As a young non-disabled adult, Karen Beattie remembers visiting the gym daily. But after incurring a spinal cord injury at age 27 and becoming a C6-7 quadriplegic, she also recalls the frustration of lying in bed for a long time—404 days, to be exact. At that time, Karen says, there was little emphasis on exercise and fitness in rehabilitation.
Fast-forward to 2007: Karen is now 43 years old and has resumed her active lifestyle. What helped her to turn things around? Mainly, it was her determination to regain her healthy active lifestyle as well as some help from Shake-A-Leg in Newport, RI, a program focused on helping people with SCI to regain independence and strength. There Karen learned to transfer safely to and from her chair, to dress herself, and as she says, “to get her life back.” She says she arrived at the program with fainting problems and atrophied muscles. But within 10 days, she found herself enjoying a horseback ride. Karen attended the program each summer for 11 years and tried sailing, scuba diving, kayaking, and hand cycling. Karen believes that fitness is one of the keys to good quality of life. She found an electric pedal device for $139 and says it is the best investment she ever made. She uses it for an hour on most days, saying it prevents atrophy, improves circulation, and facilitates range of motion. She also uses a 6-second ab device, a hand cycle, and has set up an exercise station in her garage for strengthening. She is a firm believer in stretching exercises, which she does regularly. She visits a gym twice weekly to supplement her home routine.
Karen notes that her motivation to exercise is the independence it allows her to maintain. As a quadriplegic, she is able to get in and out of the shower and to dress independently. She says, “No exercise would mean no (independent) daily routine. I just decided that I wanted to be healthy and able to do routine things on my own.”
Early in Karen’s rehabilitation, a psychologist observed that she had “unrealistic expectations” regarding her determination to become fit and independent again. Karen has taken great satisfaction in proving him wrong!