Sprint Interval Training During Rehabilitation After Spinal Cord Injury (SprintSCI)

McMaster University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Rehabilitation; Spinal Cord Injuries; Exercise

Treatments: Other: moderate intensity continuous training; Other: Sprint interval training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03709095

SprintSCI

Details and patient eligibility

About

Immediately following a spinal cord injury (SCI), patients are admitted to inpatient rehabilitation where they undergo physical reconditioning in preparation for a return to home setting. The current standard of practice for aerobic training is performing arm-ergometry for 25 mins at a frequency of three times per week. Given the move towards shortened length of stay during inpatient rehabilitation, performing MICT can consume a considerable amount of therapy time. Sprint interval training (SIT) has been shown to elicit similar improvements in physical capacity, despite a reduced time commitment to MICT. However, there are no controlled trials comparing the effects of SIT to MICT in individuals with SCI undergoing inpatient rehabilitation. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a five-week, thrice weekly 10 min SIT program and compare outcome measures to a traditional 25 minute MICT program on the arm-ergometer in individuals with SCI undergoing inpatient clinical rehabilitation. It was hypothesized that five weeks of SIT and MICT would induce similar changes in maximal and sub-maximal exercise performance, self-efficacy for exercise, and exercise enjoyment, despite large differences in training volume and time commitment. It was also hypothesized that SIT would be well tolerated and elicit higher levels of cardiovascular strain than MICT.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants with sub-acute spinal cord injury (time since injury: 14 - 182 days)
• Undergoing inpatient rehabilitation
• Aged 18-65 years
• Injury level at the second cervical vertebrae (C2) or below

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to perform arm-ergometry training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

Moderate Intensity Continuous Training

Active Comparator group

Description:

Training was performed three times a week for five weeks. Each session began with a 2 minute warm up, and concluded with a 3 minute cool down. Following the warm-up, participants performed 20 minutes of arm cycling at a self-selected cadence at 45-65% of their peak power output. Total training duration was 25 mins.

Treatment:

Other: moderate intensity continuous training

Sprint Interval Training

Experimental group

Description:

The SIT protocol was adopted from Gillen and colleagues (See Ref), and consisted of 3 x 20 second "all-out" efforts at ≥ 100% of an individuals peak power output. Each sprint was interspersed by 120 seconds of active recovery at 10% of an individuals peak power output. Total training duration was 10 mins.

Treatment:

Other: Sprint interval training