Biomechanical assessments of the effect of visual feedback on cycling for patients with stroke

The Application of Cycling and Cycling Combined with Feedback in the Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients: A Review

“…The range of motion (ROM) in cycling is superior to that in walking; therefore, pedaling helps maintaining the functional range of motion of the lower limbs required to walk. 15 Furthermore, cycling is safe because balance is not a factor in seated pedaling. Thus, individuals do not experience too risky postural disturbances related to the initial stages of upright locomotor training.…”

“…Although the sample size has been small in the different studies, in some, it was higher than 20. 3,15,30,40,45,[47][48][49][50] Regarding the type of stroke, 3 studies 3,40,48 had ischemic stroke as inclusion criterion; the others considered the ischemic and hemorrhage types or did not provide information about the stroke type. Some studies divided the stroke patients into 2 groups-experimental and the control groups 3,7,30,40,45,[47][48][49][50] -that allowed a more reliable comparison of the applied cycling therapies.…”

“…Other studies 3,15,16,27,30,31,46,49 focused on cycling exercise metrics (Table 2), which include cycling speed, speed variability, power, workload, distance, and the duration of the exercise. In addition, specific measurements were performed to analyze the effects of the different training features on the patients' performance.…”

“…Different therapies have been used together with cycling leg exercise to improve cycling's potential as a rehabilitation method, such as limb-load cycling, 4,7 functional electrical stimulation (FES), [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and feedback. 7,[15][16][17][18][19] However, first, it is important to clarify several issues before the use of cycling as a rehabilitation method, such as the similarities and differences between cycling and walking, the advantages and limitations of cycling leg exercise when compared with walking on the rehabilitation of motor impairments, and the type of stroke patients, which may benefit from cycling therapies. Moreover, information about the type of purposes where cycling leg exercise can be used, the applied protocols as well as the tools used to assess the state and the recovery of patients, are important to analyze the potential of cycling as a rehabilitation method.…”

Effect of Pedal Training on Gait Speed in Children With Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy

“…Instead of that pedaling is a safe and effective mode of exercise that cause improvement in ambulation without enhancing the abnormal muscle activity, children with cerebral palsy finds some difficulties in regular cycling as a result of co-contraction of muscles and exhibits a muscle activity of a longer period than typically developed children [20]. In a study of stroke patient examined kinetics and kinematics of cycling it was found that visual feedback enhanced muscle power ,neuromuscular control , cycling smoothness and overall cycling performance which helped to learn more symmetrical activation of muscles [21].…”