Leg Press

One proper exercise for the legs is the Leg Press - quite standard equipment in most of the Gym’s around the globe. But how to use limited or no current muscles to train. We want to show you but most of you will need to have the arms involved to help and for those with limited current armfunction, you might even need help from a second person. But nevertheless we think it’s worth the pain because frequently doing leg press is beneficial for your body anyways and can help you get better strength and hopefully during time even more innervation of your upper leg muscles.

It’s important that the Leg Press you are using has a decent stand as well as a solid foot plate, where you can position your legs properly. We recommend using an additional soft pillow while doing the exercise to avoid sharpening forces on your butt.

The movement of your leg in the end is the same as for “able” people - the only thing as mentioned above you might need to use your arms, or even an additional person for doing the excercise. Important: If you have to use your arms to help, make sure you set the weight to the lowest level, or at least a very low level, otherwise it will quickly become incredibly strenuous.

Step 1 (Transfer to the Leg Press):

Wheelchair positioning
Place additional pillow
Save transfer

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Step 2 (Positioning and getting ready on the Leg Press):

Positioning feet
tie feet on the footplate
tie together your legs with a block

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Step 3 (Exercising on the Leg Press):

pushing and pulling your legs with your arms or with help of an additional person
try to think about the movement you are doing and the muscles you are using - try to remember how you did before the SCI

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To continue reading this topic, please follow the link below:

Adduction / Abduction