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RecruitingNCT07817381RELOADUpdated Sep 14, 2026

REsistance and LOADing Exercise for Bone Health

An interventional study of Resistance and high-impact exercise training in Amputation of Lower Limb Below Knee, Amputation, Traumatic and Amputation, Limb Loss, sponsored by Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK. Recruiting at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to male participants aged 18 Years to 55 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-14.

Sponsored by Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
10
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 55 Years
Sex
Male
01

Study summary

Lower limb amputation, often resulting from military conflict and road traffic accidents, is associated with reduced hip bone mineral density (BMD) and increased risk of hip fractures. This bone loss is attributed to altered mechanical loading and is compounded by an increased falls risk in prosthesis users. While resistance and high-impact exercise interventions have proven effective in enhancing BMD in other populations, no studies have examined their role in amputees. Building on an international Delphi consensus guidelines, this study aims to assess the feasibility and safety of a novel home-based, tele-supervised resistance and high-impact exercise intervention in individuals with unilateral transtibial limb loss.

A convenience sample of 10 male prosthesis wearers from the ongoing ADVANCE Study will be involved in the study for 10 weeks and will undertake an 8-week, twice-weekly exercise program including resistance (squat, deadlift, overhead press) and impact-based activities (e.g., multidirectional jumps) (week 2 to week 9 of the study participation). Remote supervision will be provided twice weekly during the first week of exercise and once weekly thereafter. The primary outcomes are feasibility (recruitment, retention, compliance, acceptability, tolerance) and safety (adverse event monitoring). Secondary outcomes include changes in hip muscle strength and neuromuscular performance, assessed at baseline (week 1 of the study participation) and post-intervention (week 10 of the study participation) using isokinetic dynamometry, and force plates, respectively.

This study will provide the first evidence on the feasibility and safety of a targeted exercise intervention to stabilise or improve BMD in unilateral transtibial amputees. Findings will inform the design of a subsequent randomised controlled trial to evaluate efficacy, with potential to shape clinical rehabilitation programmes for military and civilian amputee populations at risk of low BMD and related complications.

02

Conditions studied

  • Amputation of Lower Limb Below Knee
  • Amputation, Traumatic
  • Amputation, Limb Loss

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Keywords

  • Below-knee prosthesis
  • Lower limb amputation
  • Weight-bearing training
  • Telehealth
  • Bone health
03

In context

Amputation, Traumatic

112 studies on the registry are indexed under Amputation, Traumatic; 24 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 10 is below the median of 15 across 75 interventional studies indexed under Amputation, Traumatic.

Browse Amputation, Traumatic studies →

Lead sponsor

Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK is the lead sponsor of 5 studies on the registry; 4 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 55 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Current or previous British Armed Forces Personnel who are members of the ADVANCE Study (Bennett et al., 2020)
  • Male
  • Aged ≥ 18 years and ≤ 55 years
  • History of unilateral below knee limb loss due to trauma
  • Ambulating with their current prosthetic limb for a minimum of six months
  • Full-time prosthesis wearer (i.e., wearing the prosthesis every day, for most of the day, removing it mainly for sleeping or when resting for extended periods)
  • Able to walk independently using a prosthetic limb
  • Able to perform jumping activities on the prosthetic limb
  • Able to communicate in English
  • Access to the internet and a computer/smartphone
  • Able to drive/be driven to and from the testing location for the purpose of transporting the exercise equipment provided by the research team

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Additional limb loss of the upper and/or lower limb other than the transtibial limb loss
  • Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological injury
  • Sickle cell disease
  • Neurodegenerative disease
  • Limb loss as a result of a vascular condition
  • Orthopaedic or neurological issues in the intact/non-amputated limb
  • Additional neuromusculoskeletal pathology which may affect walking
  • Pain, irritation, swelling, or skin complaints in the residual limb which inhibit prosthetic use
  • Diseases affecting bone metabolism (other than osteoporosis/osteopenia; for example, osteomalacia, Paget's disease, hyper/hypoparathyroidism, osteogenesis imperfecta)
  • Traumatic head injury resulting in cognitive disability
  • Lack of capacity to give consent
  • Any to exercise and/or resistance training
  • Continuous immobilisation for seven days or more in the month prior to attendance
  • Use of assistive walking device when utilising the, other than a prosthetic limb
  • Unable to regularly attend the supervised training program
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
10 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Exercise Intervention

    Participants will complete an eight-week home-based resistance and high-impact weight-bearing exercise program twice a week, with tele-supervision.

    Behavioral: Resistance and high-impact exercise training

Interventions

  • BehavioralResistance and high-impact exercise training

    Each exercise session consists of three resistance training exercises (dumbbell squat, dumbbell deadlift, dumbbell overhead press; for each exercise, 3 sets of 8-12 reps, at 70% of the participant's predicted one repetition maximum) and three impact exercises (vertical, forward, lateral jumps; 2 sets of 10 repetitions each and 2-3 minutes rest between sets).

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Adverse events (i.e., safety of the intervention)

    The number, seriousness, and severity of adverse events reported during the exercise program.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 10 weeks

  2. Recruitment and retention rates

    Recruitment rate (percentage of enrolled participants out of eligible participants) and retention rates (percentage of enrolled participants who complete the exercise programme to the end). Reasons for non-enrolment, and attrition (withdrawals or dropouts) will be noted systematically throughout the study.

    Time frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year

  3. Compliance

    Determined from individual training diaries. 100% compliance = completion of all exercise sessions

    Time frame: Week 2 to week 9

  4. Acceptability

    Measured via the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability questionnaire. This scale consists of 8 questions, 1 from each of the TFA constructs asked on a 5-point Likert scale for each question (1 = low acceptability; 5 = high acceptability), for a total composite acceptability score of 40.

    Time frame: Week 10

  5. Tolerance

    After each exercise session, participants will be asked to complete a post-exercise questionnaire within the training diary containing the Borg Rate of Perceived Exertion, a scale from 6 to 20, where a higher number means more perceived exertion.

    Time frame: Week 2 to week 9

Secondary outcomes

  1. Neuromuscular performance

    This will be tested using a pair of portable force plates (1000 Hz recording frequency; Hawkin Dynamics, Portland, Maine, USA). Force outputs from an Isometric Mid-Thigh Pull (IMTP).

    Time frame: Baseline (week 1) and follow-up (week 10)

  2. Hip muscles strength

    Hip strength. An IsoKinetic Dynamometer (IKD) (System 4, Biodex Medical Systems Inc., New York, USA) will be used for measuring the isometric peak torque of hip flexors, extensors, adductors and abductors (on both sides, tested in a random order).

    Time frame: Baseline (week 1) and follow-up (week 10)

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Stanford Hall
    Loughborough, United Kingdom
    Recruiting
    • Marina De Vecchis · Contact
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 14, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07817381
Lead sponsor
Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK
Collaborators
Imperial College London, University of Dublin, Trinity College
Responsible party
Marina De Vecchis (Higher Scientific Officer, Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, UK) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 14, 2026
Start date
Oct 2026 (estimated)
Primary completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 14, 2026

Study contacts

Higher Scientific Officer, PhD
Contact
marina.devecchis100@mod.gov.uk
+44 (0)1509 251500 ext. 3401

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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