New publication on muscle coordination re-training to reduce joint loads

Excessive loads at lower limb joints can lead to pain and degenerative diseases. Altering joint loads with muscle coordination retraining might help to treat or prevent clinical symptoms in a non-invasive way. Knowing how much muscle coordination retraining can reduce joint loads and which muscles have the biggest impact on joint loads is crucial for personalized gait retraining. We introduced a simulation framework to quantify the potential of muscle coordination retraining to reduce joint loads for an individuum. Furthermore, the proposed framework enables to pinpoint muscles, which alterations have the highest likelihood to reduce joint loads. The paper results from a fruitful collaboration between our research group (Hans Kainz, Willi Koller, and Elias Wallnöfer) and the Orthopedic Hospital Speising (Till Bader, Gabriel Mindler, and Andreas Kranzl). It has been published in Scientific Reports and can be freely accessed using the following link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53857-9