Body and Spirit

Wheelchair Fitness

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Andrew Hard, Dick Nunez, Rick Nunez

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Series Code: BAS

Program Code: BAS000075


00:02 The following program is designed to demonstrate
00:04 simple workouts that you can use to improve your health.
00:08 Be sure to consult your physician
00:10 before beginning any exercise program.
00:15 Today we're gonna be covering a topic
00:17 that is very unusual for most people
00:19 and that's how to train if you're in a wheelchair.
00:21 So we're gonna be doing wheelchair fitness.
00:23 Stay tune next for Body & Spirit.
00:54 Hello, I'm Dick Nunez, exercise physiologist
00:56 and principal of Miracle Meadows
00:57 and Mountain State Leadership Academy in West Virginia.
01:00 Welcome to Body & Spirit.
01:02 Oftentimes people think that if you're in a wheelchair,
01:04 your exercise days are over, and that's not true.
01:07 There's lot's of good things you can do
01:08 even if you're wheelchair bound.
01:10 So we're gonna get started right now
01:12 on a good exercise program just for you.
01:14 And helping me out today will be Rick and Andrew,
01:17 both students at the Mountain State Leadership Academy.
01:19 And Rick is also my son.
01:22 We look forward to having a good workout here today.
01:25 Obviously fellows, we're gonna be doing
01:26 this from a seated position.
01:28 So let's have a seat here.
01:31 There are many reasons
01:32 why somebody might be in a wheelchair.
01:35 Oftentimes it's a because they're paraplegic
01:38 or they're of course could be quadriplegic
01:40 which in that case its going to be very difficult
01:41 to do pretty much any exercise.
01:43 And for those who are paraplegic
01:44 or just having trouble getting around
01:47 and many people on wheelchair,
01:48 they still have the nerve function well in place.
01:51 They're just not able to do enough to get up and around.
01:54 And I have great respect for nerve disorders,
01:57 because I have one happened in my neck about 15 years ago,
02:00 where I actually lost 90 percent of strength
02:02 in my right arm overnight.
02:04 And you really don't realize
02:05 what it's like to have a neurological impingement
02:08 unless you have it.
02:09 I cannot relate to being in a wheelchair
02:11 or having to be stuck there,
02:13 and so I really can't come up to somebody
02:15 who is in a wheelchair and go I understand,
02:16 because I really don't.
02:18 But I can also look at it
02:19 from a perspective of trying to help them
02:21 and see what we can do to give them as much as possible.
02:24 And I know there are people who have been in wheelchairs
02:26 who have gotten out of wheelchairs,
02:28 because they've gone into good fitness programs,
02:30 strengthen up their legs.
02:31 And were now able to get up and going.
02:33 So we're gonna do a lot of upper body exercise today.
02:36 And we're also trying to do a little bit of leg exercise
02:38 all though it won't be applicable for everybody.
02:41 So let's go and get started and we gonna warm up
02:43 with just little bit of arms circling.
02:49 I've had several people come up to me
02:50 who are in wheelchairs.
02:52 There were so thankful that we actually did a program
02:54 here last season on 3ABN for wheelchair fitness
02:58 and we're excited to be able to have a chance
03:00 to do another one.
03:03 Okay, let's go about five more.
03:10 All right, now we're gonna just reach out.
03:14 Well this way, just keep alternating it
03:20 and it's ten more each way.
03:24 It's one, and two,
03:29 three, four,
03:34 five, six, seven,
03:42 eight, nine and ten.
03:47 Now we're gonna take the same type of motion.
03:49 This time we're gonna block ourself with the other hand.
03:51 We're gonna give us self resistance
03:53 as we go out all the way and back in.
03:59 This is giving us some chest work
04:01 and while try and bring the arm across the body.
04:06 Ideally when we work the chest traditionally people
04:09 who do like bench pressing
04:10 which is simply pushing straight out.
