Walking Before and During a Sea Voyage

Abstract

Stationary and moving surfaces impose different constraints on walking. In this study we investigated within-participants differences between walking on a ship before (at the dock) and during (at sea) a sea voyage. Four individuals participated in the study. While on the ship they wore a tri-axial accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X+; ActiGraph LLC, Pensacola, FL) on their waists. Activity data were sampled at 30 Hz. Data were collected on the day before the voyage began and on several days at sea. The number of steps per day was greater at the dock than at sea. The net resultant force per day also was greater at the dock than at sea. However, resultant force per step was greater at sea (79.97 ± 8.50 vector magnitude counts/step) than on land (62.94 ± 10.03 vector magnitude counts/step). In addition, we observed variations in resultant force per step across days at sea. Ship motion decreased overall activity but increased the force per step.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Professor Zan Gao, who generously allowed us to use ActiGraph devices from his laboratory. We also thank Captain Russell DeVaney and the crew of the R/V Thomas G. Thompson and Bill Rall, Port Captain at the University of Washington.

Notes

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/heco.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a Grant in Aid of Research from the University of Minnesota.