Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Academic Program

Kinesiology BS

Department

Kinesiology

First Advisor

Tanner Thorsen, Ph.D.

Advisor Department

Human Performance and Recreation; Kinesiology

Abstract

Advancements in wearable technology have allowed clinicians, coaches, and researchers the ability to observe and quantify human movement outside the laboratory. Instrumented insoles are an example of novel technology that can be worn in the shoes and measure vertical reaction force wirelessly. The use of such insoles will prove to be beneficial for athletes as they train, patients as they progress through rehabilitation, and researchers as they experiment in their respective fields. The Loadsol Pro (Novel Inc., St Paul., MN, USA) has been shown to produce accurate and reliable measures of ground reaction forces (GRF) in various dynamic activities including walking, running, and landing. However, the insoles have yet to be validated during bouts of stationary cycling. The standard for measuring forces during cycling is through instrumented bike pedals, yet such technology is costly, difficult to obtain, and requires extensive training. The purpose of the current study was to analyze the validity of the Loadsol Pro insole for pedal reaction force (PRF) measurements during stationary cycling. A total of 18 healthy subjects (age: 20.94 ± 2.24 years, weight: 72.4 ± 23.32 kg, height: 1.67 ± 0.06 m, body mass index: 25.72 ± 7.57 kg/m2) participated in the study. The Loadsol Pro insoles (200 Hz) and custom instrumented bike pedals (1200 Hz) were used to collect PRF data during bouts of stationary cycling at 50 W, 75 W, and 100 W. A paired samples t-test was performed to observe the agreement between both measurement systems and Cohen’s d effect size was calculated to indicate the effect of the observed differences. The paired samples t-test resulted in no statistically significant differences in peak PRF measured by the Loadsol and the instrumented pedals. Cohen’s d effect size resulted in small effect sizes between the Loadsol PRF and pedal PRF. Across all conditions, mean differences between the Loadsol PRF and pedal PRF were calculated to be less than 6 N with marginal errors under 4%. Thus, the Loadsol can be used to accurately measure peak PRF forces across work rates during stationary cycling. The introduction of the Loadsol to stationary cycling will provide easier access to data that is influential for health and in rehabilitative advances, and representative of athletic performance.

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