Abstract
Physical fitness or endurance is an important factor to keep the hemiplegic patients living actively. In healthy subjects, endurance can be well predicted by measuring maximal oxygen uptake during exercise. But it is generally difficult for hemiplegics to exercise vigorously on treadmill or with bicycle. We established graded body bending exercise to measure physical endurance and applied it to hemiplegic patients.
Ten healthy male and 10 hemiplegics were given the task to bend their trunk forward and backward in sitting position (20, 35, and 50 repeats/minute gradedly for 9 minutes). Heart rate and oxygen consumption were monitored every minute. Then regression coefficient between heart rate and oxygen consumption (HR-O2 coefficient) was calculated. To measure the maximal oxygen uptake, healthy male also performed the multistage treadmill testing in accordance with Bruce's protocol.
There was a significant correlation (r=0.84) between HR-O2 coefficient and maximal oxygen uptake (p<0.05). The rank correlation between HR-O2 coefficient and the degree of daily exercise in the hemiplegics was significantly high (rs=0.73).
In conclusion, our body bending exercise protocol is useful to predict physical fitness or endurance of hemiplegics.
