Exercise After Spinal Cord Injury: Why Do It?

[Music] exercising after an sei is just as important as it is for able-bodied people the benefits may be slower you have to monitor things a little differently but it is important that they try to find a way to exercise and there is positive benefits if they do my philosophy on exercise and especially working with people spinal cord injury and disability I think kind of focuses on the intersection between two things obviously we want the program to be effective and we also want to a sustainable you could have the most effective program in the world if people don't do it doesn't really matter yeah how can we help people to stick to their program right to make exercise and physical activity more of a lifestyle behavior glass Luca since most six years now been working out at Parc defense our physical activity Research Center I'm lucky that it's not too far from my home so it's this place that I can access pretty much every day honestly in the last three years or so you know in being at park all the time minutes I haven't had any problems which is huge for me you know not having to give up doing stuff and even simple stuff like being independent and transferring on your own that's a stuff I'm not willing to give up or risk and so it's you know it's worth the extra work that it sometimes is but so far so good some of the health benefits for exercise for people with STI some of them are very similar to the able-bodied population but the big ones we think about our decrease risks for things like cardiovascular disease things like decrease pain we see decreases and depression and anxiety improve mood and energy but one of the big things that I I think is a particular motive ATAR and a benefit is the social benefit right so maybe it means being part of a team or meeting new people I think those are really important benefits to emphasize that's something we often talk about but I think that for a lot of people that would be one of the biggest things just being in a safe environment but you're not gonna have people judging you're looking at if you're doing things differently and you can feel comfortable to try things and you know ask questions and get whatever help it is you need so there's a lot of the social aspect of it as well that that the gym offers and the exercise offers there is Sun there's a lot of camaraderie about all winters may see some of you that comes in and it's kind of cool how some of us who are been here for years can connect with them encourage them and say hey you know what right now it sucks you felt pretty weak but you keep coming connecting the changes will happen [Music]

Channel: SCIRE

Views: 8,134

Keywords: exercise spinal cord injury, exercise, physical activity spinal cord injury, exercise benefits spinal cord injury, benefits, spinal cord injury, SCI, SCIRE, quality of life, independence, social benefits, mental health

Id: AoQ1UGn22sk

Length: 2min 51sec (171 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 06 2020