The Cardiorespiratory Demands of Treadmill Walking with and without the Use of Ekso GT™ within Able-Bodied Participants: A Feasibility Study

Damien Duddy, Rónán Doherty, James Connolly, Johnny Loughrey, Joan Condell, David Hassan and Maria Faulkner
Additional contact information
Damien Duddy: Sports Lab North West, Atlantic Technological University Donegal, Letterkenny Campus, Port Road, F92 FC93 Letterkenny, Ireland
Rónán Doherty: Sports Lab North West, Atlantic Technological University Donegal, Letterkenny Campus, Port Road, F92 FC93 Letterkenny, Ireland
James Connolly: Department of Computing, Atlantic Technological University Donegal, Letterkenny Campus, Port Road, F92 FC93 Letterkenny, Ireland
Johnny Loughrey: The No Barriers Foundation, F92 TW27 Letterkenny, Ireland
Joan Condell: School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Ulster University Magee, Londonderry BT48 7JL, UK
David Hassan: Sport and Exercise Sciences Research Institute, Ulster University Jordanstown, Newtownabbey BT37 0QB, UK
Maria Faulkner: Sports Lab North West, Atlantic Technological University Donegal, Letterkenny Campus, Port Road, F92 FC93 Letterkenny, Ireland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Individuals with neurological impairments tend to lead a predominantly sedentary lifestyle due to impaired gait function and mobility. This may be detrimental to health by negatively impacting cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular strength, and increasing the risk of developing secondary health problems. Powered exoskeletons are assistive devices that may aid neurologically impaired individuals in achieving the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) physical activity (PA) guidelines for health. Increased PA should elicit a sufficient cardiorespiratory stimulus to provide health benefits to exoskeleton users. This study examined the cardiorespiratory demands of treadmill walking with and without the Ekso GT™ among able-bodied participants. The Ekso GT™ is a powered exoskeleton that enables individuals with neurological impairments to walk by supporting full body mass with motors attached at the hip and knee joints to generate steps. This feasibility study consisted of one group of healthy able-bodied individuals ( n = 8). Participants completed two 12 min treadmill walking assessments, one with and one without the Ekso GT™ at the same fixed speed. Throughout each walking bout, various cardiorespiratory parameters, namely, volume of oxygen per kilogram (kg) of body mass ( V ? O 2 ·kg ?1 ), volume of carbon dioxide per kg of body mass ( V ? CO 2 ·kg ?1 ), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), ventilation ( V ? E ), heart rate (HR), and rate of perceived exertion (RPE), were recorded. Treadmill walking with Ekso GT™ elevated all recorded measurements to a significantly greater level ( p ? 0.05) (except RER at 1 km·h –1 ; p = 0.230) than treadmill walking without the Ekso GT™ did at the same fixed speed. An increased cardiorespiratory response was recorded during treadmill walking with the exoskeleton. Exoskeleton walking may, therefore, be an effective method to increase PA levels and provide sufficient stimulus in accordance with the PA guidelines to promote cardiorespiratory fitness and subsequently enhance overall health.

Keywords: exoskeleton; cardiorespiratory fitness; neurological impairments; physical activity; oxygen consumption; quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6176/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6176/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:6176-:d:819158

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().