Regular exercise is important for maintaining health, especially for wheelchair users. However, exercise equipment to be used with a wheelchair is not always readily accessible, adjustable, or effective. A team of Michigan Tech mechanical engineering, kinesiology and physical therapy students are collaborating on developing new exercise equipment for wheelchair users. Steven Elmer leads the team, which works to bridge the gap between engineering and rehabilitation.
Elmer is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, and also holds affiliated appointments in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics and Biological Sciences. Over the past several months and into the New Year, Elmer’s team is bringing ten wheelchair users to campus in order to use the specially designed exercise equipment and measure how it impacts upper body muscles.
“All of our wheelchair participants are enthusiastic about being healthy and independent,” Elmer says, explaining that the exercise equipment uses a specialized motor-driven arm cycle to “provide a high-intensity workout for upper body muscles, but without overtaxing the heart and lungs.”
Wheelchair users can do this type of exercise regardless of their fitness level to help strengthen their upper body muscles. Having increased strength and fitness can help individuals be more independent and ultimately have better quality of life.
Especially while recovering from an injury and adjusting to life in a wheelchair, upper body exercise is important, but can be difficult if the individual’s cardiovascular system can’t keep up. Long term, it’s crucial for wheelchair users to have strong upper body muscles in order to do everyday activities like pushing their wheelchair and transferring in or out of bed.
To get at those muscles, the exercise equipment works elbow, shoulder, and trunk muscles using eccentric movement. That’s a lengthening movement, like slowly setting down something heavy. And while lowering a heavy couch or doing a reverse bicep curl with a 50-pound weight is dangerous, doing smaller, controlled eccentric motions can help wheelchair users build up strength faster.
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