Shade Boggs, 27, is married and a father of two. In early 2024, he suffered hip and spinal cord injuries on the job, and is wheelchair bound.
"My son was born three days after my accident," he said. "I came home from therapy, and I had to kind of learn my new body, plus take on with a newborn and a one year old, so it we were just in one big learning curve all together."
Those who suffer from spinal cord injuries can have chronic health problems, made worse with barriers to physical exercise.
A pilot program led by the University of Evansville (UE) sought to reduce these barriers. This 10-week program was called All A.C.C.E.S.S. Fitness — (Accessible Community Collaboration Empowering Survivors of Spinal Cord Injury). Collaborators include UE, 517 Fitness, a community advisory group and Welborn, which funded the program.
Lead Personal Trainer Haley Elpers is working with Boggs at 517 Fitness in Evansville. She's putting him through chin-ups, curls, shoulder presses and others.
Elpers said the program works overall through modified exercises — adjusting the positioning of their clients by helping them physically, or adding equipment.
"Recognizing that there's some pieces of equipment that people would typically use a lot of leg drive for that we kind of have to modify, whether I'm holding his legs for him or we're adding a strap or I'm providing some stability to make sure that he's not losing his balance on some of the exercises."
"Keeping balance" can mean using the wheel chair instead of the provided bench. Prior to this program — or his injury — Boggs hadn't done much exercise.
Spinal cord injuries are very individualized. Craig Doninger of Evansville, another participant, hurt himself 16 years ago. His injuries are completely different from Boggs.
"I dove into a shallow swimming pool and broke my neck at the c5 c6 level, so I'm a quadriplegic, technically I've got gross movement of my arms, but no fine motor skills like in my hands or fingers," Doninger said. "I can feel my arms somewhat, but I can't move anything below that injury level."
He's working with therapist Lynae McKibben on a modified arm exercise. Without finger grip ability, she strapped handles for an elastic band into his hands and supported his arms with the band, to make up for muscle groups he can no longer use.
Now he can lift his arms up and out with her support. She wants this program to be practical outside the gym.
"You can build the exercises around functional skills that they're going to use throughout like their daily lives, and if you focus on that, it helps to translate outside of the gym and be more applicable," McKibben said.
Doninger said he'd like to eventually be able to transfer himself to his bed from the chair.
So have the five participants gotten stronger? At the end of the 10 weeks and 16 sessions, everyone was re-tested. This included a cardio stress test and questionnaire.
Of course they test muscles before and after. Doninger was tested using a pressure-sensitive disc connected to a smartphone.
He, like many, experienced improved cardiovascular and strength performance and improved quality of life.
"There's a lot of people that have spinal cord injury, don't think that they can do anything once they have it," Doninger said. "This proves that you can gain strength, you can exercise, and get healthier, no matter what your abilities are, so it's invaluable for the spinal cord injury community."
In their Evansville home, Boggs takes his chair down a ramp and into his backyard, with wife Kaytlin and children Silas 2, and Ellery, 3.
Boggs' results were also positive.
"I was able to finish the full six minute cardio that I originally could only do about three minutes of, I don't even know if I got the three minutes before … my grip strength got better," he said. "I was very impressed with how in such a short time, how much I was able to get better. So I'm looking forward to continuing to do it, keep good strength up."
He says it is now easier to pick up his children from the wheelchair. Elpers says they're seeking grant funding to continue the no-cost program.
They're continuing to look at the results.
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