Traumatic cervical pathology is an injury that emerges due to trauma or being subjected to constant impact loading, affecting the ligaments, muscles, bones, and spinal cord. In contact sports (the practice of American football, karate, boxing, and motor sports, among others), the reporting of this type of injury is very common. Therefore, it is imperative to have preventive measures so players do not suffer from such injuries, since bad practices or accidents can put their lives at risk. This research evaluated cervical and skull biomechanical responses during a frontal impact, taking into consideration injury caused by wear on the intervertebral disc. Intervertebral disc wear is a degenerative condition that affects human mobility; it is common in people who practice contact sports and it can influence the response of the cervical system to an impact load. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the effects caused by impact loading and strains generated throughout the bone structure (composed of the skull and the cervical spine). The numerical evaluation was developed using the finite element method and the construction of the biomodel from computational axial tomography. In addition, the numerical simulation allowed us to observe how the intervertebral disc’s wear affected the cervical region’s biomechanical response. In addition, a comparison could be made between a healthy system and a disc that had suffered wear. Finally, the analysis provided information valuable to understanding how an impact, force-related injury can be affected and enabled us to propose better physiotherapeutic procedures.

This study presents a three-dimensional finite element (FE) analysis of the human foot bone structure under mid-stance loading during race walking. A subject-specific biomodel comprising 26 bones and over 40 ligaments was reconstructed from computed tomography (CT) data using Materialise Mimics Research 21.0 and 3-Matic Research 13.0, and subsequently analyzed in ANSYS Workbench 2024 R1. The model included explicit cortical, trabecular, and ligamentous volumes, each assigned linear-elastic, isotropic material properties based on biomechanical literature data. Boundary conditions simulated the mid-stance phase of race walking, applying a distributed plantar pressure of 0.25 MPa over the metatarsal and phalangeal regions. Numerical simulations yielded maximum total displacements of 0.00018 mm, maximum von Mises stresses of 0.171 MPa, and maximum strains of 2.5 × 10⁻⁵, all remaining well within the elastic range of bone tissue. The results confirm the model’s numerical stability, geometric fidelity, and capacity to represent physiologically realistic loading responses. The developed framework demonstrates the potential of high-resolution, image-based finite element modelling for investigating stress–strain patterns of the foot during athletic gait, and establishes a reproducible reference for future analyses involving pathological gait, orthotic optimisation, and musculoskeletal load assessment in sports biomechanics.

The main topic of this research work is essentially about what can happen to the spine when subjected to an axial load and the damage caused when the mechanical load capacity of the intervertebral discs is exceeded, giving the focus to the analysis by introducing it in the context of sports, in this case, weight lifting. The approach focuses on biomechanics, specifically how a weight affects the biological structure during a free squat. This common weightlifting exercise involves lowering the body into a seated position and then standing back up, with an Olympic bar supported on the T1 vertebra, with the purpose of creating an approach to understanding how the spine and intervertebral discs are directly affected. For this, a methodology is presented through which the model is obtained, its validation and the application of analysis through numerical simulation. Subsequently, the behaviour of the spinal column under pressure at different levels of force is observed and qualified. Various configurations of the spine were analysed, including the distribution of forces in the intervertebral discs and adjacent joints, using a 3D biomodel subjected to analysis in the finite element software ANSYS. The results show the effect that excessive forces can cause, giving way to injuries with a significant increase in pressure on the intervertebral discs, but mainly allowing the identification of critical areas where disc herniations can originate. This numerical simulation study seeks to prevent harmful conditions in the field of fitness by providing relevant information on possible spinal column injuries in loading scenarios, which could help in a better understanding and diagnosis of unexpected injuries.