The effects of cycling on walking outcomes in adults with stroke: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

Background

Stationary cycling is often prescribed for survivors of stroke as a safe means of aerobic exercise to improve cardiovascular health. While cycling is typically not prescribed to restore ambulatory function, improvements in measures of walking after cycling interventions have been reported in the literature.

Objective

To investigate the effects of cycling on walking outcomes in adults with stroke.

Methods

Relevant databases were searched through 15 August. Walking-related outcomes were extracted. Correlation coefficients were computed to measure the relationship between exercise protocol parameters and change in walking outcomes.

Results

Eleven articles were included in the review. Eight studies representing nine cycling intervention groups reported change in walking capacity measured by the six-minute walk test with improvements ranging from 6.1 to 63.0 m. Seven studies measured gait velocity, reporting improvements ranging from 0.01 to 0.21 m/sec. Protocols that yielded the greatest improvement in walking capacity prescribed moderate- to high-intensity aerobic training. Significant positive correlations were measured between change in gait velocity and number of exercise sessions and total minutes of exercise prescribed.

Conclusion

Considerable heterogeneity was observed across cycling protocols with respect to intensity, frequency, exercise duration and protocol duration. However, none of the studies reported declines in walking outcomes and improvements were measured in the absence of task-specific gait training. Cycling interventions employing moderate- to high-intensity aerobic training and 24 sessions or more may be optimal in improving gait velocity and walking capacity.

KEYWORDS:

• Aerobic
• cycling
• walking
• gait
• locomotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.