Assessing kinetics of FES rowing in spinal cord injury patients

Nearly 1.3 million people in the United States suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI) [1], which leads to numerous secondary health conditions such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Within one year of injury, bone density decreases rapidly to osteoporotic condition. This study aims to measure the kinetics and kinematics of rowing in order to assess rehabilitation progress and to correlate with respiratory measures of work. Through this novel training therapy the SCI population is able to exercise their large muscles of the legs together with the upper limb muscles leading to increased cardiac demand. Measuring upper body force and lower limbs forces, as well as the velocity and acceleration of the chair, will help in monitoring therapy progression and in identifying optimal rowing techniques. A Concept 2 rowing ergometer was instrumented to collect data during rowing. The biofeedback received from the instrumented rower allows characterization of rowing kinetics by providing an upper body force, force loads of the lower limbs, and velocity and acceleration of the chair.