Wheelchair fitness

Hi Ant,

Josh here. We have interacted on Twitter a few times. (@JoshGrisdale)

I use a power wheelchair because I cannot even push the wheels on a manual wheelchair.

After recently being in the hospital, I am thinking a lot more about my health. I started to use Healthkit in iOS to track vitals, but even if you set your profile to say you are in a wheelchair, I’m pretty sure it assumes you are in a manual wheelchair (and therefore at least push yourself around)…

I can still move my arms a bit, so I’m wondering if there is a device like a pedometer but for arms (ie count the number of arm lifts/circular rotations). Even better would be one with an app that could help keep me motivated (like closing the circles). Or maybe even just an app that lets you count and keep track of reps? I tried a Jawbone device in the past, but it never really accurately counted arm movements (obviously since it wasn’t designed for that!) and the goals all assumed you were walking and therefore the baseline was 6,000 etc…

I know this part of health isn’t necessarily your area of expertise, but if anything comes up, please keep me in mind.

Love the show.

2 Likes

Tagging @ant_pruitt so he’ll see this more easily.

2 Likes

Hello there, Mr Josh. THANKS for your support.

This is an interesting question. Some trackers have custom filters and you can say “I’m exercising right now” and the tracker will monitor your heart rate and VO2 max as part of your daily activity records. This is used to help determine calories burned. I’m pretty sure the Withings watch I demoed had that capability.

It’s a little more work for you because you have to remember to activate the mode that says you’re exercising, then remember to stop the tracking when you finish.

I hope this helps you. Again, THANKS for supporting my shows :fist_right:t5:

2 Likes

Affiliate link of the Withings watch

2 Likes

Thank you very much @ant_pruitt!

I only listened to the audio for HOW, and didn’t realize how nice it looked (ie doesn’t look like a smartwatch.)

I’ll check it out - thanks again :fist_left:

2 Likes

BTW @ant_pruitt ordered the watch and the Body+ scale

1 Like

Good for you. I hope it helps you out. I really liked the app. THANKS for supporting HOW and sharing it with others :fist_right:t5:

1 Like