support time, s
Cadence (dimensionless)
Stride length (dimensionless)

0.27 (0.04)
0.56 (0.05)
0.68 (0.07)
0.45 (0.03)
0.23 (0.05)
45.1 (4.0)
0.73 (0.09)

0.28 (0.04)
0.54 (0.06)
0.65 (0.08)*
0.43 (0.04)*
0.22 (0.05)
46.6 (4.5)
0.71 (0.08)

0.95
0.41
0.021
0.0017
0.77
0.28
0.86

Values are means (SD). *Different from overground walking, P 0.05 (see
Statistics for details).

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Fig. 4. Average ground reaction forces (GRF) for

all subjects in the anterior-posterior (A), mediallateral (B), and vertical (C) axes. Gray line with
shading, mean and 1 SD for overground trials;
Solid black line with 2 dashed lines, mean and 1
SD for treadmill trials. MinAP, minimum anteriorposterior GRF; MaxAP, maximum anterior-posterior
GRF; ML Max1, maximum medial lateral GRF in
early stance; ML Max2 maximum medial lateral
GRF in late stance; Vmin, minimum vertical GRF;
VMax1, maximum vertical GRF in early stance;
VMax2, maximum vertical GRF in late stance.

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Table 4. Sagittal joint powers during overground

and treadmill walking

Table 2. Sagittal plane kinematic measures for treadmill

and overground walking
Parameter

Overground

Treadmill

P Value

Parameter

Overground

Treadmill

P Value

Maximum ankle flexion

Maximum ankle extension
Ankle range of motion
Maximum knee flexion
Knee range of motion
Maximum hip flexion
Maximum hip extension
Hip range of motion

13.9 (4.2)
12.8 (7.3)
26.6 (6.2)
69.1 (4.3)
67.7 (3.2)
31.5 (4.0)
12.6 (4.2)
44.1 (3.6)

12.2 (4.4)
15.3 (7.0)
27.5 (5.6)
67.7 (4.7)
65.6 (3.3)*
31.4 (4.1)
12.6 (3.5)
44.0 (4.5)

0.15
0.091
0.84
0.48
0.0037
0.97
0.81
0.96

Ankle Minimum
Ankle Maximum
Knee Maximum
Knee Min1
Knee Min2
Knee Min3
Hip Max1
Hip Minimum
Hip Max2

0.84 (0.36)
3.13 (1.00)
0.56 (0.35)
0.62 (0.44)
1.74 (0.80)
0.94 (0.33)
0.54 (0.38)
0.62 (0.27)
0.97 (0.38)

0.85 (0.32)
3.24 (1.05)
0.46 (0.19)
0.38 (0.35)*
1.12 (0.87)*
1.14 (0.31)
0.79 (0.39)*
0.55 (0.31)*
0.95 (0.42)

0.93
0.62
0.22
0.04
0.001
0.07
0.03
0.02
0.58

Values are means (SD) given in degrees. *Different from overground

walking, P 0.05 (see Statistics for details).

Joint Powers
Joint powers for the sagittal plane are reported. As illustrated
in Fig. 3A and listed in Table 4, the maximum and minimum
joint powers at the ankle for treadmill and overground trials
were not different. Conversely, significant differences were
found for knee power curves throughout the gait cycle. Figure
3B illustrates the mean knee power curves for both treadmill
and overground walking, along with the metrics used for
Table 3. Sagittal plane joint moments during overground
and treadmill walking
Parameter

Overground

Treadmill

P Value

Maximum dorsiflexor
Maximum plantar flexor
Knee MaxEX1
Knee MaxFL1
Knee MaxEX2
Knee MaxFL2
Hip MaxEX1
Hip MaxFL
Hip MaxEX2

0.20 (0.09)
1.35 (0.22)
0.63 (0.27)
0.10 (0.16)
0.34 (0.16)
0.23 (0.06)
0.40 (0.15)
0.75 (0.26)
0.21 (0.10)

0.11 (0.12)*
1.38 (0.17)
0.39 (0.25)*
0.25 (0.24)*
0.22 (0.18)*
0.28 (0.06)*
0.57 (0.23)*
0.62 (0.30)*
0.31 (0.11)*

0.0004
0.46
0.0005
0.0016
0.0010
0.0000
0.0000
0.0023
0.0013

Values are means (SD) given in N m/kg. MaxEX1, maximum extension in

early stance; MaxEX2, maximum extension in late stance; MaxFL, maximum
flexion; MaxFL1, maximum flexion in early stance; MaxFL2, maximum
flexion in late stance. *Different from overground walking, P 0.05 (see
Statistics for details).
J Appl Physiol VOL

