Evaluation of Upper Limb Muscle Load in Lower-Limb Amputees during Ladder Climbing

Kisuke Iwasaki, Gen Okuya, Yoshiki Nishisako, Naoki Chijiwa, Hisashi Arizono, Chikamune Wada

In recent years, the popularity of sport climbing competitions has increased considerably. Currently, not only non-disabled people but also people with disabilities are interested in sport climbing. However, the evaluation and guidance in climbing competitions are often subjective, and there are individual differences in the progress of sport climbing performance.

Additionally, the current training methods have been developed for non-disabled people, and it is not known whether they are suitable for people with disabilities. If an objective evaluation method is established, it will be possible to propose rational and effective teaching methods for sport climbing participants. Therefore, the goal of this investigation was to develop an objective training method for climbing aimed at lower-limb amputees.

We studied subjects’ climbing a ladder that imitated the wall-climbing process and compared it with normal conditions and dead-point conditions. At that time, as a result of measurement of the upper limb muscle, it was suggested that both the nonamputeeand the lower-limb amputee can reduce the load on the upper limb musclesduring thedead-point condition.

https://doi.org/10.31871/IJNTR.5.1.20