Whole Body Exercise in Spinal Cord Injury: Effects on Psychosocial Function

Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) are confronted with a multitude of psychological and physiological changes post-injury leading to seemingly insurmountable barriers to participating in daily life. After injury persons with SCI engage in fewer social interactions, spend more time sedentary, and are less likely to leave the home. This leads to restricted social participation that, in turn, contributes to greater psychological problems and negatively impacts the lives of adults with SCI. Intense, structured exercise has substantial potential benefits for improving psychosocial wellbeing among persons with SCI, but accessible exercise options are few and cannot achieve high intensities of whole-body exercise. This work will use approaches to overcome the barriers to intense exercise. The investigators will use hybrid functional electrical stimulation row training (FESRT) to allow for a more intense exercise stimulus, potentially having a greater impact on psychosocial wellbeing. There is initial evidence that persons with mobility impairments who are highly physically active demonstrate better psychosocial wellbeing compared with those who have low levels of physical activity. A limitation to understanding the influence of exercise on psychosocial wellbeing is the lack of robust and time-dependent measures. The investigators will use a smartphone-based research application to measure psychosocial well-being, thus decreasing self-report bias and capturing in-the-moment behavioral and self-report data.