Srikant Vallabhajosula

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Elon University

National Biomechanics Day (NBD) is an educational outreach event aimed at raising awareness of the field of biomechanics among high school students. NBD celebrations growing internationally acted as a catalyst for us to conduct the event in India, where STEM-based education is emphasized. With a truly global collaborative effort and perhaps histori...

Lower body tracking and user experience analysis are ongoing challenges in immersive technologies and biomechanics research, respectively. Particularly, in immersive technologies like mixed reality, there are limited research applications in user comfort and experience, and locomotion. In this paper, we aimed to conduct a cross-disciplinary researc...

Questions: What are comfortable gait speed values for apparently healthy adults? How do these differ by age group, sex and geographical region? Design: Systematic review of observational studies with meta-analysis. Participants: Apparently healthy, community-dwelling adults who have undergone measurement of comfortable gait speed. Search meth...

Context: Upper-extremity (UE) pain is a concern among softball adolescent athletes. However, research on preseason screening of demographic characteristics and clinical measures among those with and without UE pain among adolescent softball athletes is underreported. This study sought to present functional outcomes and clinical measures of shoulde...

Background: The clinimetric properties of the Wheelchair Propulsion Test (WPT) have not been developed thoroughly. Objective: To determine inter-rater reliability and reference values for the Wheelchair Propulsion Test (WPT) for active wheelchair users and to compare WPT performance between various types of manual wheelchairs at different paces....

Background Women are running as soon as 8 weeks postpartum and there is currently little understanding of the effects of pregnancy and childbirth on the postpartum runner (PPR). Pregnancy-related musculoskeletal and physiological changes could impact running gait postpartum. Objective The purpose of the current study was to investigate differences...

Background: Overuse injury is a common stressor experienced by female collegiate athletes and is often underreported. In response, athletes may develop negative coping skills such as substance use. Alternatively, resilience is a modifiable trait that may positively influence response to musculoskeletal injuries and substance use. Purpose: To pro...

Purpose: The authors examine whether community-dwelling older adults at high fall risk have lower backward walking speed reserve (WSR) than their healthy counterparts. Method: Twenty-one healthy older adults and 20 older adults at high fall risk performed five trials of forward walking at a self-selected and maximal pace. In addition, all participa...

Background Flourishing is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses physical, psychological and social well-being. A proposed positive attribute of flourishing is resilience, which is the ability to bounce back despite the presence of stressors. A common stressor among athletes is overuse injuries, which may negatively affect well-being. Obje...

Background and purpose: Older adults who live independently in the community are higher functioning and routinely ambulate in the community. Unrestricted community ambulation increases the likelihood of encountering precarious situations challenging balance. Sufficient dynamic balance is necessary to avoid falls. Currently used balance and mobilit...

To inform the development of bone-specific physical activity (PA) assessment methods and contribute to bone-specific PA guidelines, accelerometer outcomes that provide the most valid estimates of skeletal loading in adults must be identified. Purpose: The aims of this project were two-fold. First, to assess the concurrent validity of raw accelerome...

Objectives: To begin to establish normative data for shoulder range of motion (ROM) and strength in the circus acrobats and to compare these values based on age, sex, hand dominance, and acrobatic subgroup. Methods: Active (AROM) and passive (PROM) of the full shoulder complex and PROM of the isolated glenohumeral joint were measured in 193 circ...

Background: Although athletic endeavours are associated with a high amount of physical stress and injury, the prevalence of pain is underreported in the sports medicine literature with only a few studies reporting pain on collegiate athletes or exploring sex difference of pain. Impact of pain on athlete availability, training and performance can b...

Background: Although athletic endeavours are associated with a high amount of physical stress and injury, the prevalence of pain is underreported in the sports medicine literature with only a few studies reporting pain on collegiate athletes or exploring sex difference of pain. Impact of pain on athlete availability, training and performance can be...

Background Although athletic endeavours are associated with a high amount of physical stress and injury, the prevalence of pain is underreported in the sports medicine literature with only a few studies reporting pain on collegiate athletes or exploring sex difference of pain. Impact of pain on athlete availability, training and performance can be...

Context: Though previous research has focused on examining the effects of concussion history using a dual-task paradigm, the influence of factors like symptoms (unrelated to concussion), gender, and type of sport on gait in college athletes is unknown. Objective: To examine the effect of concussion history, symptoms, gender, and type of sport (n...

Background: Decreased muscular strength and poorer postural stability impact the physical function of breast cancer survivors (BCS) and increases their risk of falls. Gait assessment, particularly in the backward direction, is often used as an indicator of fall risk in several populations. However this information is unknown in BCS. Research ques...

Background: Motor imagery (MI) is a mental technique, absent of physical movement, to foster movement patterns and relieve pain via a training model enacting the brain before the body. This case study assessed MI’s efficacy in decreasing phantom limb pain and attaining functional gait and balance after lower extremity amputation. Description: The p...

