UBCO work helps everyone stay active
Professor spearheads global exercise guidelines for those with spinal cord injuries
Sonja Gaudet was a 30-year-old mother of two young children when she was in a horseback riding accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down. “Instantly my life was changed,” said Gaudet. At the time, Gaudet’s children were three and six years old. “They were certainly my first priority and also my motivation to get back into a normal life really quickly,” she said. “My love of sport was something that also was really important to my rehab.”
Twenty-one years later, the Vernon resident is a three-time Paralympic curling champion.
“I was hoping I would still be able to do lots of different sports and activities, and I found out very quickly that I could,” she said.
UBC Okanagan researcher Kathleen Martin Ginis has developed exercise guidelines for people like Gaudet with spinal-cord injuries.
“These guidelines are a really great starting point for people with spinal-cord injuries to have an achievable goal that’s been formed around a safe way of doing exercise,” said Gaudet.
Although the World Health Organization has exercise guidelines in place, they are not suitable for people with spinal-cord injuries, said Martin Ginis. “The potential risks to the SCI population, including upper body overuse, skin breakdown, sudden high blood pressure and overheating, were not considered,” she said.
Martin Ginis found people with spinal-cord injuries should engage in at least 20 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity twice a week, along with strength training twice a week, consisting of three sets of eight to 10 repetitions of each exercise for each major muscle group.
Access to adaptive gym equipment suitable for people in wheelchairs is often a barrier to exercise, said Gaudet. UBC Okanagan currently has two machines that could be used by people in wheelchairs.
“I think there’s great enthusiasm for making our fitness facility more accessible,” said Martin Ginis.
Moving forward, Martin Ginis said she wants to do further testing of the spinal-cord injury exercise guidelines.
“Even though they are designed to improve fitness and cardio-metabolic health, I think there are a wide range of other health benefits that people can derive from the guidelines,” she said.
Martin Ginis’ team has a seven-year, $2.6million grant from the federal government to fund a variety of projects relating to the participation in exercise among people with disabilities, including the development of the spinalcord injury exercise guidelines.