Endurance Training with an Adapted Device in the Visually Impaired

We designed a form of training in which the visually impaired walks while guiding himself or herself by following a rope affixed to a wall. The training is named “rope-guided walking” (RG-walking). The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of endurance training using an adapted device on visually impaired subjects. The physiological exercise intensity of the 20-min RG-walking was 78.8 ± 6.7% peakVO2 and 72.5 ± 5.0% peakVO2 by the visually impaired subjects, and 69.3 ± 7.6% peakVO2 and 74.7 ± 4.05% peakVO2 by the sighted subjects. The visually impaired subjects peakVO2 increased by 12.4% from 30.6 ± 10.7 ml/kg/min to 34.4 ± 10.4ml/kg/min by the fourth week of training. In addition, the four sighted subjects who participated in the training also showed an increase of 5.0% from 37.8 ± 4.7 ml/kg/min to 39.7 ± 3.3 ml/kg/min. By the eight weeks of training, the walking speed of the visually impaired subjects increased by 20.8% from 92.1 ± 15.3m/min to 113.3 ± 14.6m/min. As for the four sighted subjects, the walking speed increased by 28.2% from 107 ± 6.1m/min to 137.4 ± 8.7m/min. There were almost no changes with the control group. Consequently, RG-walking training is considered an exercise program that is effective in increasing the physical endurance of visually impaired persons.