Grant: Project Grant

When we walk, we swing our arms in rhythm with our legs. This relationship between the arms and legs is needed to improve our balance and our ability to walk efficiently. We want to find out if people with spinal cord injury or stroke trained using electrical stimulation and exercise machines that allow them to move the arms along with the legs in a coordinated fashion would be able to walk better than people trained to move their legs only. We believe that training involving the arms and legs will improve walking better than currently available rehabilitation exercises that only focus on the legs. If successful, we can move this exciting training strategy to the clinic to benefit many people with spinal cord injury or stroke. Very importantly, unlike currently available rehabilitation exercises for improving walking, our training strategy is not very taxing on the physical therapists. This means that many more people with spinal cord injury or stroke can be treated without increasing the cost to the health care system.