Ergometabolic and topographic evaluation of handbike tracks in urban area

Purpose: Most people with walking impairments such as spinal cord injured people and lower limbs amputee do not reach the proper amount of weekly physical activity (PA) suggested by WHO and ACSM, due to their functional limitation. Low levels of PA and sedentary lifestyle are strictly related to higher incidence of non communicable disease. Local governments may contribute to PA practice with targeted policies and urban interventions to give these populations the infrastructures and the proper information related to the metabolic effort required to practice PA (Martin Ginis et al. 2021). In light of this, our work aimed to verify the possibility to classify different handbike urban tracks on their ergo metabolic cost. For users, informed choice is crucial for adherence to continuous PA Methods: 10 healthy young adults cycled with a HB at self selected speed across four tracks suitable for HB in Brescia municipality. The subjects cycled 4 selected tracks (T1, T2, T3 and T4) on 4 different days. The evaluation was performed using a heart rate strap, a metabolimeter to calculate MET, an hub powermeter and Garmin Edge 510 to collect metabolic end topographical data. Results: The track length was 2.57, 1.79, 0.96 and 2.66 km and the elevation gain was 8.4, 5.6, 3 and 23 m; then, the mean power used to perform the tracks were alike (69 ± 25, 72 ± 28, 71 ± 37, and 76 ± 14 W) with similar peaks (193 ± 54, 211 ± 63, 252 ± 81 and 235 ± 24 W) for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. In all the tracks the subjects performed at least a moderate PA ([3 MET). Moreover, MET and speed showed a statistically significant correlation on 3 of the 4 tracks tested (T1 p\0.001 R=0.9, T2 p\0.001 R=0.89, T3 p=0.003 R=0.83). On the other hand, T4 is the only track where all the subjects performed no less than vigorous PA ([6 MET). In T1, T2, T3, moderate intensity PA was reached cycling at 8, 7.8, 7.5 km/h and vigorous intensity PA was reached at 14.9, 14 and 14.8 km/h respectively. Conclusions: In summary, the topographical characteristics of all these tracks ensure the possibility to achieve moderate or vigorous PA, by modulating the cycling speed. The description of these tracks based on the ergometabolic cost could be a useful tool for people with walking impairments to plan and structure their exercise in order to raise the level of weekly PA. Last, the municipality may use this information to valorize these paths and to promote adapted PA in urban areas.