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Assessing the Impact of Aerobic Fitness on Gait

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Handbook of Human Motion

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Abstract

Children with cerebral palsy often develop walking problems, like reduced walking distance, or early fatigue during walking. These problems are primarily caused by motor impairments that lead to gait deviations and increased energy demands of walking which reduce activities in daily life. As a consequence, physical inactivity and low fitness are frequent in this population. The combination of an increased energy demand of walking and reduced aerobic fitness brings about high levels of physical strain of walking. Maintaining adequate (aerobic) fitness levels by physical training is therefore important in children with high energy demands of walking as this keeps up their metabolic reserve and reduces fatigue-related walking problems and inactivity. Exercise testing is applied to measure the energy demands of walking and aerobic fitness, guiding whether treatment should focus on reducing energy cost, increasing fitness, or both. Testing is especially indicated when walking problems and physical activity-related fatigue are reported. To improve aerobic fitness in deconditioned children, training of sufficient frequency, intensity and duration is required, preferably combined with specific functional exercises.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Annet Dallmeijer, Astrid Balemans & Eline Bolster

  2. Brain Center Rudolf Magnus and Center of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Astrid Balemans

  3. De Hoogstraat Rehabilitation, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Astrid Balemans

Authors
  1. Annet Dallmeijer
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  2. Astrid Balemans
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  3. Eline Bolster
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annet Dallmeijer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Motion & More, Barcelona, Spain

    Bertram Müller

  2. Klinik für Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgi, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian I. Wolf

  3. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brueggemann

  4. Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  5. ACRISP, FedUniversity, Cremorne, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh

  6. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  7. Research, C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, USA

    William Scott Selbie

Section Editor information

  1. duPont Hospital for Children, Box 269, 19899, Wilmington, DE, USA

    Freeman Miller

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Dallmeijer, A., Balemans, A., Bolster, E. (2017). Assessing the Impact of Aerobic Fitness on Gait. In: Müller, B., et al. Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_40-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30808-1_40-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30808-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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