Fortuna Aerobic and Body Language

Everyone needs some form of aerobic exercise to strengthen their heart and reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. This can be particularly challenging for those confined to a wheelchair. Are there aerobic exercises for the wheelchair bound that work?

Aerobic exercise is important not only for weight control, but it also helps to condition the heart, lower blood pressure, and reduce the risk of some chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Most aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, running, and cycling uses the lower body. Getting a good aeorbic workout can be a challenge for people confined to wheelchairs who have limited use of their legs. Are there aerobic exercises for wheelchair bound people that really work?

Aerobic Exercises for Wheelchair Bound People: No Legs Required

It isn’t necessary to use the lower body to get an aerobic workout. The only requirement is for a person to work hard enough to boost their heart rate into the aerobic training zone for at least twenty minutes. What’s the best way for a person confined to a wheelchair to get aerobically fit?

One of the best exercises for wheelchair bound people is to work out on a handcycle - a cycle that’s powered by the arm movements. “Pedaling” with the arms not only increases the heart rate, but builds upper body strength as well.

You can find hand-powered cycles designed to be taken out onto the street, or stationary handcycles made for indoor use. Both offer an excellent aerobic workout. A stationary handcycle can be used indoors regardless of weather and is safer since it doesn’t require attention to traffic. Handcycles may be too expensive for some people, but some health clubs offer them on-site.

Aerobic Exercises for Wheelchair Bound People: Other Options

Another good aerobic exercise for wheelchair bound people is swimming, although this requires access to a pool that has a wheelchair ramp - for easy entry into the pool. There are also lifts available for transporting a wheelchair bound person into the water. Wheelchair bound people who choose to swim for exercise should wear a life vest and never venture into the water alone.

Another aerobic exercise option for wheelchair bound people is a wheelchair-accessible rowing machine. These can be purchased online for under $500 and offer a challenging upper body workout by adjusting the resistance while increasing the heart rate for cardiovascular fitness.

Aerobic Exercises for Wheelchair Bound People: Chair Aerobics

There are a variety of videos available offering instruction in “chair aerobics”. These exercises are designed to increase heart rate without standing up. Not all of these videos will be appropriate for people who are wheelchair bound since some require use of the legs. There are chair aerobic workouts specifically made for people in wheelchairs and involve only the upper body – such as wheelchair boxing.

Another option for sport-minded people is to participate in wheelchair sports groups. There are ones available for wheelchair basketball, table tennis, swimming, and more. If that isn’t desirable, simply going to a school track or park and wheel chairing around the park offers a good aerobics workout.

Aerobic Exercises for Wheelchair Bound People: The Bottom Line?Aerobic Exercises for Wheelchair Bound People: The Bottom Line?

There are a variety of exercises that work well for people confined to a wheelchair. Choose one that’s enjoyable - and do it regularly for better health and fitness.

Water, a precious gift bestowed on us by Mother Nature, forms a major part of our body constitution. In fact, 2/3 of our body weight is water. The very composition of our body is like that blood is 83% water, muscles are 75% water, brain is 74% water and bone is 22% water. Water is necessary for the very survival of human beings, as it ensures the smooth functioning of body systems.

Pregnancy is one of the most awaited stages in a women's life. It is also one of the most delicate phases in life and that is why it is very important to ensure fitness and wellbeing in this stage. In order to be able to carry out the entire stage of motherhood pleasantly and joyfully, it is very necessary to remain in a happy and comfort zone throughout this period. For ensuring a stress less and healthy gestation phase, it is very important for any pregnant women to carry on with light physical activities in form of daily household works and light exercises.

• It helps to fight against stress, by providing complete relaxation to your mind.
• It protects you from the clutches of diseases like osteoporosis, colon cancer, constipation etc.
• It increases the longevity of your life, by maintaining your fitness.
• It helps in reducing the problem of depression, thus enabling you to derive mental peace.
• It relieves you from backache trouble and also acts as a great remedy for arthritis problem.
• It helps in increasing your flexibility, by strengthening your muscles, bones and joints, thereby toning your body.
• It ensures that you have a proper sleep at night.

