Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)-Rowing:
A Novel Exercise Paradigm for the Spinal Cord Injured

1.26.2010 SPEAKER: J. Andrew Taylor, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School; Director, Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital MODERATOR: Thomas Brady, MD, CIMIT Co-Program Leader, Cardiovascular Disease; Director of Cardiovascular Imaging and Intervention and Director of Radiology Research, Massachusetts General Hospital; LL Robbins Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School; visiting professor, MIT Sloan School

Forum Abstract

A majority of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients regard exercise as an important aspect of functional recovery, yet more than half do not have access to appropriate exercise programs. There is ample evidence that aerobic exercise in humans with SCI can result in health benefits, improve quality of life, and may have a positive effect on outcome after SCI. However, aerobic exercise programs must meet certain intensity and volume criteria to induce health benefits. SCI patients can have difficulty achieving these exercise requirements since the paralyzed muscles cannot contribute to overall oxygen consumption. The solution may be “hybrid” functional electrical stimulation (FES) exercise that involves exercise of both innervated upper body and electrically stimulated lower body muscles. This can produce significantly greater aerobic power and peak oxygen consumption than either upper body or FES exercise alone. Despite its potential long-term benefit to SCI populations, there are no studies that have comprehensively assessed the musculoskeletal, cardiorespiratory, and functional effects of this training in a homogenous population. There are studies suggestive of significant beneficial adaptations to hybrid-FES exercise, but none have controlled for factors that impact the magnitude of adaptations to exercise training, such as age, years since injury, and level and extent of injury. Only when these factors are controlled might the true magnitude and range of beneficial effects of hybrid-FES exercise training be revealed. Dr. Andrew Taylor will briefly outline the rationale and the implementation of the FES-rowing paradigm.

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