How do running blades work

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Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. Subscribe Now You may cancel at any time. This has to do with the length of a running blade. Typically, running blades are longer than usual legs. If you imagine that a blade is quite springy, as soon as you put force through the blade, it compresses, making it much shorter.

Simply lengthening the blade can actually stop any back difficulties, stopping the runner from limping but it can make walking quite tricky. As a general rule, a blade which is designed for sprinting is generally longer than those designed for marathons due to the extra force exerted while sprinting. The other factor which makes running blades typically difficult to walk in is the bio-mechanics of walking.

Most humans walk with their heel hitting the floor first, followed by the rolling of the foot. Unfortunately, with those fancy trainers you just saved up to buy, you can only use one unless you find another amputee with the opposite foot or donate them.

My blade has fantastic grip on the bottom, which lasts me for almost 1, miles whereas other blades grips may only last a couple of hundred miles - but then you can easily swap them out for a spiked bottom, for track running…the options are almost endless! But how do you know which blade is best for you is a different question. Prosthetists the people who make the legs are always the best to go to first. They are likely to know you individually and what you are capable of or at least they have an idea.

Most centres will give you the opportunity to try a specific running blade for a few weeks to see if it suits your running style.

There was a discussion as to whether having two running blades offered him a competitive advantage over able-bodied runners. These things aren't perfect. They're super expensive, and the design is such that the athlete can't stand still for long while he or she has them on. But the success of Pistorius shows that science and technology is slowly coming up with the innovations necessary to erase the disparity between amputee and able-bodied athletes.

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In one video, world class sprinter Blake Leeper, born without legs, is leading the way. He is being called the fastest human on earth, and in Grabowski's lab was clocked at about 25 mph. She believes this is just the beginning, giving young sprinters around the world a chance to compete against the best in the world.

It's still to be decided if amputees like Leeper will be allowed to run in the Olympics in Tokyo. These ingenious "blade" prosthetics shied away from earlier heavy designs and focused on the mechanics of muscle movement. Their invention spurred an athletic renaissance in which amputees run competitive distances, climb mountains, and downhill ski.

Running blades were invented by American inventor Van Phillips, who lost his lower leg in a water- skiing accident in Depressed by the limited athletic function of prosthetics at the time, he enrolled as a student at Northwestern University Medical School's Prosthetic-Orthotic Center. He quickly recognized that while most prosthetics tried to mimic human bones, he could focus on replicating ligaments and tendons.

He came up with the idea for running blades by observing animals like kangaroos and cheetahs, as well as the mechanics of diving boards and pole vaulting. The result was Flex-Foot — his model of carbon fiber blade prosthetics and the name of his company.

His contribution to the history of prosthetic legs has inspired generations of athletic amputees. CARE: A prosthesis can be particularly subject to perspiration as it is enclosed in a plastic socket. This can be a source of odor and bacteria, as well as the culprit behind skin problems.