Citation

Vasiliadis A, Christoulas K, Evaggelinou C, Vrabas I. Int. J. Spec. Educ. 2009; 24(3): 70-77.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Centre for Human Development and Research)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiological adaptations in cardio respiratory endurance with a personalized exercise program with arm-cranking exercise in a paraplegic person (incomplete T12 spinal cord injury). A 32 year-old man with spinal cord injury (T12) participated in the present study performing 30 minutes arm cranking ergometry three times per week, for 12 weeks. Prior, during and after the training intervention, six maximal arm cranking exercise tests were performed on a Monark ergometer with the subject seated in his own wheelchair. Cardio respiratory and metabolic values were recorded during the exercise tests, and blood lactate concentration was measured after each test. A four-minute sub-maximal workload was selected to achieve cardio respiratory steady state, in order to evaluate sub-maximal performance. The peak oxygen uptake improved from 17.7 to 23 ml/min/kg for the arm-cranking test. Peak ventilation and maximal heart rate were higher at the end of the training program. The most impressive observation was a gradual increase during the six exercise tests in peak work rate from 10 to 40 Watt, and in total test time from 433 to 1024 sec. Finally, measurements at sub-maximal performance revealed lower oxygen consumption and decreased heart rate frequencies at the end of training intervention. The findings of this study showed that an individualized training program can motivate spinal cord injured persons to start exercising, and gain advantage from improvements to sub-maximal and maximal performance.

Language: en