Design of swimming fins to treat Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome

This thesis project involves developing a pair of swimming fins to strengthen the Vastus Medialis, or inner quadriceps muscle, to help patients with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. Configurations of mock up fins, made from Lexan, were designed based off of a known dry land exercise that consisted of leg lifts with the feet turned out 45 degrees that work the Vastus Medialis. From the feedback of a swimmer, new design iterations were made to compensate for how a person's body moves in the water as opposed to on land. An optimal design was chosen based off of testing.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Tsai, Helen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alexander H. Slocum.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40939

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40939