04:12 They don't get the full motion of the chest
04:14 which actually is to bring the arm across,
04:16 because it horizontally adducts the humerus
04:19 which is your upper bone and brings it across.
04:22 So in order to get full motion of the peck,
04:24 we actually need to do a crossing type motion.
04:27 And I catch up with you guys, have many we've done Andrew.
04:30 Okay, let's do ten more.
04:32 One, two, three,
04:39 four, five, six,
04:45 seven, three more,
04:47 eight, nine, one more time and ten, good.
04:53 Let's switchover to other side.
04:54 Press, press, press,
05:00 full range of motion each time.
05:05 Press, press,
05:12 and its nine, ten.
05:15 Ten more, one, and two,
05:20 three, four, five,
05:25 six, seven, eight,
05:31 nine and ten.
05:34 So press the hands together in the middle hard.
05:37 Now out and back, out and back,
05:42 out and back, out and back.
05:47 Keep it up, and seven.
05:50 We're going to 20, Andrew.
05:54 As we know many people
05:55 who are in wheelchairs have had tremendous success in life
06:01 doing a lot of things they want to do.
06:03 Its wheelchair basketball, wheelchair Olympics.
06:06 You can still be very active
06:07 and very healthy despite being in a wheelchair.
06:12 How many we are on?
06:14 Okay, let's pull our hands back up
06:17 like this in a prayerful position.
06:19 Now we're gonna push as hard as we can.
06:20 Push, push, push
06:25 and we're gonna go ten more seconds,
06:27 one, two, three, four, five,
06:32 six, seven, eight, nine
06:36 and ten, good, relax.
06:38 And stretch out, put your arms back.
06:43 Chest stretch and now come across.
06:49 Pull the shoulder blades out.
06:54 Okay, and back.
06:56 I personally have had the joy of training several people
06:58 that were in wheelchairs,
07:00 and have seen just tremendous progress.
07:02 We had a young man come out
07:03 to our Wellness Center at Spinal Bethesda,
07:06 and he did a tremendous job
07:07 and dramatically increased his strength
07:10 and found a whole new life for himself
07:11 as he continues to working out to this day.
07:15 Also he watches this program,
07:16 so if he isn't working out this program
07:19 will certainly stimulate him
07:20 that in fact that he still should be doing so.
07:22 Okay, relax okay we're gonna go to back training now.
07:26 We gonna reach out.
07:28 Grab the wrists, pull back and out.
07:34 And pull and out, pull and out.
07:41 We're gonna do 20 repetitions.
07:43 Seven, eight, this one is designed to work
07:47 latissimus dorsi.
07:49 Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
07:57 fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
08:03 three more, eighteen,
08:06 nineteen last one and twenty, good.
08:10 Other side, pull and reach,
08:13 and pull and reach, pull and reach.
08:19 There's four, five, six, seven,
08:27 eight, nine and ten more.
08:32 It's one, and two, three,
08:38 four, five, six, seven,
08:45 eight, nine and ten.
08:49 Now from seated position,
08:51 we're gonna drive our elbows back,
08:52 squeezing the scapula together,
08:55 and back out, and back and out.
08:59 Squeezes scapula back, out and squeeze and out,
09:05 squeeze out, squeeze and out,
09:10 its number seven, out, eight and out,
09:16 and nine out, ten each way out.
09:21 Eleven and twelve,
09:26 thirteen, fourteen,
09:30 fifteen, sixteen four more, seventeen,
09:37 eighteen two more, nineteen last one, twenty.
09:42 Hold that for ten seconds.
09:44 Squeeze hard, one, two, three,
09:48 four, five, six, seven, eight,
09:54 nine, ten, good.
09:56 Pull arm over the head, pull.
10:02 Pull for ten more seconds,
10:07 five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten, switch over.
10:14 We're gonna hold each stretch for about 10 to 15 seconds,
10:18 or 10 to 20 seconds somewhere around that range.
10:22 And you don't wanna overdo,
10:23 you just wanna feel a good stretch on the muscle.
