ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Biomechanics and Control of Human Movement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1553995
This article is part of the Research TopicNeuromuscular and Biomechanical Alterations in Chronic Ankle InstabilityView all 5 articles
Ankle sprain history and clinical outcome have limited influence on walking and running biomechanics among runners: A cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
- Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is prevalent among runners, with many developing chronic ankle instability (CAI). While CAI is associated with many motor-behavioral, sensory-perceptual, and pathomechanical factors, its impact on gait biomechanics remains unclear. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess gait biomechanics and other factors contributing to CAI in runners. Seventy participants (47 men and 23 women) were categorized as healthy (n = 24), acute LAS (n = 17), CAI (n = 16) and copers (n = 13). Walking and running spatiotemporal, kinetic and kinematic parameters were collected on an instrumented treadmill. Rehabilitation-oriented assessment outcomes were also assessed. One-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis tests were used, along with their corresponding posthoc tests. Effect sizes (g or r according to normality) were reported. Runners with CAI and acute LAS reported significantly greater perceived instability (r = 0.68 to 0.86) and worse self-reported function (r = 0.47 to 0.67) than healthy controls and copers. However, running biomechanics did not differ between groups, suggesting that traditional biomechanical assessments at comfortable speeds may not be sensitive to functional deficits in CAI. A notable finding was the lower mechanical work recovery during walking in copers compared to healthy controls (g = 0.98). These results highlight the importance of considering self-reported function and perceived instability when assessing LAS and CAI. The absence of gross running gait alterations suggests that rehabilitation could safely integrate running early in recovery. However, more demanding tasks or advanced biomechanical modeling techniques may be needed to identify residual gait impairments.
Keywords: Chronic ankle instability, Coper, Locomotion, Gait, Biomechanical Phenomena, Ground reaction force, perceived instability, Self-reported function
Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Peters-Dickie, Detrembleur, Bertrand, Detrembleur and Nguyen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jean-Louis Peters-Dickie, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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