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Published on: June 8, 2017
Effects of abdominal binding on field-based exercise responses in Paralympic athletes with cervical spinal cord
Christopher R West1, Ian G Campbell1, Victoria L Goosey-Tolfrey2
1Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, Brunel University, UK.
Unlabelled:
Abdominal binding has been shown to improve resting cardiorespiratory function in individuals with cervical SCI, but it is not yet clear whether this approach improves the exercise response.
Objectives:
To determine the effects of abdominal binding on parameters relating to wheelchair sports performance in highly-trained athletes with cervical SCI.
Design:
Repeated-measures field-based study.
Methods:
Ten Paralympic wheelchair rugby players with motor-complete SCI (C5-C7) completed a series of exercise tests in two conditions (bound and unbound). The following parameters were assessed: agility and acceleration/deceleration performance; cardiorespiratory function and gross efficiency during submaximal wheelchair propulsion; anaerobic performance and propulsion kinematics during a 30s Wingate test; repeated sprint performance during a 10×20m test; and aerobic performance during a repeated 4min push test.
Results:
Compared to unbound, 6 of 17 field-based performance measures changed significantly with binding. Time to complete the acceleration/deceleration test decreased (p=0.005), whereas distances covered during the repeated 4min push test increased (p<0.043). Binding elicited significant reductions in minute ventilation during submaximal wheelchair propulsion (p=0.040) as well as blood lactate accumulation and limb discomfort during the second set of the repeated 4min push test (p=0.012 and 0.022). There were no statistically significant effects of binding on any other variable.
Conclusions:
Abdominal binding improves some important measures of field-based performance in highly-trained athletes with cervical SCI. The changes may be attributable, at least in part, to improvements in trunk stability, ventilatory efficiency and/or haemodynamics.
