Wheelchair Exercises

Why bother with wheelchair exercises? The answer to this question is simple as it holds good for us all non-wheelchair users as well as those who are wheelchair bound. There are two essentials which benefit from exercise. These are your health and your wellbeing. Exercise helps to increase your strength, your flexibility, and may even improve your mobility. Additionally, exercise helps to strengthen your heart and lungs, it can have beneficial effects on the other vital organs of your body and it is a great way to help you control your weight.

Exercises promote good wellbeing. All too often long spells in a wheelchair can lead to discomfort. So-much-so that there have been a number of studies aimed at developing a method that would quantify seating discomfort experienced by wheelchair users. Example - Wheelchair Seating Discomfort Assessment Tool (WcS-DAT) and Tool for Assessing Wheelchair disComfort (TAWC). No matter what chair you sit in it will eventually become uncomfortable. Doing exercises while seated can improve the level of comfort, and can help to extend the duration of that comfort period.

Types of exercise
Exercises fall into different categories:

Resistance Training to help create a lean and toned body. Did you know that resistance exercise is more beneficial than aerobic exercise for fat loss?

Aerobic Exercises to elevate your heart rate over a sustainable period of time.

Stretching to extend your limbs and muscles to their full extent.

Always remember to start any workout or exercise session with a ten minute warm up. When you have finished exercising, take time to cool down for about ten minutes.

Equipment
There is a huge range of equipment available. These can be classified roughly into the following:

Specialist Equipment Wheelchair exercise machines are available for home use. These include hand-cycles, body workout systems. According to their own write up -

"Vitaglide is a revolutionary wheelchair accessible fitness machine that raises the bar for seated fitness programs. Using its patented linear, push-pull technology, the VitaGlide™ increases range of motion and involves more muscle groups, resulting in a more effective and efficient workout when compared to traditional seated systems".

Gym Equipment There are very many types of gym equipment that may be suitable for you to use. Here are some Exercise Equipment

Make shift Items There are lots of household items that can be used to help with your exercise program. Strength training uses the lifting of 'free weights' or dumbbells. If you don't have 'free weights' or dumbbells try to find some cans of food that fit nicely in your hands. Be sure to have them weighed and make sure that they cannot drop and cause injury. There are specialist gloves that can help if your grip is not very good.

Combine wheelchair exercises while watching TV. You could lift your weights and combine exercise with some of your favourite television shows. This is particularly useful if you aren't motivated to set up a daily routine.

If you have not been very active for some time it can be difficult to know how to get started on an exercise routine. Finding a program that suits your capabilities, and one that will also hold your interest, can be quite a challenge. A good idea is to start with an easily attainable goal that you know that you can achieve within a short time frame. Tiny steps on the road to better fitness can be very rewarding and as progress is made so to confidence is built and interest improves.

Some of the benefits you'll achieve through strength training and wheelchair exercises include the ability to better perform daily activities such as pushing your wheelchair, holding or carrying items and transferring in and out of your wheelchair. Disabled people or wheelchair users often have what is called an inefficient 'push'. You can easily work these muscles. By just spending a few minutes every day building up and strengthening your muscles you'll find it much easier, regardless of your disability, to do many tasks that you have difficulty with now.

Sports as a means of exercise.

Wheelchair exercise can be most enjoyable when combined with sports. Don't forget that sport not only provides good exercise it is also highly sociable and good for the morale. More details are available on our Wheelchair Sports page. Remember that wheelchair exercises become most important when you take part in any sport be it a competitive sport or individual pursuit.

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