Arm and Leg Cycling Exercise After Stroke

It has been found that arm and leg cycling is similar to walking in terms of the muscle activation patterns and joint ranges of motion. In addition, arm and leg cycling and walking activate similar neural pathways. Another advantage of arm and leg cycling is that it involves coordination of all four limbs in a rhythmic movement. This may be particularly beneficial given previous findings that arm movement contributes to the activation of leg muscles during walking in humans. This is achieved with interconnected neural pathways that link the arms to the legs. These neural interlimb connections remain intact in stroke victims, such that maximizing the contribution of the arms to the legs may increase coordination for walking. Thus, the objectives of this research are to determine if arm and leg cycling can be used to increase the strength of interlimb connections and if this helps to improve walking ability in a post-stroke population. It is hypothesized that arm and leg cycling will transfer to improvements in walking in a post stroke population.