Physiological responses to exercise in wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Introduction: Athletes with spinal cord injury have overall aerobic capacity reduced, compared with non-disabled individuals. However, their training has been conducted the same way as a healthy athlete, disregarding their peculiarities. Objective: To identify what has been reported in the literature in recent years involving the aerobic capacity of wheelchair athletes with spinal cord injury. Methods: A systematic review by searching for original articles published in English and indexed in the PubMed database was performed. Results: Forty-four original articles were found and of these only 17 met our criteria for inclusion and exclusion of this research. Conclusion: The lesion level and the mobility degree directly affect the aerobic capacity of these athletes. Wheelchair athletes have VO2peak and aerobic power similar to healthy athletes, and higher HRmax. Wheelchair athletes in sports that require continuous effort exhibited better aerobic capacity than athletes in sports requiring only intermittent effort.