• Cycling minimizes the risk of coronary heart disease. Essentially an aerobic exercise, it gives your heart, blood vessels and lungs a workout, thereby reducing the risk of heart problems.
• A few miles of cycling per day assure trimmer and toned muscles. This is because your upper thigh muscles, backside and calf muscles all get to workout.
• Pursuing cycling helps a great deal in building your stamina. It enables you to carry out your day-to-day activities more effectively.
• For people, who are on the heavier side, cycling can prove to be beneficial. It manages weight and helps in getting rid of increased waistline and bulging fat.
• The pleasure and satisfaction attained while riding a bicycle alleviates all the stress, anxiety and depression of a person.
• This might come to you as a surprise, but cycling ensures a control in the level of blood pressure.
• Cycling enhances the overall fitness level of a person. It makes you breathe deeper and perspire more, thereby leading to a feeling of enhanced body temperature.
• Cycling has found to be effective for treating people diagnosed with diabetes and cancer.

• A complete leisure activity, cycling gives you the opportunity to spend time with friends.
• A chance to meet new people and discover new places cannot be ruled out as well.
• Cycling is a complete environmental friendly activity. Unlike other means of transport, it lets out no harmful chemicals in the air.
• Cycling can prove to be the best mode to move around your local area without any difficulty.

• It is very important to be consistent in your workout. You need to stick to your body building program and work give in your best.
• The best bet would be to stick to the basics - remember dead lifts, dumbbell presses, chins, squats, military presses and heavy bicep curls will never fail.
• Give your body enough time to recover between workouts.
• High nutritious diet is a must. The meal should include rice, pasta, oatmeal, vegetables, chicken, lean beef, tuna and other staple foods that bodybuilders indulge in.
• A good sleep of 8 hours is a must. This would give you time to recover and also boost your energy levels.

• Do not perform the same exercise day after day. A change in program is advised; otherwise you would not make a progress.
• Do not substitute good food with supplements.
• Do not ignore injuries or signs of overtraining.
• Lastly, do not stress out and let negativity preside over your mind.

It is of extreme importance to know your target aerobic heart rate, so as to make sure that you are carrying out the right workout and that too in a proper manner. People often tend to get confused as to how to determine target aerobic heart rate. Well, there are different factors, on the basis of which your right heart rate is decided, to say for example, age is one such major factor. We cannot expect a youngster's target heart rate to be the same as that of a 60-year-old man.

Optimal Physical Health

The Surgeon General has determined that lack of physical activity is detrimental to your health and recommends moderate activity: 150 calories per day or 1000 calories per week. The American College of Sports Medicine suggest all adults should engage in 30 minutes or more of moderately intense physical activity daily. This level of activity corresponds to 200 kcals a day (Pate RR, Pratt M, Blair SN, et al 1995). See Calorie Expenditure Calculator.
Other authorities suggest that the least amount of activity for optimal physical health is about 1500-2000 kcals a week of light and moderately intense activities. Additional physical health benefits come with increased intensity and eventually level off at around 3500 kcals per week (Peterson & Bryant 1995).
Children and adolescents are recommended to engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week (USDA 2005).

Fat Loss

The ACSM recommends to target a weekly exercise expenditure of approximately 1000 kcals a week (e.g. 3 sessions of 300 Calories or 4 sessions of 200 Calories) (ACSM 1995). See Calorie Expenditure Calculator.
Review of the scientific literature suggests that moderately intense aerobic activity needs to be performed most days of the week to bring about significant fat loss. Some sources recommend brisk walking progressing to 45 minutes or more daily. Other authorities recommend working up to 60-90 minutes of daily physical activity for weight loss.
The USDA recommends at least 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderately intense physical activity while not exceeding caloric intake requirements to sustain weight loss in adulthood. About 60 minutes a day may be needed to prevent weight gain. (USDA 2005).
Alternating weight bearing with non-weight bearing exercises every other day may be recommended to minimize the repetitive orthopedic stresses of exercising daily. See Overtraining. The combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise may utilize more fat than either type of exercise alone. See Fat Loss.

