Wheelchair ergometers, like their bicycle counterparts, are used by people who normally navigate the world in wheelchairs to perform workouts without the need to leave the home or the gym. Both non-athletes with spinal injuries or other sources of low-limb immobility and competitive wheelchair athletes who race in track and road events can make use of these devices--which involve "cranking" similar to that used to propel a real wheelchair--to strengthen both their upper bodies and their cardiorespiratory systems.
Interval Training
Just as athletes in track and field, cycling, Nordic skiing and other sports largely dependent on cardiovascular and muscular endurance benefit from interval training--that is repeated short and high-intensity exercise bouts interspersed with specific rest periods--so do wheelchair users. A 2001 study of paraplegic men by Tordi et al. in which subjects performed wheelchair ergometry three times per week for four weeks, 30 minutes at a time, using various combinations of intensity, duration, and rest periods, resulted in significant fitness gains in a variety of areas, notably the ability to more easily maintain a given steady-state workload. In other words, interval training allows people to get around more easily at more accustomed levels of exertion.
Steady-State Training
Various studies have demonstrated the benefits of sustained ergometer training in spinal-cord-injury, or SCI, patients. For example, a 2003 study by Hicks et al demonstrated that after training using an ergometer twice a week for nine months for 90 to 120 minutes at a time at progressively higher intensities, participants in the SCI group made significantly greater gains in arm ergometry power output, muscle strength, and psychological well-being than did patients in a non-exercising control group. Their heart rate at a given level of work was, on average, significantly lower than at the beginning of the study a reliable indicator of improved fitness.
Starts From Rest
Because the ergometer tension can be calibrated to suit, a wheelchair ergometer is useful for practicing acceleration, which is of benefit to competitive wheeler athletes as it helps them shave fractions of seconds from their race times but also helps those in the general wheelchair population develop additional power and strength. This involves practicing a higher-than-usual rate of stroke cadence--about 100 to 150 per minute as opposed to the 50 to 80 normally seen in the steady state--and ensuring that the path of the follow-through is along the push ring.
References
- Spinal Cord, 2003, No. 8, 451--456: Effects of a wheelchair ergometer training programme on spinal cord-injured persons
- Spinal Cord, 2001, No. 10, 532-537: Interval training program on a wheelchair ergometer for paraplegic subjects
- Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 1990, No. 3, 295-312: Wheelchair racing sports science: A review
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