The effects of upper extremity progressive resistance and endurance exercises in patients with spinal cord injury.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Exercises aiming to strengthen the upper extremities are recommended to increase activities of daily living (ADLs) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). The aim of this study was to compare the effects of upper extremity progressive resistance exercises (PRE) and endurance exercises (EE) performed with an arm ergometer in patients with paraplegia due to SCI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 19 SCI patients were included in the study, and randomly divided into two groups. The first group performed PRE while the second group performed arm EE. The functional independence measurement (FIM) was used on each patient at the beginning and at the end of the study. The elbow flexion and extension muscle strengths of each patient were determined with the computerized isokinetic dynamometer at the beginning and end of the study.

RESULTS

Post-training increased the FIM scores in both PRE (p=0.005) and EE groups (p=0.008). There were increases in the extension peak torque (PT) and total work (TW) at 180°/sec and 60°/sec angular velocity in the PRE group compared to the EE group (all p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

There were improvement in post-training muscle strength values in both the PRE (found to be more effective) and EE groups.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Randomized trial (Level I).