Cardiovascular Fitness

For cardiorespiratory fitness ACSM (2000) recommends intensities between 55% and 65% to 90% of maximum heart rate, or between 40% and 50% to 85% of oxygen uptake reserve (VO2R) or Heart Rate Reserve (HHR). ACSM suggests low-fit or deconditioned individuals may experience improvements at exercise intensities of only 40% to 49% HRR or 55% to 64% Maximum Heart Rate (HRmax). Skinner et. al. (2004) remarks, "Because 'quite unfit', sedentary subjects are already doing enough activity in their daily lives to maintain a VO2 ventilatory threshold at levels that are generally greater than 50% VO2R, it is not necessary to reduce the prescribed intensity to 40% VO2R, as recommended by the ACSM."
Cardiovascular fitness improvement is dependent upon the exercise program (mode, frequency, duration, intensity of exercise) as well as the individual participant (fitness level, age, and health status). Also see Running Risk / Benefit Study. For the average person aerobic training programs typically produce an increase of VO2 of 5% to 20% (Pollock 1973). Those with low initial levels of fitness and those exhibiting large losses of body weight will exhibit up to a 40% improvement of VO2 max. Similarly, only modest improvements may be expected from individuals with high initial levels of fitness or those who exhibit little change in body weight (ACSM 1995).
Intensity, duration, and frequency are somewhat inversely proportional. If one component increases, the others may be decreased to a degree. When a program has been established intensity is the least forgiving component for cardiovascular fitness. An increase of duration or frequency can not make up for a significant decrease of intensity without a decrease of cardiovascular fitness.
Cardiovascular fitness can be expressed as maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max). This is the amount of oxygen the body can utilize per unit weight per unit time [ml / (kg x min)]. Since measuring oxygen consumption directly is not feasible, many methods of measuring VO2 max have been developed. These cardiovascular tests have been validated by measuring the direct correlation of VO2 max and estimate cardiovascular fitness. These results of a cardiovascular fitness test can be used to prescribe an exercise program based on the participant's fitness level. See Aerobic Testing.
The inclusion of resistance training is important for a sound overall exercise program but will not significantly increase VO2 max. Circuit weight training (e.g. 10 to 15 repetitions with 15 to 30 seconds between weight stations) improves VO2 max an average of about 5%. For this reason circuit training is not generally recommended as an activity to improve cardiovascular fitness. (ACSM 1995).

Sports Performance

In general, the best exercise for a specific sport is the sport itself. Additional exercises should condition the particular components of fitness specific to the sport. The specific muscles involved, type of muscular contraction, intensity, duration, recovery time, and motor skill must be considered. Specific components of the sport may need to be trained separately. See Sports Conditioning Program. Periodization may be implemented for continued progress and for specialization of particular components. For periodization examples, see Marathon Training, Cycling, Triathlon, and weight training periodization. Also see Training Specificity.

I defined aerobic exercise for you in the introduction. It's any activity that stimulates your heart rate and breathing to increase but not so much that you can't sustain the activity for more than a few minutes. Aerobic means "with oxygen," and anaerobic means "without oxygen." Anaerobic exercise is the type where you get out of breath in just a few moments, like when you lift weights for improving strength, when you sprint, or when you climb a long flight of stairs.

Imagine that you're exercising. You're working up a sweat, you're breathing hard, your heart is thumping, blood is coursing through your vessels to deliver oxygen to the muscles to keep you moving, and you sustain the activity for more than just a few minutes. That's aerobic exercise (also known as "cardio" in gym lingo); any activity that you can sustain for more than just a few minutes while your heart, lungs, and muscles work overtime. In this article, I'll discuss the mechanisms of aerobic exercise: oxygen transport and consumption, the role of the heart and the muscles, the proven benefits of aerobic exercise, how much you need to do to reap the benefits, and more.