Synergistic interaction between ankle and knee during hopping revealed through induced acceleration analysis

The forces produced by the muscles can deliver energy to a target segment they are not attached to, by transferring this energy throughout the other segments in the chain. This is a synergistic way of functioning, which allows muscles to accelerate or decelerate segments in order to reach the target one. The purpose of this study was to characterize the contribution of each lower extremity joint to the vertical acceleration of the body's center of mass during a hopping exercise. To accomplish this, an induced acceleration analysis was performed using a model with eight segments. The results indicate that the strategies produced during a hopping exercise rely on the synergy between the knee and ankle joints, with most of the vertical acceleration being produced by the knee extensors, while the ankle plantar flexors act as stabilizers of the foot. This synergy between the ankle and the knee is perhaps a mechanism that allows the transfer of power from the knee muscles to the ground, and we believe that in this particular task the net action of the foot and ankle moments is to produce a stable foot with little overall acceleration.