Rowing with FES

People with spinal cord injury (SCI) need to increase their level of physical activity to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease but their exercise options are very limited. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) assisted indoor rowing has been developed as a total body exercise option that combines the exercise of the innervated upper body with the exercise of the electrically stimulated leg muscles in a natural manner. An existing indoor rowing machine was modified for use by the paraplegic users and two types of FES controllers were developed to control the level of stimulation to the paralyzed leg muscles. Manual FES controller was operated by the users thumb presses on the two control buttons on the handlebar, was easy to implement and operate, and has been the most widely used form of control in FES rowing. Automatic FES controllers produced rowing movement comparable to manual control strategy but did not require the user's thumb presses, could be used by the users with higher level of SCI, and could potentially be used to control more leg muscles to further increase the intensity and cardiovascular training effects of FES rowing exercise