10:27 Four more seconds, one, two, three and four, good.
10:33 Shake it out.
10:35 Okay, we're gonna go after the shoulders next.
10:37 And the way we're gonna do that is we're gonna reach up.
10:40 We're gonna alternate pushing our arm up
10:43 just going from shoulder on up.
10:50 You can use dumbbells
10:51 while you do this or some cans of food
10:54 that are of equal weight or fill up
10:56 a couple of Clorox jugs with water or sand.
10:59 Make sure again they're equal weight
11:00 and you can use this.
11:01 This would be like an alternate dumbbell press.
11:04 But even without weight,
11:05 pretty soon you start to feel those shoulders
11:07 also in the arms feel like weight.
11:10 Let's go ten more each way.
11:12 It's one and two
11:17 and three and four,
11:21 five, six, seven,
11:26 eight, nine and ten.
11:31 Okay we're gonna pull one arm our in front of us
11:33 and put the other arm on top of it.
11:35 And rise up and push down
11:37 and up and down and up and down very good.
11:42 Keeps it going?
11:43 It's four, five, six,
11:48 seven, go on to 20,
11:51 eight, nine, ten, ten more.
11:57 One, and two,
12:01 and three, four, five.
12:05 Five more, six, seven, eight,
12:11 two more, nine and ten.
12:15 Good, switch and down up and down,
12:21 it's three, tension on, four,
12:25 five, six, seven,
12:32 eight, nine ten.
12:37 Good, ten more.
12:38 Eleven, twelve, thirteen,
12:43 fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
12:51 eighteen, nineteen and twenty, good.
12:56 Did you feel those Rick?
12:57 Oh, yeah. How about you Andrew?
12:58 I can feel them.
13:00 All right, lets spend over a little bit.
13:02 Okay, we're gonna take the elbows at a 90 degree.
13:04 We're gonna raise up,
13:06 it's kind like a chicken winging exercise.
13:08 We're gonna look pretty funny
13:09 when they get on all three of us,
13:10 we're gonna look like a bunch of chickens
13:11 trying to fly here.
13:15 This is working a posterior aspect of the deltoid region.
13:19 Up, and up, and up, up,
13:24 is without doing any resistance per se,
13:27 we are trying to do 30 of these.
13:33 Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
13:37 twenty, ten more.
13:39 One, and two, and three,
13:44 four, five, six, seven,
13:50 eight, nine and ten.
13:54 Now we're gonna get a hold of wrist.
13:55 We're gonna pull the arm up and back down.
13:58 Up and down. Up and down.
14:02 Up and down. Keep going, going for 20 Andrew.
14:07 People who are in wheelchairs need lot of shoulder strength.
14:11 And I think we're starting to feel
14:12 our shoulders pretty well. I know I am feeling mine.
14:17 This one is up tying in the trapezius area.
14:23 It's fourteen. Yeah.
14:24 Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
14:30 eighteen, nineteen,
14:32 and I'm feeling those traps now to twenty good.
14:36 Up trapezius are the muscles
14:38 that come of on each side of your head
14:40 that are on the sides of the neck.
14:42 Football players tend to get real pronounced
14:44 trapezius muscles, the muscle right into here.
14:48 You have it on each side
14:49 and that muscles are very long muscle,
14:51 it goes from the occipital protuberance of your skull
14:53 which is the back of your head all the way down
14:56 to the thoracic vertebrae.
15:01 So it's a very long muscle.
15:11 Okay, good.
15:13 All right now just roll the shoulders.
15:15 In fact I remember I think it's T-12.
15:17 It goes all way down to the very last thoracic vertebrae.
15:20 So it's a very long muscle.
15:22 And basically engulfs
15:24 all the rest of muscles in you upper back.
15:31 Good, lift the shoulders way up high.
15:34 This again is bringing trapezius into play.
15:40 Three more. Okay, let's go the other direction.
15:46 This is also working levator scapulae
15:48 which is the muscle that I had knot up on me that,
15:50 put me into such a tizzy.
