In her presentation entitled ‘Biomechanical characteristics of knee rehab exercises: A new approach for data-based exercise selection’, she will talk about the results of biomechanical parameters in connection with the selection and enhancement of rehabilitation exercises for the knee joint.
As part of a cross-sectional study within the MyReha-digital research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a joint project with partners from industry and the physiotherapy and biomechanics research laboratories, data was collected on the following exercises and everyday movements in healthy individuals: Walking, climbing stairs with/without handrails, sitting down and standing up with/without armrests, squatting, lower leg extension in a seated position, lunges, sagittal and ventral weight shifts, one-legged stance in three coordination levels, step up and step down.
The motion data was recorded using the markerless optical motion capture system ‘TheCaptury’ (Germany). The kinematic data was calculated and the kinetic data simulated using ‘AnyBody Technology’ (Denmark).
It was found that specific exercises such as lunges or squats as well as numerous activities of daily living place a high load on the knee joints in terms of joint kinematics, joint forces and muscle activity. Remarkably, activities of daily living, such as walking and climbing stairs, had comparatively high demands. In contrast, the requirements for balance shifts while standing or one-legged stance variations, for example, are low.
The present results mark progress towards a data-based selection of exercises and the development of customised rehabilitation programmes. They also illustrate the successful synergetic collaboration between researchers from our Biomechanics and Physiotherapy laboratories at the Regensburg Centre of Health Sciences and Technology (RCHST).
