Karl Zelik
1mo ago
I share research & insights on biomechanics, exoskeletons & wearable tech. Vanderbilt University Professor. HeroWear Co-Founder & Chief Scientist.
🚨 New publication: A Comparison of Ground Reaction Forces, Tibial Forces, and Clinician Perspectives on Tibial Bone Load During Common Rehabilitation Exercises
I've been loving this collaboration between our Vanderbilt lab and the University of Kentucky. Kudos to first author Dr. Meredith Owen on this latest scientific contribution.
🎯 Our overarching goal is to generate the knowledgebase and tools to reimagine and elevate the standard of care after tibial (shinbone) fracture surgery, or other lower-limb surgeries—by monitoring and managing bone forces in daily life.
In the process, we are also developing reference biomechanical data that can help inform how clinicians prescribe rehabilitation exercises post-surgery.
Here's the gist:
Optimal healing after a tibia fracture depends, in part, on getting the mechanical loading right. Too little loading may not provide enough stimulus for recovery, while too much may overload the healing bone.
We've been developing tools and techniques to better understand and monitor these bone forces—both in the lab and remotely during everyday life.
In this study, we measured estimated tibial bone forces during 16 common rehabilitation exercises. We then asked two practical questions:
👉 How well do ground reaction forces—the forces measured between the foot and the ground—reflect the forces actually experienced by the tibia?
👉 How closely do clinicians' expectations about which exercises load the tibia most match our biomechanical estimates?
The short answer: not as closely as you might expect.
The relationship between ground reaction force and tibial force varied across exercises. And clinicians' rankings of which exercises they expected to load the tibia most differed from the rankings based on our biomechanical estimates.
This study provides a reference dataset of estimated tibial forces across common rehabilitation exercises—another step toward more informed, quantitative approaches to prescribing and managing loading during recovery.
☝🏽 Why does this matter?
To appropriately progress rehabilitation, we need to know how much load different exercises actually place on the healing bone. Ground reaction forces and intuition don't always tell us that—highlighting the potential benefits of tools that can monitor loading on targeted bones and tissues inside the body. That's what we're working toward. 🚀
Check out the publication linked below. And if you're a clinician interested in these capabilities, drop me a note as we continue working toward clinical integration and translation.
#biomechanics #RehabilitationEngineering #wearables