Is angular momentum in the horizontal plane during gait a controlled variable? Valerie Thielemans a , Pieter Meyns a , Sjoerd M. Bruijn a,b,c,⇑ a Department of Kinesiology, KU Leuven, Belgium b Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, PR China c MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands article info Article history: Available online xxxx PsycINFO classification: 2330 Keywords: Angular momentum Arm swing Gait analysis Interlimb coordination Load abstract It has been suggested that angular momentum in the horizontal plane during human gait is controlled (i.e., kept minimal). However, this has not been explored in conditions when angular momentum of different segments is manipulated explicitly. In order to examine the behavior of angular momentum, 12 partici- pants walked in 17 conditions in which angular momentum of either the arms or legs was manipulated. Subjects walked at differ- ent step lengths, different speeds and with an additional weight on either the wrist or ankle. Angular momentum of total body, arms and legs was calculated from gait kinematics. Increasing step length increased total body and leg angular momentum. When weight was added to the limbs, arm and leg angular momentum were affected and counteracted each other, so that total body angular momentum did not change. Moreover, increasing walking speed increased arm, leg and total body angular momentum. Thus, it may be concluded that if angular momentum is controlled (which only seems to be the case for conditions when weights are added), it is not strictly controlled in all gait conditions (as it may increase by walking faster/with larger steps). Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2014.03.003 0167-9457/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, NL-1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 618844777. E-mail address: s.m.bruijn@gmail.com (S.M. Bruijn). URL: https://sites.google.com/site/smbruijn/ (S.M. Bruijn). Human Movement Science xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Human Movement Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/humov Please cite this article in press as: Thielemans, V., et al. Is angular momentum in the horizontal plane during gait a controlled variable? Human Movement Science (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2014.03.003