Therapeutic Muscle Power Training for Transition Aged Individuals with Cerebral Palsy

Muscle power or the ability to produce muscle force rapidly plays a significant role in functional mobility. It has also been repeated shown as a deficit in individuals with cerebral palsy. Muscle power training as a therapeutic intervention as not been well operationalized in the literature. The intent of this dissertation is to explore 1) the state of the science as it relates to therapeutic muscle power training for individuals with cerebral palsy, 2) bridge the gap in understanding of therapeutic muscle power training through intervention design and trial to determine the role of visual feedback supported training, and 3) propose a new frontier using wearable technology to optimize therapeutic muscle power training intervention implementation and functional mobility outcomes for adolescents and young adults with cerebral palsy, specifically the ages of transition 14- 25 years. Therapeutic muscle power training in its current state is highly subjective and dependent on the tenacity of the participant and interventionist to promote optimal engagement and high velocity movements. The novelty of high velocity movement for individuals with cerebral palsy and limited therapeutic interventions with an acute focus on speed create a barrier to ensuring adequate thresholds are being met to promote the development of muscle power. Resistance training without adequate velocity employed results in muscular strength training which has consistently fell short of promoting v functional mobility improvements for individuals with cerebral palsy. Providing visual feedback of repetition velocity and power during training provides the participants and physical therapists with critical information to ensure muscle power training is achieved. However, this preliminary study was limited to performing only a single movement on a leg press machine. The proposed study comprehensively addresses current gaps in the literature by providing critical feedback to the participant and physical therapist while performing contextually relevant skill training with functional movements. Results from this work are foundational to operationalizing therapeutic muscle power training for physical therapists and individuals with cerebral palsy.