Abstract
Limb mobilization and movement exercises prevent the effects of immobility and sedentarity after spinal cord injury (SCI) 1-4. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has been successfully applied to facilitate exercise of paralyzed muscles, and thus to restore movement and function 5-7. FES‐induced cycling in people with SCI has been demonstrated to positively affect the cardiopulmonary system 8, 9, bone mineral density 10, and muscle strength 11, 12. FES‐cycling was achieved by means of a fixed ergocycle in most of these studies. Mobile cycling using tricycles 13 can add a recreational dimension to the exercise and improve the attractiveness of FES‐assisted exercises 14. Mobile FES‐cycling has also become a sport, as demonstrated a few times since the first competition in Cardiff (UK) in 2006. Thereby, “long” distance races, for example, about 1000 m, address a major challenge when applying FES in people with SCI. Indeed, in comparison to healthy muscles, neuromuscular fatigue occurs quite early as motor units are synchronously activated and not according to Henneman's size principle. Besides the problem of limited fatigue resistance, broad applicability of any FES technology is also hampered by limitations in achievable muscle force magnitude, muscle selectivity and movement controllability 15-18. In order to further advance technologies such as FES for their potential acceptability and use by people relying on assistive devices, the Cybathlon event was launched by ETH Zurich 19, 20. In October 2016, the first Cybathlon took place in Kloten, Switzerland. FES‐cycling is one of the six Cybathlon disciplines. This summary introduces the discipline and synthesizes the characteristics and performances of the twelve teams that participated in the 2016 event.