The Effect of Intradialytic Combined Exercise on Physical Outcomes in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients

Patients in the control group received usual care and were advised to do sham exercise such as stretch legs and arms about 15 minutes during the first 2 HD hours.

Each session consisted of a 5-minute warm-up, cool-down and 30-minute cycling at a Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 12-14. The machine has two exercise types including aerobic exercise and resistance exercise. Patients were asked to perform aerobic exercise 20-min and resistance exercise 10-min in the first stage. Every four weeks is divided into a stage. And the time of aerobic exercise and resistance exercise were personally adjusted per stage to maintain the personalized target RPE. In the following stages, aerobic exercise was continued 15-min for the second stage, 10-min for the third and the forth stage, 15-min for the fifth stage and 20-min for the last stage. And the time for resistance exercise was adjusted for the total exercise time. The resistance of exercise also progressive increased in order to adapt the target RPE. It was accessible to patients of different ages, gender, cultures and ethnicities.