Stride Length, but Not Body Borne Load Impacts Gait Stability

Military personnel are required to alter their stride length to run with heavy body borne loads during training. This may compromise their gait stability and increase the risk of suffering fall related musculoskeletal injury. This study quantified how running with body borne loads impact gait stability and whether it differed with stride length. Twelve male participants had medial-lateral (ML) gait stability quantified while running 4.0 m/s with four borne loads (20, 25, 30, and 35 kg). Each participant had ML margin of stability (MoS) calculated when using a normal stride (NS), short (SS, -15% of NS), and long stride (LS, +15 of NS) to run. The MoS measures were submitted to RM ANOVA to test main and interactions effects of load (20,25,30, and 35 kg) and stride (NS, SS, LS) with alpha level at p