The effects of hybrid cycling on cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with long-term spinal cord injury: a randomized controlled trial

Effects of hybrid cycle versus handcycle exercise on cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with spinal cord injury: a randomized controlled trial. J Rehabil Med. Abstract Objective: To examine the effects of a 16-week hybrid cycle versus handcycle exercise program on cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Participants: Nineteen individuals with long-term SCI (time since injury ≥ 8 years). Design: Multicenter randomized controlled trial. The hybrid cycle group (n = 9) and handcycle group (n = 10) trained twice a week during 16 weeks on a hybrid cycle (hand-cycling combined with functional electrical stimulation (FES)-induced leg cycling) or handcycle, respectively. Outcome measures obtained pre and post the training program were metabolic syndrome components (waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG) and insulin resistance), inflammatory status (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6 and-10, and visceral adiposity (trunk and android fat). Results: Significant overall reductions were found for waist circumference (p = 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.03), insulin resistance (p = 0.006), CRP (p = 0.05), IL-6 (p = 0.04), IL-6/IL-10 ratio (p = 0.03), and trunk (p = 0.04) and android (p = 0.02) fat percentage. No significant main effects for time were observed for systolic blood pressure, TG, HDL-C, IL-10, and trunk and android fat mass. For all the obtained outcome measures, there were no significant differences over time between the two training groups. Conclusion: Hybrid cycling and handcycling have similar beneficial effects on different metabolic syndrome components, inflammatory status and visceral adiposity, indicating that there were no additional benefits of FES-induced leg exercise above handcycle exercise.