Abstract To quantify the energetic cost of maintaining lateral balance during human running, we provided external lateral stabilization (LS) while running with and without arm swing and measured changes in energetic cost and step width variability (indicator of lateral balance). We hypothesized that external LS would reduce energetic cost and step width variability of running (3.0 m/s), both with and without arm swing. We further hypothesized that the reduction in energetic cost and step width variability would be greater when running without arm swing compared with running with arm swing. We controlled for step width by having subjects run along a single line (zero target step width), which eliminated any interaction effects of step width and arm swing. We implemented a repeated-measures ANOVA with two within-subjects fixed factors (external LS and arm swing) to evaluate main and interaction effects. When provided with external LS (main effect), subjects reduced net metabolic power by 2.0% ( P = 0.032) and step width variability by 12.3% ( P = 0.005). Eliminating arm swing (main effect) increased net metabolic power by 7.6% ( P < 0.001) but did not change step width variability ( P = 0.975). We did not detect a significant interaction effect between external LS and arm swing. Thus, when comparing conditions of running with or without arm swing, external LS resulted in a similar reduction in net metabolic power and step width variability. We infer that the 2% reduction in the net energetic cost of running with external LS reflects the energetic cost of maintaining lateral balance. Furthermore, while eliminating arm swing increased the energetic cost of running overall, arm swing does not appear to assist with lateral balance. Our data suggest that humans use step width adjustments as the primary mechanism to maintain lateral balance during running. locomotion stability economy Copyright © 2012 the American Physiological Society « Previous | Next Article » Table of Contents This Article Published online before print November 2011 , doi: 10.​1152/​japplphysiol.​00554.​2011 Journal of Applied Physiology February 2012 vol. 112 no. 3 427-434 » Abstract Free Full Text Free to you Full Text (PDF) Free to you All Versions of this Article: japplphysiol.00554.2011v1 112/3/427 most recent Classifications Article Services Email this article to a friend Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Alert me when eletters are published Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Download to citation manager Responses Submit a response No responses published Citing Articles Load citing article information Citing articles via Web of Science Google Scholar Articles by Arellano, C. J. Articles by Kram, R. PubMed PubMed citation Articles by Arellano, C. J. Articles by Kram, R. Related Content Load related web page information Current Issue February 2012, 112 (3) Alert me to new issues of Journal of Applied Physiology About the Journal Information for Authors Submit a Manuscript Ethical Policies AuthorChoice PubMed Central Policy Reprints and Permissions Advertising Press Copyright © 2012 the American Physiological Society Print ISSN: 8750-7587 Online ISSN: 1522-1601 var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-2924550-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview();

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