comparison. The first two local minima (e.g., Min1 and Min2)
were found to be significantly less for overground walking
(e.g., more negative), whereas the third local minimum (Min3)
was not different for the two walking conditions. The maximum knee power (Max) was also not significantly different
between treadmill and overground walking. For the hip, the
first maximum (Max1) was significantly greater for treadmill
walking while the local minimum (Min) was significantly
greater (e.g., more negative) for overground walking. No
differences were found for the second maximum hip power
(Max2) between walking conditions.
Ground Reaction Forces
Because the joint kinematics were similar between treadmill
and overground walking yet numerous joint moments and
powers were different, we examined the ground reaction forces
for each condition in hopes of better understanding these
differences. Figure 4 illustrates the ground reaction forces in
the anterior-posterior (A), medial-lateral (B), and vertical
planes (C). We found that the maximum braking forces (labeled MinAP in Fig. 4A) was significantly greater during
overground walking than during treadmill walking. No other
ground reaction force metrics shown in Fig. 4 were significantly different.
In addition to comparing absolute measures of ground reaction forces, we also examined the magnitude of the various
ground reaction forces at the time when metrics used to
describe sagittal plane joint moments were observed (e.g.,
those listed in Table 3). When peak dorsiflexor moments were
observed, the braking forces and the vertical ground reaction
forces were significantly higher during overground walking
(P 0.05). We also observed that the propulsion forces were
significantly lower during overground walking at knee
MaxFL1 and significantly higher during overground walking at
knee MaxEX2 (P 0.05).
Muscle Activity
During treadmill walking, EMG activity in the tibialis anterior was lower throughout stance (P 0.05). Similarly, activity in the gastrocnemius was also lower throughout much of
stance yet slightly higher in terminal swing (P 0.05). An
interesting pattern among hamstrings, vastus medialis, and
adductor longus emerged between the two conditions. Here,

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Knee moment. Throughout the gait cycle, subjects produced

larger knee extensor moments during overground walking
compared with treadmill walking. As shown in Fig. 2C and
summarized in Table 3, the peak extensor moments in early
and late stance (e.g., MaxEX1 and MaxEX2) were both significantly greater during overground walking than on the treadmill (P 0.05). The peak flexor moments in late stance (e.g.,
MaxFL1) and in late swing (e.g., MaxFL2) were significantly
greater during treadmill walking. In the frontal plane (Fig. 2D),
no statistical differences were found in valgus knee moments
between walking conditions.
Hip moment. Sagittal plane hip extensor moments in early
stance (e.g., MaxEX1) and late swing (MaxEX2) were both
greater during treadmill walking than during overground trials
(see Fig. 2E), whereas the peak hip flexion moment (MaxFL)
was significantly higher (e.g., more negative) during treadmill
walking. In the frontal plane, no statistical differences were
found in joint moments for treadmill or overground walking
(Fig. 2F).

Values are means (SD) given in W/kg. Min1, first local minimum; Min2,
second local minimum; Min3, third local minimum; Max1, first local maximum; Max2, second local maximum. *Different from overground walking, P
0.05 (see Statistics for details).

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BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

throughout early and midswing, there was higher activity

during overground walking in each of these muscles yet at
terminal swing, this relationship reversed (e.g., significantly
more activity during treadmill walking). For the rectus femoris,
there was significantly higher muscle activity when subjects
walked on the treadmill during the transition from stance to
swing (e.g., phases 4 and 5) as well as at terminal swing. Table 5
summarizes integrated muscle activation parameters for treadmill and overground walking conditions.
DISCUSSION

Table 5. Means and standard deviations of EMG integration per each phase of gait cycle during overground
and treadmill walking
Phase

Tibialis anterior
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Hamstrings
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Rectus femoris
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Gluteus medius
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Overground

Treadmill

141.9 (56.7)
74.2 (31.9)
58.6 (19.1)
41.8 (18.1)
132.6 (32.7)
57.6 (18.2)
162.0 (59.7)

105.3 (27.2)*
66.1 (38.8)*
47.2 (15.6)*
29.3 (22.3)*
107.1 (24.5)*
66.0 (19.5)
154.9 (46.5)

63.4 (34.9)
47.5 (23.9)
65.8 (43.8)
24.5 (27.3)
23.0 (18.6)
46.7 (18.9)
105.5 (17.4)

44.6 (30.4)*
48.5 (17.8)
44.6 (8.6)
19.9 (12.1)
15.2 (7.1)*
36.8 (15.1)*
123.9 (24.4)*

111.5 (78.5)
100.5 (86.5)
54.8 (49.6)
37.1 (20.7)
39.4 (20.2)
26.9 (20.1)
56.7 (46.7)

120.8 (58.1)
93.2 (73.1)
52.2 (45.5)
47.6 (25.3)*
66.0 (40.2)*
27.2 (18.9)
72.9 (39.5)*

120.7 (38.2)
86.6 (36.5)
52.7 (37.0)
25.4 (18.0)
25.7 (17.0)
25.6 (18.0)
87.0 (31.5)

119.1 (22.9)
94.5 (44.8)
48.4 (25.4)
24.2 (16.7)*
28.1 (19.6)*
25.5 (18.5)
79.1 (22.1)

Phase

Gastrocnemius
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Vastus medialis
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Gluteus maximus
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Adductor longus
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Overground

