Methods of Assessing Fitness and Physical Capacity

Aerobic fitness is an important part of sport training preparation for wheelchair rugby players. Currently, there are some test protocols on arm crank ergometer for spinal cord injury people. However, wheelchair propulsion seems to be better and more specific movement to assess aerobic fitness in wheelchair rugby player. Thus, this pilot study was designed to determine the reliability of the aerobic fitness test protocol on a wheelchair ergometer for wheelchair rugby players.

Methods Ten wheelchair rugby players (C5/6 = 4, C6/C7 = 3, C7/th1 = 1 all with incomplete lesions, cerebral palsy (CP) = 1; dysmelia = 1; mean age = 32,90 yr. ± 5,17; body mass = 70,04 kg ± 12,53; body height = 177,70 cm ± 18,64) participated in the aerobic fitness test on the Lode Esseda wheelchair ergometer (LEM Software 10.12, Groningen, Netherlands). This test involved different considering players' International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) class (class 0.5 = 4 players, classes 1.0-1.5 = 6 players, and classes 2.0-3.5 = 8 players) increments of workload every minute at constant velocity of 4.5 km/h. Peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2peak l/min, V̇O2peak ml/kg/min), minute ventilation (VE), and the test time achieved were collected (Cortex Metamax). The load [N, Watts] from the last fully achieved level in the test was noticed. Participants repeated the aerobic fitness test twice with 24h break. Each player had 10 minutes warm-up before the test. Differences (T-test for independent groups or Wilcoxon test) and correlations (Pearson test or Spearman test) between results from the first and the second repetition of the test (fully achieved load level in the test) were calculated to establish reliability. The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and standard error of measurement (SEM) were added. The significance level was set at p<.05