15:52 It took me ten years to rehabilitate my right arm.
15:55 It's a very long and painful ordeal.
15:57 When you're thirty years old and all sudden
15:58 you have 90 percent of strength in your arm gone,
16:01 it's a frustrating thing.
16:08 Okay we're gonna do five more,
16:11 one, two, three, four, five,
16:17 now straight up and down, up and down.
16:20 We'll do 20 of these,
16:22 it's four, five, six, seven,
16:28 eight, nine, ten, eleven,
16:34 twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
16:38 fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
16:43 eighteen, nineteen and twenty, good.
16:47 Okay, let's turn our head to the side.
16:51 Turn, and turn, and turn,
16:59 three more times each way.
17:01 You turn, its one, turn, turn and its two,
17:08 turn and turn, there's three, good.
17:12 You gonna hold your arm.
17:13 Pull it across your chest.
17:16 Hold it ten more seconds,
17:20 one, two, three, four, five, six,
17:26 seven, eight, nine and ten, switch.
17:35 Ten more seconds, one, two,
17:38 three, four, five, six, seven,
17:43 eight, nine, ten, good.
17:47 Nice, get a couple of breaths into the nose,
17:50 out through the mouth, into the nose,
17:54 out through the mouth, and we time in and out.
18:01 All right, keep hands on the abdomen.
18:04 We're gonna contract the abdomen forward.
18:07 And we're gonna layback contract and layback.
18:12 We're gonna blow out as we come forward,
18:14 then back blow out. Forward and back,
18:19 blow out and back blow out and back again.
18:28 When you do this exercise
18:29 its real focus on the isolating of the abdominal wall.
18:37 You have to focus on contracting abdominal each time.
18:43 Good, keep going.
18:50 Let's do ten more,
18:54 it's two, and three,
18:59 and four, five, six,
19:06 seven, and eight, nine,
19:14 now we're gonna hold our contraction here,
19:16 and hold that for 20 seconds.
19:18 Tying the abdominal hard
19:20 as if somebody is gonna punch you right in the belly.
19:25 It's ten, fifteen, sixteen,
19:32 seventeen, eighteen, nineteen,
19:35 now push, push back into the chair.
19:39 We gonna hold that for 20 seconds.
19:44 It's five, ten, eleven,
19:51 twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,
19:55 sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
19:58 nineteen and twenty.
20:01 Now the next sequence of exercise
20:03 is not everybody may be able to do.
20:05 We're gonna try to move the legs a little bit.
20:07 So we gonna put one leg out
20:09 and we're just going to try raise it up a bit and down.
20:12 Up and down. Up and down, up and down.
20:18 Even if you just barely contract
20:20 the leg muscle, that's fine.
20:22 It will get you on the way back.
20:24 Nine, ten, we're gonna to twenty,
20:27 eleven, twelve, thirteen,
20:32 fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
20:39 eighteen, nineteen and twenty.
20:42 Now we wanna have the leg up extended.
20:45 If you need somebody to help you lift your leg out.
20:48 That will be fine.
20:50 But we're gonna try and hold that for thirty seconds
20:52 tightening the thigh the whole time.
20:54 Feel your leg, so you know you're contracting it.
20:58 You gonna keep holding it.
21:00 And hold it for twenty more seconds.
21:03 It's an important step in recovery
21:05 as to get the static contractions down.
21:10 Yeah, ten more seconds.
21:11 One, two, three, four, five,
21:16 six, seven, eight, nine and ten.
21:22 Okay, lets' go the other side.
21:24 Up and down, we're gonna do 20 of those first.
21:33 Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
21:40 twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
21:44 fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
21:48 eighteen, nineteen, twenty, now hold it out.
21:54 Here we're gonna go for 30 seconds.
21:58 Flex the way as hard you can.
22:02 You may just be trying to hold
22:03 your foot up and that's okay.
22:05 We all start somewhere,
22:06 if you've to drop your leg, that's fine too.
