Jake Lawless says it’s a challenge for those with spinal cord injuries to get started in a fitness routine.
As a younger man, Jake Lawless would tell friends that if they had a car accident with him as a passenger, they had better kill him because he couldn’t bear to live his life in a wheelchair.
Then at 24, he fell off a roof and landed on his head. The injury left him a high functioning quadriplegic.
“My injury was my worst nightmare come true,” says Lawless, 38.
Lawless knew physical activity was the key to his recovery. He credits an intensive rehabilitation routine with helping him deal with his disability and learn to walk again, a skill he lost again after another accident destroyed his knee.
As reported in SPEC.COM November 12, 2011, now a peer support worker, Lawless teaches adults with spinal injuries of the value of staying fit. He notes the biggest challenge for many is finding out what to do.
That barrier has been knocked down by a new fitness guide developed by McMaster University researchers. It lists activities for people with spinal injuries, how much they should do each week, provides a weekly action plan and strategies to overcome obstacles.
“This helps people with spinal cord injuries get going,” says Kathleen Martin Ginis, a kinesiology professor.
Less than half of the estimated 86,000 Canadians with a spinal cord injury are physically active. While fitness is important for everyone, Martin Ginis notes that it is critical for people with disabilities who are at risk of further complications.
The leading cause of death for people with spinal injuries is chronic disease but little information is available on fitness.
“People with disabilities in general are forgotten when it comes to physical activity,” she says.
Lawless, who now lives in Ayr and is touring with the Rick Hansen relay, believes it provides vital information.
“The hardest part is starting,” he says, noting that the mental benefits are just as important as the physical.
“It’s critical for their quality of life,” agrees Bill Adair, executive director of the Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario.
One of his staff members with a spinal injury started has lost 13 pounds in five months following the Mac program and has never felt better. “It has made a huge difference.”
Try these activities
Manual chair
• Wheel for fun and endurance
• Cycle using hand cycle or stationary bike
• Swim
• Build strength with a resistance band
• Lift weights, even cans and water bottles will do
• Rake the lawn or shovel snow
Power chair
• Use a movement therapy machine like the Tutor system. (See below).
• Swim with assistance
• Use an arm ergometer
• Do standing frame exercises
• Dance
• Curl
• Use cable pulleys
• Practise yoga, Pilates or Tai Chi
The Tutor system (which includes the HandTutor, ArmTutor, LegTutor and 3DTutor) not only provides intensive exercises for the physically challenged but makes it fun as well. The newly developed Tutor system improves fine motor, sensory and cognitive impairments through those exercises and includes augmented feedback as well.
The exercises are designed in the form of challenging games that are suitable for a wide variety of neurological and orthopedic injury and disease. The games challenge the patient to perform the exercise task to their best ability. Rehabilitation games allow the patient to exercise Range of Motion (ROM), speed and accuracy of movement.
The ArmTutor™ , for example, allows for isolated and a combination of elbow and three directional shoulder treatment. The system provides detailed exercise performance instructions and precise feedback on the patients exercise performance. Controlled exercise of multijoints within the normal movement pattern prevents the development of undesired and compensatory joint movement and ensures better performance of functional tasks.
The Tutor system is also used in rehabilitation therapy for victims of Parkinson’s disease, MS, CP, Upper and lower limb surgeries, brain and spinal cord injuries and other disabling illnesses. It is currently in use in many leading rehabilitation centers worldwide and has full FDA and CE certification. See www.HandTutor.com
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