PLANTAR PRESSURE DISTRIBUTIONS OF CHILDREN DURING BACKWARD WALKING

It was believed that plantar pressure might play an importantrole in the beneficial effect of backward walking exercise onhealth. Plantar pressure distributions of 12 healthy boys during normal andbackward walking were collected. The sampling rate was 250\,Hz. The maximumforce, pressure, and impulse of different regions during backward and normalwalking were compared. The plantar foot plane is divided into 10 regions,including first, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th metatarsal head(MTH), great toe (GT), lesser toes (LT), midfoot (MF), lateral heel (LH),medial heel (MH). The plantar pressure distributions of normal and backwardwalking were found significantly different. Compared with normal walking, theloading of the MF, 4th, and 5th MTH during backward walking weresignificantly greater, whereas those of the first and 2nd MTH were significantlysmaller. These results suggest that plantar pressure distributionsduring backward walking may contribute to the improvementeffects of backward walking exercise in fitness and rehabilitation.