22:08 Working on it, get stronger.
22:14 And we're down to ten more seconds.
22:16 One, two, three, four, five,
22:21 six, seven, eight, nine and ten.
22:27 Now I want you to just to dig your foot into the ground.
22:30 Or if you're in the chair, it's going to be coming up
22:32 against that chair and just contract your hamstring.
22:36 If you can't reach back and feel your hamstring.
22:38 We're gonna try and contract that for 30 seconds as well.
22:42 Again a very important part of training,
22:44 you have to balance the muscle
22:45 between quadriceps and the hamstrings.
22:48 If you get any tension at all,
22:49 that's starting in the right direction.
22:51 That should give you encouragement and hope.
22:54 If you can still move your leg,
22:55 then we really want to get them stronger.
22:57 Ten more seconds, here.
22:59 One, two, three, four, five,
23:04 six, seven, eight, nine and ten.
23:09 The other side, put it on the ground, pull back.
23:14 Again we're gonna hold for 30 seconds.
23:18 Flex the hamstrings as much as you can.
23:22 Pull against it. There's ten seconds.
23:27 Pulling, pull, pull, pull, good keep pulling.
23:34 Ten more seconds, one, two,
23:38 three, four, five, six, seven,
23:43 eight, nine and ten.
23:46 Get a hold of your leg and the knee,
23:48 pull up to the chest.
23:52 You pull for 15 seconds.
23:59 And we've got five more seconds.
24:01 Four, three, two, one.
24:05 Switch. Fifteen seconds on this side.
24:11 We're now to our last ten, nine,
24:14 eight, seven, six, five, four,
24:19 three, two, one good.
24:23 Let's go back to upper body, we're gonna do the arms.
24:26 Lean forward.
24:28 Get a hold of your wrist your palm up.
24:31 Curl your arm up and back down, up and down.
24:37 Somebody is in a wheelchair and he has very strong arms.
24:40 So we're gonna do 25 of these.
24:42 Six, seven, eight, make yourself work,
24:48 nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
24:54 Because all the wheelchairs today are motorized,
24:56 so they don't need such strong arms after all.
24:59 Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
25:05 nineteen, twenty, twenty one,
25:10 twenty two, twenty three,
25:13 twenty four one more time twenty five.
25:16 And switch and curl and down curl down,
25:20 focus on the bicep as you are working.
25:24 There's five, we got 20 more.
25:26 Six, seven palms should stay up.
25:31 You gonna have the arm in supine position.
25:36 It's ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
25:43 fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
25:48 seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.
25:54 One two, three, four, and five.
26:01 Let's block here, press and press.
26:05 Three, four, five, six, seven,
26:12 eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
26:20 thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.
26:25 We're gonna stop at twenty seventeen.
26:28 Eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, good.
26:32 Switch over press, and press, press, good.
26:41 Five and six, seven,
26:43 extend the arm all the way down.
26:45 Eight, nine, ten, eleven,
26:51 twelve thirteen, fourteen,
26:55 fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
27:00 eighteen, nineteen, one more time and twenty.
27:04 Shake your arms out. Get a couple of breathes.
27:10 One more time, and out.
27:15 Okay, fellows, that's it. Thank you.
27:20 Being in a wheelchair is gonna make fun for anybody
27:23 and some can actually get out of the wheelchair
27:25 if they just get exercising and take care of themselves.
27:27 For those who cannot get out of the wheelchair anymore,
27:29 you can still be a testimony of strength
27:32 and perseverance by getting your regular exercise program
27:34 and showing people just how determine you are.
27:37 For those who are able to walk around
27:40 and can have that movement.
27:42 You should be doing everything
27:43 you can to make sure you stay that way.
27:45 And remember always to do it for the glory of God.
27:48 Philippians 4:13 says,
27:49 "I can do all things through Christ,
27:51 who strengthens me."
27:52 God bless you, see you next time.


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Revised 2014-12-17