As some of you may know, I suffer from non-spastic Cerebral Palsy. 90% of thew time, the people around me can’t tell, but I have been in a particularly bad way for the last 3-4 weeks. Basically, my use of my legs is really diminished right now, and I have a hard time moving my legs faster than a slow walk. This happens every great once in a while, and I’m mostly used to it, but I have a problem.
It is essential that I try to keep my weight down, but as I get older, it gets harder. I can lift weights fine, so that helps. But during these spells, the only thing cardio I can do is swim, and it is getting old. I can’t get my heart rate up by walking/running, and my use of a bicycle (evenb stationary) is also a problem.
Anyone have any suggestions about a good cardio exercise I can do to get my heart rate up without relying too much on my legs?
Also, if this is the wrong forum, mods please move.
I’m afraid I don’t know what it’s called, but there’s a type of upside-down “exercise bike” where you sit back and pedal with your hands. No need to use feet or legs at all. There are a couple of those at my gym, but I don’t know how common they are. In any case, it might be worth looking into?
What about a rowing machine? The ones at the gym I go to have straps to lock your feet in place, and you don’t really move them (well, you push a bit back and forth).
I’m not sure about the “sit back” part, but I used a similar “arm exercise bike” while recovering from a broken ankle. You simply sat down (not “back”), and “pedalled” with your arms while sitting erect. You can adjust the resistance, you and can get a very good cardio workout. At the gym chain I belong to, they only had one of these machines at each gym.
My first thought was a handcycle, I regularly see kids using them on the frontage road along the bay out here when I’m on my bike. I believe they are all kids who aren’t able to use their legs.
There’s a Doper who rides one, can’t remember his name but he may have some good advice.
I have seen road versions as well as mountain bike styles used for offroading. Here’s a site with lots of examples:
I’ve also seen the rehab machines mentioned that are basically a stationary bike that you “pedal” with your arms.
Not sure that a rowing machine would work - I used to row a lot and you definitely use your legs. If you can’t do a “leg press” motion (with your feet anchored by a strap) over and over then it wouldn’t be the thing for you.
How about some other stuff like using a speedbag (boxing workout), climbing (I have seen people doing rope climbs without their legs, and watched rock climbers who were unable to use one or both legs for a variety of reasons)…trying to think of other stuff aside from swimming. Grappling based martial arts perhaps - the groundwork in wrestling, judo, jiujitsu and other similar styles is a great workout and (IMHO) a lot of fun.
I know you said that swimming is getting a little old, but have you given any thought to Aquabics? It’s a surprisingly good workout, and even though you’re in a pool, it’s still fairly different from doing laps (which I’ll agree gets incredibly repetitive).
You could also consider some boxing exercises, since you don’t really use your lower body much when working with a punching bag or speed ball, and you get a really good upper body workout combined with the cardio.
I can keep my heart rate up by decreasing weight and increasing speed and # of rep’s with upper body weight lifting (I use machines only). Use the machines which hit the biggest muscle groups. I am not sure how quickly this would increase my heart rate.
I wouldn’t want to do this sort of thing for an hour though.
Another vote for the hand-cycle machines. I used one recently as part of my rehab and you can definitely work up a sweat if you want. The one I was using had variable resistance, so you could increase the workload by either going faster or pushing harder.
Thanks for all the suggestions - I will look for the handbikes, but living in rural Wyoming might make finding one tough. I’m off to see about amil order.
Depending on your conditioning and if you can do pushups you can do a modified version of the modified Tabala Protocol once a week. If you cannot do pushups you could do all chinups. Basically, you would do pushups 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes. Rest 60-90 seconds. Then do chinups 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes. Rest 60-90 seconds. Then repeat the pushups. Or you do the chinups first and last and the pushups in the middle.
It sounds easy. It is not. It is a very intense aerobic and anaerobic workouts. This will definitely get your heart rate up.
Do not attempt this if you are not already in shape.
I ride a handcycle. Valgard may be thinking of CarnalK. I get as good a workout as I did on a regular bike just slower. They’re rather expensive but if you have medical insurance your doctor might write you a prescription for one. If you have difficulty with upper body strength make sure you get a model with 27 speeds.
For something that’s less of a commitment and one-trick-pony than a hand-bike or stationary hand-bike, you should look into circuit training.
Frankly, it’s better than a traditional cardio workout in just about every way. Having limited use of your legs only changes the exercises that you have available to choose from, and then when your mobility improves it’s very easy to incorporate leg exercises to round out the program.
The key is maintaining a brisk pace and that usually requires selecting weights that are lower than what you normally think are effective. The goal is larger, quick sets of perhaps 20 reps. I like to alternate muscle groups (chest-back-shoulder-arm-abs repeat, for example) and it’s imperative that you keep the rest period in between to an absolute minimum. You can easily do a circuit of upwards of 10 exercises 3 times in the span of 30-40 minutes and you’ll get a cardio workout that puts any run or bike to shame. The fact that it’s a full body workout makes it a very nice pairing with your current swim regimen. When doing it at the gym it’s pretty important that you keep the pace up, don’t wait around for available machines. Try and go at off-peak times and if the machine you’re looking for is taken, just skip it and come back to it later in the sequence. Adding a heart rate monitor is probably a helpful idea so you can track your intensity level, it can be easy to take little breaks in between which can undermine the effectiveness.
I’m assuming you already have a gym membership, so getting something like this set up is easy. You could probably have trainer walk you through a program the first couple times if you aren’t used to the machines or the variations that help make it such a versatile strategy.