HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL
1. Training Template: This is a 4 week outline of how you can progress and group exercises together based on the minimum recommended exercise guidelines for adults with spinal cord injuries.
2. Join our forum!
This forum is meant for individuals with spinal cord injuries to share their exercises with others. Additionally, there are monthly challenges we post here to help keep you motivated!
2. Track your progress!
There are many ways to keep track of your progress. Consider recording your frequency (reps and sets), and type of exercises, time (how long you worked out for total) consistently. Ways to determine your exercise intensity are provided below.
3. Set goals!
It is important to have both long term and short term goals when trying to stay physically active and healthy.
Rate of Perceived Exertion
If you are unable to monitor your vital signs (i.e. heart rate) this method has been shown to be an useful way for people to track how hard they are working out. This method is based on "the physical sensations a person experiences during physical activity, including increased heart rate, increased respiration or breathing rate, increased sweating, and muscle fatigue. The goal is to work out hard enough to feel that you are in the “somewhat hard” category, or around level 13 in the chart below.". (UAB, n.d.)
An additional method is provided below and may be more beneficial when doing cardio. It involves motioning if you can talk in correlation to the RPE scale.
Selecting the # of Reps & Exercise Intensity
Its important to base the reps/intensity of your exercises on what you are trying to target (i.e. strength, endurance, or motor control).
REFERENCES
Exercise & Fitness. University of Alabama. https://www.uab.edu/medicine/sci/daily-living/leisure/exercise-a-fitness. Updated 2020. Accessed September 6, 2020.
Martin Ginis KA, van der Scheer JW, Latimer-Cheung AE, et al. Evidence-based scientific exercise guidelines for adults with spinal cord injury: an update and a new guideline [published correction appears in Spinal Cord. 2018 Oct 4;:]. Spinal Cord. 2018;56(4):308-321. doi:10.1038/s41393-017-0017-3
Pelletier, C., Totosy de Zepetnek, J., MacDonald, M. et al. A 16-week randomized controlled trial evaluating the physical activity guidelines for adults with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 53, 363–367 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2014.167