T-12 SCI 1981 19 Years old. Now 62, 63 next month 43 years in a wheelchair. I never had a skin ulcer or bladder infection or any problems for 36 years. Then I got a TiLite wheelchair and they put a metal bar inthe back and my upholstery stretched out and unknown to me my tailbone was hitting it and I finally got skin ulcer. The rest of my butt is excellent. I could and was sitting on a cheap foam cushion. I could sit in my kayak flyfishing for 8 hours no problem. A fucking design flaw gave meskin ulcer break down! I also had my first UTI and now are battling them regularly. I don't have to cath. That saved me from UTI's for some36 years. I tighten my stomach muscles to force out my pee. My shoulders have also worn out and I have many shoulder problems. I recommend to EVERYONE with SCI to NOT workout lifting. You need to save your shoulders. Excessive lifting wrecks your rotator cuffs, causes impingements, arthritis etc and that affects your ability to transfer. I am losing my ability to transfer because of excess shoulderstrain. Mono skiing, surfing and swimming prior to SCI, lifting too much, bicycling, and just plain transfering and pushing my chair. Messed up my right hand sprained my thumb real bad transfering and it took 2 years to heal up because I had to transfer and it never got any rest. They won't give you shoulder or hand surgery because the rehabilitation requires NO USE of the hand or shoulder and that would me laying in a bed for 8-10+ weeks in a nursing home and no insurance will pay for that. So all you young guysthinking it is great to lift and build muscle you better take my advice. Less is more. Save your body and don't lift or over do it because when you get older iit is going to come back to haunt you guaranteed. You don't want to be 65, 70, 75 and unable to transfer because then you go from para to quad and that sucks. Good Luck.
T-4 SCI 1980 when I was 23. 67 now. Like you, I did everything when I was younger. I rode insane distances on my handcycle, did weight training and made all sorts of awkward transfers. I got tendonitis from the stress of using hand-controls in the aircraft in which I earned my pilot's license. I agree with you that you need to pace yourself and preserve your shoulder function. I've been through physical rehab three times for partially torn rotator cuffs. But when you are young it is so easy to be the "super gimp" as you prove to everyone that you can do nearly anything.
As a wheelchair user while pushing myself my palms are face down. Please explain why my palms should remain faced up while doing these curls? I'm having much difficulty, after 17 years in a manual wheelchair, with my wrists hurting and needing to be cracked very often while not using them to propel myself. I noticed in one of your videos that you twisted your wrists between up and down movements. Wouldn't it be better suggested in the case of manual wheelchair users to do that?
The advice for keeping the Palms facing up is because the biceps are fully contracted in this position. So this is more about maximising bicep training than it is about protecting wrists etc. to protect your wrist, I recommend having a look at my video on shoulders as the advice there is very similar to what I would give to somebody with elbow or wrist pain too. I will be doing a follow-up video specifically on those two areas in the near future
T-12 SCI 1981 19 Years old. Now 62, 63 next month 43 years in a wheelchair. I never had a skin ulcer or bladder infection or any problems for 36 years. Then I got a TiLite wheelchair and they put a metal bar inthe back and my upholstery stretched out and unknown to me my tailbone was hitting it and I finally got skin ulcer. The rest of my butt is excellent. I could and was sitting on a cheap foam cushion. I could sit in my kayak flyfishing for 8 hours no problem. A fucking design flaw gave meskin ulcer break down! I also had my first UTI and now are battling them regularly. I don't have to cath. That saved me from UTI's for some36 years. I tighten my stomach muscles to force out my pee. My shoulders have also worn out and I have many shoulder problems. I recommend to EVERYONE with SCI to NOT workout lifting. You need to save your shoulders. Excessive lifting wrecks your rotator cuffs, causes impingements, arthritis etc and that affects your ability to transfer. I am losing my ability to transfer because of excess shoulderstrain. Mono skiing, surfing and swimming prior to SCI, lifting too much, bicycling, and just plain transfering and pushing my chair. Messed up my right hand sprained my thumb real bad transfering and it took 2 years to heal up because I had to transfer and it never got any rest. They won't give you shoulder or hand surgery because the rehabilitation requires NO USE of the hand or shoulder and that would me laying in a bed for 8-10+ weeks in a nursing home and no insurance will pay for that. So all you young guysthinking it is great to lift and build muscle you better take my advice. Less is more. Save your body and don't lift or over do it because when you get older iit is going to come back to haunt you guaranteed. You don't want to be 65, 70, 75 and unable to transfer because then you go from para to quad and that sucks. Good Luck.
T-4 SCI 1980 when I was 23. 67 now. Like you, I did everything when I was younger. I rode insane distances on my handcycle, did weight training and made all sorts of awkward transfers. I got tendonitis from the stress of using hand-controls in the aircraft in which I earned my pilot's license.
I agree with you that you need to pace yourself and preserve your shoulder function. I've been through physical rehab three times for partially torn rotator cuffs. But when you are young it is so easy to be the "super gimp" as you prove to everyone that you can do nearly anything.
As a wheelchair user while pushing myself my palms are face down. Please explain why my palms should remain faced up while doing these curls?
I'm having much difficulty, after 17 years in a manual wheelchair, with my wrists hurting and needing to be cracked very often while not using them to propel myself. I noticed in one of your videos that you twisted your wrists between up and down movements. Wouldn't it be better suggested in the case of manual wheelchair users to do that?
The advice for keeping the Palms facing up is because the biceps are fully contracted in this position. So this is more about maximising bicep training than it is about protecting wrists etc. to protect your wrist, I recommend having a look at my video on shoulders as the advice there is very similar to what I would give to somebody with elbow or wrist pain too. I will be doing a follow-up video specifically on those two areas in the near future