Effect of aerobic training on ventilatory muscle endurance of spinal cord injured men

Abstract

The functional consequences of ventilatory muscle impairment of spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects has been evaluated through spirometric and maximal respiratory pressure tests. Nevertheless, underlying functional abnormalities may be evident only under dynamic conditions, such as with a ventilatory muscle endurance test (VME). In order to evaluate the VME of thoracic SCI men and the e ect of physical training on it we evaluated 12 SCI subjects (Group I) and 12 able-bodied controls (Group II). The subjects were submitted to clinical evaluation, spirometry, maximum voluntary ventilation in 12 s (MVV-12sec) and a test of VME ± the highest time of sustained ventilation at 70% of the maximum voluntary ventilation in isocapnic conditions (MVV-70% time). Gr. II was evaluated before and after an arm cranking aerobic training program (30 min/session, three times/week, 6 weeks) with training target heart rate corresponding to ventilatory anaerobic threshold. On the initial evaluation, Gr. I subjects presented a signi®cantly reduced forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) and MVV-12 sec when compared to controls (P50.05). Also, the VME was severely reduced in Group I (median, ranges; 1.15, 0.61 ± 12.22) when compared to Group II (14.60, 1.20 ± 15.00) ± P50.001. When Gr. I subjects were separated by the level of lesion, the VME was lower in high injured (T1 ± T7) than intermediate (T8 ± T10) and low injured patients (T11 ± T12) ± P50.05. After aerobic training, Group I subjects incremented signi®cantly the FVC (P50.05) and the VME (P50.001), so that MVV-70% time values posttraining were not di erent from the initial values of the Gr. II. In conclusion, (i) the VME of thoracic SCI men was severely reduced when compared to able-bodied controls; (ii) a 6-weeks arm cranking aerobic training program was e cient to normalize the VME of SCI subjects.

Effects of a wheelchair ergometer training programme on spinal cord-injured persons

“…In the present study, subjects trained for 45 min sessions, three times a week for 6 weeks with interval training, with a minimal training target during the base corresponding at VT (Table 4). So, as the respiratory stress was quite high in this programme compared to that of Silva et al 31 the same improvements were expected to have occurred.…”

“…Indeed, it has been previously described by Silva et al 31 in an aerobic training programme (arm crank ergometer) with SCI patients. They studied the effects on ventilatory muscle endurance (VME).…”

The effects of upper body exercise on the physical capacity of people with a spinal cord injury: a systematic review

“…After reading the 40 papers (LV: PhD student and ET: MSc in Human Movement Science; both experienced in physical therapy research methods), 15 training studies were excluded for the following reasons: other outcome measures, [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] mixed population, 24,25 the population was not described properly, 26 training of both arms and legs 27 or -as was the case in two papers -the results were already published in other included papers. 28,29 The 25 included studies are summarized in Table 1.…”

Reduction of periodic leg movement in individuals with paraplegia following aerobic physical exercise

“…15 The anaerobic ventilatory threshold is a convenient mark used to delimit the upper intensity of aerobic exercise in training programs, corresponding to the work intensity at which the respiratory response to gradual exercise ®rst deviates from linearity ± LV1. 15 Data obtained by Silva et al, 16 as well as data for walking, have shown that LV1 can be used as a parameter for the prescription of aerobic exercise for individuals with spinal cord injury.…”