Desenvolvimento de um equipamento de treinamento resistido para membros superiores de cadeirantes

Abstract

The "Living Without Limits Plan" was created to guarantee rights and support initiatives that guarantee autonomy for people with disabilities. The plan seeks the development of actions that promote social inclusion and the accessibility of this population. One of these actions is related to the development of new technologies and national products through scientific research in several areas of knowledge, among them, health, sports and leisure. Health care is directly related to the practice of sports. However, when talking about high-performance sports, especially considering Paralympic athletes, there is a great lack of equipment and devices that can effectively perform their physical conditioning in order to improve their performance. In face of that reality, the objective of this work was to develop an equipment to be used in the training and rehabilitation of the groups of muscles involved in the motor propulsion gesture of a wheelchair using a cam / spring / follower device for the generation of resistant torque in replacement to a conventional weight stack system. The resistance-generating device is capable of providing a resistance profile always close to the maximum capacity of force production of the involved muscle groups at any execution speed controlling the disturbing effects of the inertia forces and allowing infinitesimal increases in load. In addition, the proposed machine aims to adapt to the physical conditions of each individual by means of adjustments of its dimensions and to meet the main principles of training such as increasing overload and specificity. The proposed equipment had its structure dimensioned through the finite element method in order to evaluate its resistance and preliminary tests were carried out in order to verify if the equipment complied with the design parameters. Virtual simulations demonstrated that the equipment is safe to use, both in criteria of strength and rigidity as well as in its functionality. The equipment was fabricated and tested through electromyographic analysis in a wheelchair user. The basic principles of muscle training with increasing overload, individuality and specificity were evaluated, in addition to qualitative analyzes using cinemetry. The tests demonstrated the structural integrity of the equipment under the conditions of use.