If you’re in a wheelchair, you may think it’s too hard to exercise as things you may be used to just won’t work now, but that’s not the case. In fact, you can do many things to exercise your body and reap the rewards that exercise brings to your life.
We all have in mind the benefits of exercise: it can reduce stress, increase flexibility and mobility, increase body awareness and muscle strength, and help maintain physical fitness. It’s also great for circulation, can stop blood clots from forming, and helps with spinal stability and posture, and let’s face it, exercise feels good and makes you feel good about yourself, mentally and physically.
Resistance training is used by professional and non-professional level athletes alike and can be tweaked a bit to work for those in wheelchairs as well. Best of all, resistance bands come in a variety of strengths so you can start small and build the resistance you want. Simply tie one end to a doorknob or other stable object and you’ll be able to do leg and arm extensions, side bends, or rowing exercises quite easily—just make sure the brakes are on before you start!
Wheelchair athletes can also perform strength training right from their chair, just be sure to do a proper warm-up of stretching before and a proper cool-down after to avoid injury. If you can, push-ups are possible from a chair. Simply use the armrests to lift your body up and gently lower yourself back down for five sets of reps. You can increase the number of sets you do as your exercise tolerance grows.
Another good exercise is overhead stretches where you sit up straight and extend your arms up as you breathe. Close your fingers and turn your palms toward the ceiling as you exhale and push your hands back slightly. Hold for a few seconds and again do reps of five to start. You can always increase the number whenever you want, but start small.
Free weights for bicep curls and lateral raises are also great ideas for working out in a wheelchair. Again, start small and increase the weight as you see fit.
Never feel like you can’t exercise just because you’re in a wheelchair, with just a little modification you can do anything you put your mind to!