Context: Sports often involve complex movement patterns, such as turning. Although cognitive load effects on gait patterns are well known, little is known on how it affects biomechanics of turning gait among athletes. Such information could help evaluate how concussion affects turning gait required for daily living and sports. Objective: To dete...

The present study tested if the quadratic relationship which exists between stepping frequency and gait dynamics in walking can be generalized to stairmill climbing. To accomplish this, we investigated the joint angle dynamics and variability during continuous stairmill climbing at stepping frequencies both above and below the preferred stepping fr...

The Lower Quarter Y-Balance Test (LQ-YBT), a measure of dynamic balance used in young adults, has not been adequately studied in older women. We determined the reliability, normative values, and relationships to other balance measures for LQ-YBT in women aged 50-79 years. Interrater reliability was strong, and test-retest reliability was moderate t...

Background: Aging and Parkinson's disease are often associated with impaired postural control. Providing extrinsic feedback via vibrotactile sensation could supplement intrinsic feedback to maintain postural control. Research question: We investigated the postural control response to vibrotactile feedback provided at the trunk during challenging...

Supervised balance training shows immediate benefit for older adults at fall risk. The long-term effectiveness of such training can be enhanced by implementing a safe and simple home exercise program (HEP). We investigated the effects of a12-week unsupervised HEP following supervised clinic-based balance training on functional mobility, balance, fa...

Background and purpose: Previous studies have shown that older adults at high fall risk exhibit altered spatiotemporal gait parameters such as lesser gait speed, shorter step length, and greater step width compared with their healthy counterparts. Measurement of these gait parameters for older adults can play a pivotal role in clinical evaluation....

Study Design Cross-sectional. Objectives To determine the accuracy of athlete single leg test on the Biodex balance system (BBS) and Y-balance test in distinguishing individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI) from healthy controls. Background Lateral ankle sprains are common orthopaedic injuries that often result in chronic ankle instabilit...

Study Design Cross-sectional. Objectives To investigate the relationship between subjective measures of function and quality of life, and objective measures of balance in individuals with Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI). Background CAI results due to an inadequately healed ankle sprain, and may impact the individual’s balance and quality of life....

It has been shown that statistical persistence in stride intervals characteristics exist during walking, running and cycling and were speed-dependent among healthy young adults. The purpose of this study was to determine if such statistical persistence in stride time interval, stride length and stride speed also exists during self-paced continuous...

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) commonly impairs posture, gait, and cognition. Exercise in the form of aerobic activity as well as exergaming may improve motor ability and cognition in persons with PD. Exergaming and treadmill training can be a practical form of exercise within the home; however, there is minimal research on this combined mul...

Lateral ankle sprains are common orthopedic injuries and often result in chronic ankle instability (CAI). Studies have shown that the CAI population typically has decreased ankle proprioception and possibly a greater reliance on visual feedback when compared to healthy controls. However, little is known about how the postural control characteristic...

Background: This study examined the effects of balance training routine, using both sides utilized balance trainer (BOSU) and aerobic step (STEP) on postural sway and functional ability in middle-aged women. Methods: Twenty-seven females participated in the study, age 40.6 ± 12.0 years, body mass 72.0 ± 14.0 kg, height 164.0 ± 7.7 cm, BMI 26.5 ±...

Gait impairments have been documented following sport-related concussion. Whether pre-existing gait pattern differences exist among athletes who participate in different sport classifications, however, remains unclear. Dual-task gait examinations probe the simultaneous performance of everyday tasks (i.e. walking and thinking), and can quantify gait...

Objective: With an increasing rate of childhood obesity, it is critical to find fun and effective ways of providing children with opportunities to be physically active while at school to mediate this outcome. Using games as a mode of exercise (Exergaming) could be one such way. We aimed to compare the physiologic response and enjoyment of elementar...

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system. Compared to healthy individuals, persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) have increased postural sway in quiet stance, decreased gait speed and increased fall incidence. Trunk performance has been implicated in postural control, gait dysfunction, and...

Background: A history of 3 or more concussions is frequently associated with numerous short- and long-term neuropathologies. Impairments in postural control are a known acute consequence of concussion; however, limited evidence exists on the effects of multiple concussions on gait. The purpose of this study was to assess gait stepping characterist...

Background: Concussions have been associated with deficits in balance and postural stability. Subjects sustaining mild to moderate head injuries showed an increase in inhibition of the primary motor cortex which has been associated with sensorimotor organization and movement execution changes.

Stair-climbing while doing a concurrent task like talking or holding an object is a common activity of daily living which poses high risk for falls. While biomechanical analyses of overground walking during dual-tasking have been studied extensively, little is known on the biomechanics of stair-climbing while dual-tasking. We sought to determine th...

Concussions are occurring at alarming rates in the United States and have become a serious public health concern. The CDC estimates that 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur in sports and recreational activities annually. Concussion as defined by the 2013 Concussion Consensus Statement "may be caused either by a direct blow to the head, face, neck...