Physiological and Psycho-social Variables of People With a Spinal Cord Injury Participating in Competitive Rugby in Wheelchairs

Physiological and Psycho-social Variables of People With a Spinal Cord Injury

People with Spinal cord injury with tetraplegia suffer from respiratory problem due to weakness of the muscles and because the autonomic system dysfunction.

Exercise is one way of preserving and improving physical fitness and directly and indirectly reduce risk factors such as insulin resistance, weight loss and low values of HDL. subjects with spinal cord injury with tetraplegia have limited options for exercise: table tennis, gym, pool and more. Because of the nature of the injury which includes the sympathetic failure, they can not easily get the desired pulse to improve physical fitness.

Wheelchair rugby in Canada was developed specifically for people with tetraplegia who could not participate in wheelchair basketball. The game combines short, quick races with different aerobic capabilities. Previous studies have shown that participants in wheelchair rugby Improve anaerobic power, oxygen consumption, physical fitness and daily functioning. Wheelchair rugby improves self-confidence and as a result it affects other areas of life. Another study examined sense of self-efficacy, saw improvement in this index for rugby players in a wheelchair at high levels.

In the present study the investigators aim to examine whether regular participation in wheelchair Rugby for a season has more impact than other routine exercise (table tennis, gym, swimming).

Inclusion Criteria:

• subjects with tetraplegia who play wheelchair rugby

Exclusion Criteria:

• suffering from a medical condition that prevents from performing the tests required by the study protocol.