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. 2017 Jul:56:129-133.
doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.05.015. Epub 2017 May 17.

The influence of continuous versus interval walking exercise on knee joint loading and pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Shawn Farrokhi  1 , Prakash Jayabalan  2 , Jonathan A Gustafson  3 , Brian A Klatt  4 , Gwendolyn A Sowa  5 , Sara R Piva  6
Affiliations

The influence of continuous versus interval walking exercise on knee joint loading and pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Shawn Farrokhi et al. Gait Posture. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate whether knee contact force and knee pain are different between continuous and interval walking exercise in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Twenty seven patients with unilateral symptomatic knee OA completed two separate walking exercise sessions on a treadmill at 1.3m/s on two different days: 1) a continuous 45min walking exercise session, and 2) three 15min bouts of walking exercise separated by 1h rest periods for a total of 45min of exercise in an interval format. Estimated knee contact forces using the OpenSim software and knee pain were evaluated at baseline (1st minute of walking) and after every 15min between the continuous and interval walking conditions.

Results: A significant increase from baseline was observed in peak knee contact force during the weight-acceptance phase of gait after 30 and 45min of walking, irrespective of the walking exercise condition. Additionally, whereas continuous walking resulted in an increase in knee pain, interval walking did not lead to increased knee pain.

Conclusion: Walking exercise durations of 30min or greater may lead to undesirable knee joint loading in patients with knee OA, while performing the same volume of exercise in multiple bouts as opposed to one continuous bout may be beneficial for limiting knee pain.

Keywords: Exercise; Joint loading; Knee osteoarthritis; Pain; Walking.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None of the authors of this manuscript “The Influence of Continuous Versus Interval Walking Exercise on Joint Loading and Self-Reported Pain in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis” have any conflicts of interest. In addition, the study sponsors had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or writing of this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A representative mean knee contact force (KCF) profile during the stance phase of gait with two peaks during the weight acceptance and late stance phases of the gait cycle.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Box plots representing changes in numerical pain rating scale (NPRS) scores over time during the continuous and interval walking exercise conditions. Scores are presented as medians; the ends of the boxes define the 25th and 75th percentiles. * Denotes statistically significant difference from the baseline. † Denotes statistically significant difference from the 15-minute walking time point.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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