Owen Beck

😃 In a new article published in J Biomech, Thomas et al. show that the distal-to-proximal shift is neither a necessary nor sufficient mechanism for the greater cost of walking observed in older adults compared with young adults.

👀https://buff.ly/BTtBswZ

Hello world. One of my favorite fun facts to share about elephants…their trunks are covered in whiskers, with built-in intelligence! If that got your attention…check out our new paper in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Older woman wearing teal and pink headphones holding a pink water bottle outdoors in a sunny park.

Aging muscles and tendons are less efficient (anyone of a certain age knows that!). New research shows older adults use more energy for basic leg/joint movements than younger people. Read more in APS Publications Journal of Applied Physiology: https://ow.ly/OriN50Y0cCI #ArticlesInPress 🧪
📷: iStock

Older adults produce joint moments less economically than young adults | Journal of Applied Physiology | American Physiological Society Older adults expend more metabolic energy than young adults during walking (worse walking economy). Amid the numerous physiological changes that accompany advanced aging, the mechanisms governing the age-related decline in walking economy remain unestablished. Due to conflicting evidence, we studied whether older adults produce lower-limb joint moments less economically than young adults, independent of an age-related difference in muscle co activation. Eight older adults (71.6 ± 6.0 years) and 13 young adults (23.1 ± 4.7 years) repeatedly produced hip and ankle moment cycles on a dynamometer following visual feedback and an audible metronome. We instructed participants to produce moments with peak net torque values of 20 and 30 Nm at a 0.75 Hz cycle frequency and a 0.5 duty cycle. Overall, young and older adults did not co-activate their antagonist muscles differently during the moment production trials. At the hip, older adults expended more metabolic power than young adults despite producing lower moment amplitudes. At the ankle, older adults expended more metabolic power than young adults while producing non-different moment production cycles. Because older adults produced lower-limb joint moments less economically than young adults, interventions aimed at prolonging youthful walking economy into advanced age may need to directly address changing muscle-tendon unit physiology.

doi.org/10.1152/japp...

Functional Electrical Stimulation of the Soleus Redistributes Lower-Limb Joint Work Distally in Young and Older Adults | Journal of Applied Physiology | American Physiological Society Older adults walk with reduced ankle and greater hip mechanical output compared to young adults. This “distal-to-proximal redistribution” likely contributes to the greater metabolic energy expenditure during walking in older versus young adults. Due to the inverse relationship between ankle and hip use, functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the ankle extensors may increase ankle mechanical work and indirectly decrease hip mechanical work. Although FES increases stimulated muscle metabolism, bilateral soleus stimulation may restore more youthful walking kinetics without a detectable change in whole-body metabolism because ankle extension requires less metabolic energy than hip extension. Ten young adults and 10 older adults walked on a treadmill at 1.25 m/s with and without FES bilaterally applied over the respective leg’s soleus when the anterior-posterior ground reaction force exceeded +10% body weight. FES use altered walking mechanics and metabolic power similarly across age groups (all FES condition and age group interactions p≥0.214). Across age groups, FES increased ankle mechanical power (p=0.041) and redistributed mechanical work production to occur relatively more at the ankle and less at the hip (p=0.010). The lower-limb joint redistribution ratio of older adults walking with FES was not different to that of young adults during baseline (p=0.785). Moreover, walking with FES increased metabolic power by 2% (p=0.037). FES attenuated older adult distal-to proximal redistribution and modestly increased whole-body metabolic rate. Overall, FES applied to soleus muscles during walking affects users similarly across the lifespan, indicating that FES interventions ought to consider a person’s functional needs, regardless of age.

Functional Electrical Stimulation of the Soleus Redistributes Lower-Limb Joint Work Distally in Young and Older Adults

doi.org/10.1152/japp...

We're accepting applications for a *paid* research experience (including a stipend and housing) for undergraduate students over the summer, as part of the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) at the University of Utah. For more details and to apply: our.utah.edu/spur/explori...

The impact of mechanical requirements on the neural control of skeletal muscle and subsequent energetic rates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.04.692254v1

New from #JRSocInterface: Natural variability can increase human walking metabolic costs and its implications to simulation-based metabolic estimation: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #biomechanics

Limb lengthening: Slower Distraction Rates May Expedite Patient Joint Recovery

Publication: Journal of Applied Physiology
Articles in Press
doi.org/10.1152/japp...

Very excited about our new pre-print on an open-source package that I developed with some of my GT labmates!

Epically Powerful (EP) is a modular mechatronics infrastructure and open-source software package for building and operating wearable and general robotic systems.

arxiv.org/abs/2511.05033

wow, I'm proud of PhD student Jake Stephens' work with Tim Cope and me on understanding multi sensory proprioceptive integration on this work.

The Outside JEB Evolution icon depicting a phylogenetic tree with the banner 'Diversity' along the left side

In her Outside JEB article, Elina Barredo reports on Aguilar-Gómez et al.'s recent PNAS article showing that introducing pumas from Texas has given the Florida subspecies of pumas some needed genetic diversity without compromising their identity

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

The biomechanics of working dog locomotion I: Steady-state trotting Highlighted Article: Different working dog breeds exhibit specific differences in the biomechanics of steady-state trotting locomotion, suggesting that breed-specific considerations should be adopted ...

Read the two research articles at journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

biomch-l.isbweb.org/forum/biomch...

‘_Graveyard’

😃 In a new article published in J Biomech, Rose et al evaluates the impact of isolated restriction of ankle RoM on lower limb gait biomechanics in adults without ankle pathology, during treadmill walking at two different speeds

👀 buff.ly/IVJgbzh

Please repost. The School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan is seeking applications and nominations for our next Dean!

Click the "leadership profile" link on the careers page below for full details. And Go Blue!

The Human Loco Lab had a blast at #ASB2025!

How do nulliparous women lift infants? Come talk to me at Poster 77 to find out! 4 pm - Ballroom B/C at #ASB2025

#Biomechanics

List of presentations by UT Austin students and faculty at ASB2025

We’re bringing Longhorn research to #ASB2025! Check out the talks and posters from our amazing students and faculty in the UT Austin Department of Kinesiology and Health Education (see image for details) — come learn, connect, and cheer us on! 🤘🏾🧡

#Biomechanics

Useful links
Loco Lab: sites.edb.utexas.edu/hll/
MetaMobility Lab: metamobility.cmu.edu
Topic: reporter.nih.gov/search/LscP3...
Bats: www.austintexas.org/things-to-do...

#ASB2025

a man wearing a pink hat and sunglasses is saying i 'm very impressed ALT: a man wearing a pink hat and sunglasses is saying i 'm very impressed

Only 16 presentations this year?

Calling all biomechanists:

Come work with me at Texas Tech University!

tinyurl.com/2uuu5jhw

Last publication from my dissertation out now (www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....)

We increased foot arch spring stiffness in a simple, 2D computational model and examined rearfoot and non-rearfoot strike running. Increasing stiffness reduced arch energy storage/return in both, BUT... (1/2)

Fundamentals of Recovery, Regeneration, and Adaptation to Exercise Stress: An Integrated Approach This volume explores adaptation, recovery, and regeneration, including training foundations, and the issue of tissue damage during physical activity – from basic and applied science perspective, and c...

A book chapter we ( @hinksave.bsky.social ) wrote on Sarcomerogenesis and Function.

books.google.ca/books?hl=en&...

First postdoc publication online today in the Journal of Applied Physiology (@apspublishing.bsky.social)!

doi.org/10.1152/japp...

We used fascicle dynamics, ankle kinetics, and EMG to estimate soleus metabolic cost across walking speeds and footwear stiffnesses.

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