Treadmill

27.3 (20.6)
99.9 (79.9)
226.9 (49.2)
17.2 (15.7)
27.3 (26.4)
19.4 (21.0)
23.0 (17.6)

24.9 (19.7)*
101.6 (60.3)
214.7 (67.1)*
17.0 (12.8)
22.2 (17.7)
21.6 (23.6)
25.5 (19.0)*

119.0 (56.5)
87.4 (55.3)
46.8 (21.4)
26.4 (14.8)
24.9 (10.8)
27.3 (16.1)
65.1 (32.2)

125.4 (42.5)
77.9 (28.1)
39.0 (18.9)
24.7 (10.5)
23.5 (11.0)*
23.6 (12.6)*
109.0 (44.0)*

128.4 (50.5)
84.0 (38.1)
60.6 (37.8)
32.6 (16.0)
39.4 (17.6)
30.9 (17.6)
110.9 (33.7)

124.3 (23.6)
96.6 (40.6)
61.2 (29.6)
33.8 (16.8)
49.8 (25.8)*
32.5 (16.6)
112.0 (23.0)

111.4 (87.6)
85.9 (38.1)
77.3 (61.7)
67.0 (36.8)
125.7 (116.5)
86.2 (47.5)
127.1 (65.6)

92.6 (42.2)*
106.8 (54.1)*
77.7 (63.0)
65.8 (56.2)
59.5 (37.0)*
62.4 (35.2)*
152.2 (77.8)*

Values are means (SD). 1, loading response (0 10%); 2, midstance (10 30%); 3, terminal stance (30 50%); 4, preswing (50 60%); 5, initial swing (60 75%);
6, midswing (73 85%); 7, terminal swing (85100%); Different from overground walking, P 0.05 (see Statistics for details).
J Appl Physiol VOL

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Although numerous studies have compared treadmill and

overground walking, there still exists significant debate as to
the differences between the two walking modalities. Our results suggest that when individuals walk on a treadmill, they
modify their muscle activation patterns and subsequently joint
moments and powers while maintaining relatively constant
limb kinematics and spatiotemporal gait parameters.
We did not find any statistical differences in the peak
vertical ground reaction forces between treadmill and overground walking. This is different than the reports by White
et al. (33), who found that for normal and fast walking speeds,
the magnitude of the vertical ground reaction forces were
greater on the treadmill during midstance yet lower in late
stance. Because those authors evaluated the same events as we
did in this study (e.g., VMax1, VMin, and VMax2 in Fig. 4C),

one possible explanation for the differences in results is that

they collected their overground data on a different system than
the treadmill data. We believe that a key strength of this study
was that both overground and treadmill data were collected
from the same force plates, which were mounted underneath
each half of the treadmill. This resulted in consistent sensors
being used for both walking modalities, as well as the same
surface, both of which could introduce errors into the recordings.
We also did not find significant differences in medial-lateral
ground reaction forces. Riley et al. (29) reported significantly
different medial-lateral forces at self-selected speeds, which
led to statistical difference in frontal plane joint moments.
They claimed that the differences in these forces were in the
range of variability. Again, in that study, overground gait
assessment was done in a motion analysis laboratory rather
than on the treadmill. Because the surfaces of the force plates
were different for the two conditions in their study, whereas in
this study we had a consistent and continuous force plate
surface, this may explain the differences with the results
presented in this study.
When subjects walked on the treadmill, we did find the
braking ground reaction forces at heel contact were less than
overground walking (Fig. 4, MinAP), which led to smaller
ankle dorsiflexor moments and smaller knee extensor moments. One possible explanation for this would be if the

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BIOMECHANICS OF TREADMILL WALKING

J Appl Physiol VOL

et al. (28) found that treadmill ambulation was not an automated task. Since the optic flow patterns are different between
treadmill and overground walking, small perceptual changes at
one stage of the gait cycle could lead to altered joint moments
and consequently to a cascade of changes during the remainder
of the gait cycle if the goal is to preserve their kinematic
patterns, which is what we hypothesize. This hypothesis is
further supported by Carollo and Matthews (6) and Ivanenko
et al. (17, 18), who suggested that during human locomotion,
the kinematics appear to be the desired control variable. Satisfying kinematic demands during functional tasks has also
been reported in primates (4, 7).
Our findings suggest that while temporal gait parameters and
kinematic patterns are similar between treadmill and overground walking, the muscle activation patterns and joint moments and powers used to achieve these movement patterns are
often different. Although such effects may lead to differences
in motor strategies, from a therapeutic perspective, the overall
kinematic and muscle activation patterns appear to be similar
enough that training individuals with neurological injuries
(e.g., stroke and spinal cord injury) on a treadmill appears
justified. Because walking at home and society often requires
individuals to navigate obstacles and alter their strategies, it
could be viewed that the slight differences we observed here
could be beneficial to the individual being able to adapt to
different environments.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Mihriye Mete for helping with statistical analysis, Scott Selbie at
C-Motion for suggesting a visual 3D model and all subjects who volunteered
for the study.
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treadmill belt slowed briefly at heel contact due to excessive

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