Gait & posture
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In walking faster than 3 km/h, transverse pelvic rotation lengthens the step ("pelvic step"). It is often assumed that the thorax then starts to counter rotate to limit total body angular momentum around the vertical. But the relative timing of pelvis and thorax rotation during gait is insufficiently understood. ⋯ Moreover, pelvic and thoracic contributions to total body angular momentum were low (less than 10%), while contributions of the legs and arms were much larger (approximately 90%), suggesting that pelvis-thorax coordination is relatively unimportant to the organisation of total body angular momentum. Taken together, these results may imply that our understanding of the pelvic step need to be changed. Moreover, the alterations in pelvis-thorax relative phase that were reported for different locomotor pathologies may depend on different mechanisms.