Metabolic cost of walking: equation and model

Abstract

Twenty years of published experience with the Workman-Armstrong equation for predicting walking VO2 is reviewed. The equation is reexpressed in currently accepted terminology, and it is shown that the equation serves well as a basic model of normal walking. Employing this model to analyze VO2/step leads to the elaboration of a three-compartment model of the metabolic cost of walking. This three-compartment model provides a rational estimate of the fraction of walking's metabolic cost that powers the actual walking movement. Doubt is expressed that “comfortable speed of walking” is definable in energy terms. It is suggested that the requirements of maintaining balance while walking may determine both the comfortable speed of walking and the curvilinearity of the relationship between ground-speed and freely chosen step frequency of walking.