The Effect of Body Weight-Supported Treadmill Training on Muscle Morphology in an Individual With Chronic, Motor-Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Study

This study looked at how treadmill training with body weight support affects muscles in someone with a long-term, complete spinal cord injury. The participant walked on a treadmill with assistance for 4 months, and researchers examined changes in their leg muscle fibers. The results showed some improvements in muscle size and fiber type, even though the person couldn't walk independently better.

• 1
  The study found that after training, the participant's vastus lateralis muscle fiber area increased by 27.1%.
• 2
  The percentage distribution of type I muscle fibers increased from 1.3% to 24.6% after the training period.
• 3
  Despite the muscle improvements, the amount of body weight supported externally and functional locomotor capacity did not change.