Anyone out there with a Spinal Cord Injury?

wardf

I wanted to link up with others with a spinal cord injury if there are any out there. I have been in a chair for 10 years now and up until a year ago I never had trouble keeping in shape. I still ate anything I wanted. I played wheelchair basketball for the Miami Heat Team down in South Florida as the beginning of my paralyzed life. After 4 years of that I did adventure racing and eventually got into handcycling. Throughout the years I have been active in water skiing, snow skiing, tennis, cycling, mountain climbing and basketball. Last year I had some health issues and was not able to exercise the way I used to and consequently gained almost 20 pounds. I now am eating right, and in moderation along with swimming and a little bit of weightlifting. So my goal is to find someone else out there who has a spinal cord injury that I can possibly compare workouts with and to see if it is possible to lose this gut I have developed. I realize that not having any abdominal muscles will always mean I have a slight pooch in my stomach simply because I have no way to retain the mid-torso organs, but is it possible to lose it without the cardio I used to get from sports?

babytis

Wow Forrest, you are an inspiration!

wardf

lol, i don't know what is inspirational about gaining almost 20 pounds in a year...lol But thank you Jenny!

blazergrad

Coming up on 21 years in a chair and yeah, it's kind of the same for me. At first, I didn't have too much trouble with the weight, but over the years it started creeping on and before I realized it I was up two pant sizes. As you stated, I may always have a bit of a pooch in my stomach due to not having the control over those abdominal muscles, but I believe I can do a lot to minimize it as much as possible.

For me personally, I've just been doing cardio with a desktop MagneTrainer and weight training. I really just started with the weight training last September, so I've only been at it for about 8 months now, but I can already tell a difference in my strength and I'm starting to see some inches come off around my waist. I had gone up to a 36 pant size and now I'm back down to 34 and even some of those are a little loose. Of course, I've worked on cleaning up my diet, too... I was a bad snack food junkie! Going from chips to celery and peanut butter hasn't been the easiest, but I've gotten used to it.

I've recently decided to try and cut back on my carb intake and make sure that most of the carbs that I do get come from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. I'm kind of fasting right now from bread, pasta, and rice. I want to try and do that for at least a month and see what that does for me.

Looking forward to comparing notes with ya' .... maybe we can figure this thing out!