Bicycle Ergometer in Rehabilitation Medicine
Alright bicycle lovers, there is this special bike that's not just for riding around but actually helps our hearts get stronger and much more. Now that special bike is known as a bicycle ergometer especially in physical therapy. It's like having a smart bike that's focused on making our hearts healthier but it doesn't move around like your regular bike. It is static. It has everything and more, minus the movements. So if you love to stay indoors and pedal this is for you
Image of a bicycle ergometer taken by me
Now there are several things this bike called a bicycle ergometer can be successfully used for in rehabilitation, but lets focus on three key things
- Cardiovascular training
- Lowerlimb rehabilitation
- Improving endurance
Lets take the first 👇
Cardiovascular Training:
"Cardio" means heart and "vascular" means vessel or the flow of blood
So, why is your heart health, my heart health and everyones heart health so important?
You see your heart is a vital engine (organ) that keeps your body going. The bicycle ergometer lets us exercise this engine—our heart—indoors.
One thing you need to know is, the heart is a muscle, and it loves to be exercised (caution: don't overdo it) doing more of aerobic exercises like hopping on a bicycle ergometer and pedaling away helps exercise it. This strengthen the heart muscles. The stronger your heart is, the more activities you can do for extended period of time.
Now, have you ever wondered why some people seems to never get tired especially athletes, the simple answer is because they have a strong heart which have been exercised over time and have gotten stronger.
Now the simple fact is that some people are naturally born with a strong heart, which of course can become stronger with added exercises. If you get tired easily and you feel your heart is weak, dont fret, there is a solution, but this solution is not gotten in a single day, it requires patience, dedication, discipline and commitment to exercising (more of aerobic) at least 3-4 times weekly. That of course after all other contraindications to exercising has been ruled out.
These exercises to improve your heart health is called cardiovascular exercises through a process called cardiovascular retraining can be done by just pedaling away on a bicycle ergometer at various intensities. Now there is more to it than that, but for the purpose of this post, lets keep it simple.
Image of a bicycle ergometer taken by me
Still on on cardiovascular retraining, one amazing thing about the bicycle ergometer is you can adjust how hard it is to pedal, which is like changing the gears on a bike, making our hearts work harder or easier. And you know what's cool? We can check our heart rate, like a score, to see how well we're doing. It doesn't end there, the bike will also help you keep track of how long you have pedaled and sometimes we have some that help track calories burnt. Now thats amazing, kudos to technology.
This is very important, I can't overemphasize how important this is - If you are going to start exercises focusing on cardiovascular retraining, the first thing you need to do is an ECG (Electrocardiography) done with an electrocardiograph to be sure that your heart doesn't have any other underlying issue which is quite different from your heart just being weak. This is very important.
Lower Limb Rehabilitation:
Now, we have talked quite alot about our heart, onto our legs! You see If someone's had an injury or needs to make their legs stronger, this machine, the bicycle ergometer is a game-changer. We can do exercises that target muscles like our thighs and calves but only after proper assessment and examination, which can be done by a Physiotherapist. What's awesome is that we can start with easy pedaling and gradually make it harder as our legs get stronger. It's like leveling up in a video game but for our muscles!
One other thing the bicycle ergometer is good for as regards lower limb rehabilitation is helping to improve your lower limb joints range of motion. Joint Range of motion is basically how far and how well your joints can move in a particular direction. This is measured in degrees by a Physiotherapist using a goniometer. So if you are looking to improve your lowerlimb strength and joint range of motion, hopping on a bicycle ergometer and setting it to a suitable intensity will definitely do you a lot of good. That is of course after all other contraindications have been ruled out.
Improving Endurance:
Endurance is like having extra battery life for our bodies. Just like Rome wasnt built in a day, this cannot be built in a day. The bicycle ergometer helps us build this battery life! We can train on it for longer and longer periods, just like training for a big race. But here's the secret: we start small and slowly make it tougher. It's like building up our strength little by little, just like how superheroes train to save the day.
Endurance is basically the ability to withstand activities at specific intensities for long period of time without being fatigued. Now, what is muscular endurance?
Muscular endurance in simple term is basically the frequency (cycle per seconds) at which a particular muscle can perform a particular movement without getting fatigued which is different from a feeling of being tired or out of breath. Muscular endurance is different from muscular strength. You can have an excellent muscular strength but poor muscular endurance and vice-versa.
Let be more practical here, a good muscular strength is the ability to lift lets say a 100kg weight, while muscular endurance refers to how you can keep this 100kg weight lifted without dropping it. It also the number of times you can keep lifting that particular weight per second without feeling like your muscles are asking for a time out. I think you now understand. So an excellent muscular strength doesn't necessarily mean an excellent muscular endurance and vice versa.
Image of a bicycle ergometer taken by me
Benefits:
Now you can see that using the bicycle ergometer isn't just about exercising; it's about making us better in so many ways, it teaches discipline, committment, dedication and more importantly delayed gratification. Our hearts get stronger, our leg muscles get tougher, and we can keep going without feeling tired quickly. Imagine feeling super pumped up and ready to take on the world!
Conclusion:
So, now to wrap things up, the bicycle ergometer is like having a superhero machine for our health. It's of course fantastic for our hearts in more ways than one, makes our legs stronger, and helps us keep going for longer. But hey, remember, it's crucial to have a physiotherapist or trainer show us how to use it properly. Let's pedal our way to a healthier, fitter us!
Thanks for reading, and have fun pedaling đź‘Ť
References
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12465281/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18409268/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/nursing-and-health-professions/bicycle-ergometer
https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-015-0647-8
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638288.2019.1670272
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=116389
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Physical_Activity_and_Exercise_Prescription
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Cycling_Biomechanics
Credit
All images used were taken by me in UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital's physiotherapy clinic using Tecno Camon 19