A physically handicapped person often has a variety of challenges to deal with on a daily basis. From preparing meals to grocery shopping or maintaining a regular exercise routine, a physical disability can make a relatively simple task quite challenging. In fact, the challenges of exercise for the physically handicapped involve physical and emotional issues.
Reduced Range of Motion
A physical handicap often leaves a person with a reduced range of motion in a specific area of the body. A variety of factors may cause this loss of movement, including muscle breakdown, bone weakness and joint deformities. A regular exercise routine may help improve the overall range of motion. However, exercises should be personalized to match the exact limitations of each body part. The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America explains that "it is important to place greater emphasis on the affected side without neglecting the nonaffected side."
Pain/Feeling
Some people with a physical handicap have lost all sense of feeling to a specific area of the body. For example, a patient with left leg paralysis typically cannot feel any external or internal pain in the affected leg. As such, it becomes increasingly difficult for the person to exercise safely. Since a person with loss of feeling cannot feel pain, she may unknowingly injure herself while exercising. On the other hand, other people with a physical handicap experience significant pain while exercising. For these people, exercise is often a dreadful and excruciating experience. For example, a person with rheumatoid arthritis may find it unbearable to simply walk or catch a ball.
Wheelchair
In some cases, patients with a physical handicap require the constant use of a wheelchair. Since these patients must remain seated, exercise proves to be a tricky task. However, the legs and arms should continue to be exercised with resistance bands, free weights and dumbbells. Certain fitness machines may also be accessible to wheelchairs. That said, people confined to wheelchairs should never exercise alone.
Paralysis
In severe cases of paralysis, the patient may be physically unable to exercise his own body. To avoid excessive muscle breakdown and reduced range of motion, a physical therapist or caregiver can manually exercise the patient's joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Range of motion exercises involve bending, extending, contracting and moving different areas of the body in a smooth fashion. They are often done for all major joints in the body, including the ankles, knees, hips, elbows and shoulders.
Emotional Challenges
Although a person's handicap may be physical, it likely has a strong emotional impact as well. People with physical handicaps often become frustrated with their inability to perform certain tasks or complete certain actions. Additionally, physically handicapped people might also feel uncomfortable or frustrated exercising around people without disabilities. In an effort to ease this emotional challenge, fitness centers should aim to not only welcome, but also cater to, physically handicapped patrons.
References
- Disabled World: Isometrics for the Physically Challenged
- The Wheelchair Site: Wheelchair Exercises
- Disabled World: Wheelchair Exercises and Fitness
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America: Exercise and Physical Activity In Persons Aging With A Physical Disability
- Sci-Info-Pages: Spinal Cord Injury Range of Motion Exercises
