[Q] Arm Swinging in Human Walking

oh..there are some papers about natural arm swing motion

I am in the recovery mode from a very badly dislocated shoulder. For 4 months the arm was paralyzed with no voluntary movement. All new movement has been started and reinforced by conscious thought and manually moving the arm to get it to know it can do that motion.

The arm swings naturally now, it did not before. Every muscle has required retraining to perform it's natural function. Still working on some things that are not right yet.

In conclusion in my most honest opinion formed through this experience, our movements when walking are created partially by our need to be balanced, and movements we do just because we can.

i would say too . . .

the key here is balance. . .

Borrow you little sisters rag doll and play with it.
Anything approaching a natural gait will result in arm swinging, I think it's just a natural product of the sideways rocking and twisting motion of walking.

It certainly isn't conscious, but I think it adds to balance either provides, or is a reaction to the forces applied by the legs.

I find that my front right paw moves in or out of sync with my rear left leg depending on whether I'm stalking, bounding, running, or doing rolling around.

Maybe your need to look at primates in general or how us quadrupeds move.

Del

heck, maybe try walking with your arms rigid.

How about a natural reaction to when our ancestors walked on all fours. Which aided them in maintaining their balance when they went to two legs and it stuck.

They ones that swung their arms back against their forward momentum got caught and were ate.

You need to do the airborne shuffle, jogging with your hands held rigidly at your sides. It's a lot more work than when you allow your arms to swing.

Why is it that in the armed services when you are taught to march the arm swing is the opposite to normal motion...

That is the left arm swings forward together with the left leg, which is arse about face!!!

I think

Why is it that in the armed services when you are taught to march the arm swing is the opposite to normal motion...

because it makes them good little soldiers?

Way back in ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Program), we were taught (in learning how to march) to let our arms swing naturally. So here I stand at attention... saying to myself "How do my arms swing naturally... Sir?? I had never thought about it before..." Well... I decided to do what everyone else did. I guess it worked.

If we look at quadrapeds... they typically run with LR and RF then LF and RR if walking (or running). but if they are funning they pounce LF and RF then LR and RR.

Now camels are different.They run Left side and Right side... which can make one sea sick... but that is another _barf.

defs:

LF left front

LR left rear

RF right front

RR right rear

Ponder the following:

• Connection with arboreal locomotion.
• Similarity, if any, with quadrupedal walking (and crawling) locomotion.
• Restriction of arm swing when running.
• Muscular contraction-relaxation phases of arm swing.
• Compensation of leg swing stepping or push-off effort in bipedal walking locomotion.
• (How were ancient Olympian athletes able to register running jump distances amounting to multiples of modern distance records?)
• Is it really about balance/counterbalance?

"(How were ancient Olympian athletes able to register running jump distances amounting to multiples of modern distance records?)"

This one may have a simple answer - the measurements were in different units that don't correspond directly to modern feet, yards, and meters. How long is a cubit? Is that a Babylonian cubit, or an Egyptian cubit? Do we have good enough translations to be SURE of the answers?

See whether desmond morris's "man watching" gives any help.

In The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge, M.D., there's a marvelous discussion relevant to free movement of body parts in Chapter 5, "Midnight Resurrections," about helping stroke victims recover movement in their limbs based on the experiments of once-maligned and almost ruined research scientist Dr. Edward Taub.

I was particularly fascinated by his discussion of "learned nonuse" whereby "Without positive reinforcement, the animal gives up....And thus the motor map for the [affected] arm--which includes programs for common arm movements--begins to weaken and atrophy, according to the plasticity principle of use it or lose it." I wondered in how many contexts and of how many of our innate abilities, far beyond motor control of a damaged limb, might this be true.

Also, this link about the evolution of robots has some engaging "arm" movements:

http://www.archive.org/details/sims_evolved_virtual_creatures_1994

Cheers, AT

An accurate fact if I have ever seen one.

As the inactivity became total for my arm, it went from just useless to painfull in all movements (manual placement of the useless arm here or there). The decrease in pain and restored usefulness of the arm came after manually retraining it to do what it is supposed to do. (use the good arm to move the damaged one) I started at 2% nerve activity and now the arm is up to 40%. I am expecting a full 100% recovery, because I am the dedicated sort, and will hardly settle for anything less.

Looking at body mechanics one has to exagerate the cause and effect to see the reason.

In other words, if you run, you move your arms to counter act the rotational effect of push versus pull. So, when we push off with our left foot the right arm is reaching forward, in an expansion movement while at the same time the the left is pulling backward. As the rocking motion of the left arm contracts it pulls the right side forward adding force to the act. When we walk all is much more subtle but the reason remains the same. (Watch a sprinter when they take off)

For every action their is an equal and opposite reaction.

Pay attention to the track and field events during the upoming Olympic Games. Notice how the sprinters, hurdlers, and distance runners swing their arms. Compare and contrast that with the arm movement of the high and long jumpers. Notice how the pole vaulters are restricted by the pole, but exhibit some of both runners' and jumpers' motions. (Hint: When both feet are in forward motion (as in jumping) the arms go with them.)