Strength training as a non-pharmacological alternative to improve body composition, and quality of life in people with spinal cord injury: A systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Spinal cord injuries (SCI) have physiological, emotional, and economic consequences in the lives of affected people. Resistance training (RT) is efficient in improving several physiological factors, quality of life, and body composition. Due to the scarce literature on the analysis of isolated RT, the objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the effects of RT without the association of other techniques, in aspects related to the quality of life and body composition of people with SCI.

Evidence acquisition: The research was carried out in databases such as Pubmed, Cochrane, and Web of Science using the terms ("Spinal cord injury") AND (("Resistance Training") OR ("Strength training")). Given the lack of evidence on the subject, no deadline was set for the study to be eligible for analysis.

Evidence synthesis: The search for the articles was carried out in November of 2023 and returned 470 results, of which 315 remained after the elimination of duplicates, with 281 being excluded after title analysis. A total of 34 abstracts were analyzed and 29 studies were excluded, leaving 5 complete articles for thorough analysis.

Conclusions: After analyzing the main results, we concluded that RT promotes significant improvements in body composition, pain, stress and depression symptoms, increased functionality, physical awareness, and quality of life.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Exercise; Obesity; Pain; Quality of life; Resistance training; Spinal cord injury.