Figure 10. Relationship between change in metabolic power (relative to walking with preferred step lengths) and step length asymmetry.
The absolute value of step length asymmetry plotted against the difference in metabolic power from preferred when at least one leg is constrained to be either short or long in Experiment 1. A quadratic fit predicts an absolute asymmetry value of approximately 0.22 as the most economical when one leg is constrained to be short or long. Values for the choice trials are made larger to highlight the patterns that participants adopted when one leg was allowed to move freely while the other was constrained.