Abstract

Most studies estimate that between 10 and 15% of the Spanish population have some handicap. In Spain, about 480.000 people under 65 years of age, show some type of handicap and the latest statistics show that there are 110.000 people under the age of 65 who use wheel chairs, of whom only 2.400 possess a federated licence of the Spanish federation of sport for the physically handicapped, i.e. 22%. If we look both at the extremely high number of spiral injuries and the daily ever increasing numbers, we believe in the absolute necessity that this group should learn to strengthen to the maximum those parts of the body that have not suffered any damage, and also those parts that may be restored to a greater or lesser extent.
In this study, we have tried to reach the following objective:
To determine the influence that aerobic physical exercise has on the physical condition of people affected by a spinal injury.
We noticed how the programme, fundamentally aimed at improving the endurance of the group of sedentary subjects, achieved significant improvements, both in the factors associated with endurance –sub maxim heart rate, increasing maximum speed, and explosive force.
To sum up, after the study, the programme of physical training undertaken, improves physical performance and, as a result, the level of physical condition of the group of spirally injured, and the level of physical condition of the group of paraplegic sportspeople, is much higher than that found in sedentary paraplegics, as was to be expected.