Researchers from the NCSEM-EM and the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport together with colleagues in Canada have developed scientific guidelines to inform people with spinal cord injury (SCI) how much exercise is necessary for important fitness and health benefits.
The guidelines, developed through a series of consensus panels, are now ready to be shared with local spinal cord injury communities to determine the most suitable format and methods of distributing the guidelines more widely.
Guidelines
Director, Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport, Loughborough University
Related publications
Who will be using the guidelines?
Adults with spinal cord injury
For my physical and mental wellbeing I just enjoy doing exercise, it makes me feel better. I need to be as fit and strong as I can be to maintain my independence.
Peter Carruthers,
Paralympian and Founder of Bromakin Wheelchairs
Healthcare professionals
Physiotherapists are ideally placed to helping the dissemination of these guidelines because they interact on a daily basis with patients at the start of their journey after their spinal cord injury.
Dot Tussler,
Physiotherapist, Stoke Mandeville Hospital
How the guidelines were developed
The steps in the process
Dr Jan van der Scheer, Research Associate, Loughborough University
Dr Jan van der Scheer talks about why physical activity is important for people with spinal cord injury and the process behind developing evidence-based exercise guidelines.
Why we need SCI-specific evidence
Professor Vicky Tolfrey, Director, Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport, Loughborough University
Professor Vicky Tolfrey, UK lead researcher, talks about the importance of using SCI-specific evidence in developing exercise guidelines for people with spinal cord injury.
Next steps: Translating scientific to practice guidelines
How the guidelines will be translated
Dr Jan van der Scheer, Research Associate, Loughborough University
Dr Jan van der Scheer discusses why translating scientific guidelines into clinical/community practice guidelines is important and what the next steps for doing this are.
Why the guidelines need translating
Dot Tussler, Physiotherapist, Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Dot Tussler explains the importance of exercise guidelines for physiotherapists working with people with a spinal cord injury
People with SCI need all the information they can get in order to continue living the same, fulfilling lives they aspired to before their injuries.
Andy Barrow, Paralympian and Inspirational Speaker
Who was involved?
