A new test to improve the training quality of wheelchair racing athletes

Abstract

Study design: Validation of a new wheelchair racing test. Objective: To assess the reproducibility of test parameters at different, subjectively chosen, intensity levels in wheelchair racing athletes. Setting: Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil, Switzerland. Subjects: We tested 11 (eight male, three female) young competitive wheelchair racing athletes. Their age was 20.576.4 years, height 164.7716.3 cm and weight 54.179.2 kg. Average weekly training time was 6.872.7 h. All had been engaged in regular training for over 3.972.8 years.Methods: Within a period of 371 days, every athlete completed two identical tests in their own racing chair on a training roller. The tests consisted of five 1500 m bouts at routine training intensities of 1 (warm-up) up to 5 (race speed), with a rest of 2 min between each bout. The athletes were blinded to all the collected data during the whole of the test, except for indications of the 500, 1000 and 1500 m markers. We measured the overall time (for 1500 m), average speed, stroke frequency, heart rate, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and the concentration of lactic acid for all five intensity bouts. In order to get a measure on how reproducible these intensity levels were, we compared the two tests of each athlete with each other, and calculated the rootmean-squared coefficients of variation (CV) for all measured parameters during every bout. Results: CVs of the measured data show that the most reproducible values were found for bout 5 (2.6-7.9%); except for the lactic acid parameter. The heart rate (CV: 3.1-6.4%) and stroke frequency (CV: 6.5-7.9%) parameters reached rather constant values throughout all five bouts. Lactic acid concentrations showed very high CVs (16.8-29.7%). Conclusion: We conclude that this test is, with the exception of the lactic acid measurements, well reproducible, and particularly suitable for young wheelchair athletes. We find it to be a helpful tool for improving awareness for the individual training intensities, and for pursuing the development of the training process, as particularly the high-intensity bouts are well reproducible.

Differentiated Perceived Exertion and Self-Regulated Wheelchair Exercise

“…8,9 The ratings of perceived exertion have previously been employed for the prescription and self-regulation of exercise intensity across a range of exercise modalities, including treadmill exercise, cycling, arm-cranking, handcycling and wheelchair propulsion. [10][11][12][13][14] Muller et al…”

“…16 It is recognised that the reliability of exercise intensity is improved with mode-specific familiarisation during low and moderate-intensity, selfregulated exercise guided by the overall RPE. 12,14 However, the prescription and selfregulation of exercise may be enhanced in novice wheelchair users by using an RPE specific to the peripheral exertional signals experienced during hand-rim propulsion.…”

Reliability and Validity of Subjective Measures of Aerobic Intensity in Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review

“…Third, there is no evidence of measures other than overall RPE 6‐20 specifically assessing the test‐retest reliability of an aerobic exercise bout in accordance with appropriate designs (Table 1). Although reliability studies were identified for other subjective intensity measures [40,62], these did not use a study design eligible for evaluating subjective intensity during aerobic exercise (Table 1). For example, acceptable test‐retest reliability has been found in an adequately powered study regarding the intensity classification chart of the PARA‐SCI [40].…”

“…However, because the PARA‐SCI is a self‐report measure of overall PA and leisure‐time PA [40], the test‐retest protocol for the intensity classification chart involved recalling the intensity of activities, rather than reporting the intensities of aerobic exercise bouts as they occurred. Another study indicated acceptable reliability for a subjective measure to assess wheelchair racing intensity, but it was ineligible for this review because more than 50% of participants had disabilities other than SCI [62]. Finally, quality could be improved by applying standard reporting criteria based on Table 1 and the COSMIN checklist (Supplement 2); examples would be improved reporting of statistical methods, how missing data were handled, and provision of individual data to allow additional analyses by others, if necessary.…”

Gender differences in wheelchair marathon performance – Oita International Wheelchair Marathon from 1983 to 2011

“…It has already been shown that from the first existence of an endurance event, it takes about one decade for elite able-bodied athletes to reach a more stable level of performance 25. There is no doubt that improvement in wheelchair technology and training methods during the 1980s and 1990s have contributed to the decrease in wheelchair marathon times since 1983 10–15,26. Racing strategies such as drafting techniques (ie, cycling directly behind a competitor) may also help to improve performance 27…”