This year's British Indoor Rowing Championship will welcome a team of six paraplegic rowers who will compete on specially adapted Concept 2 rowing machines.

As well as competing in the 2,000 metre Olympic regatta distance, six members of the Brunel University FES (functional electrical stimulation) team will also compete in a unique one minute sprint race.

The British Indoor Rowing Championship is presently the only event in the world that allows paraplegic athletes to compete alongside their able bodied peers in the same event. This is due to the technology which is utilised; the specially adapted Concept 2 machine uses FES to stimulate paralysed leg muscles in the athlete. The rower can control their legs by pressing a button on the rowing machine handle, which then transmits electrical impulses through electrodes to their leg muscles. This way a rhythm between their stroke action and leg movements can be maintained.

Professor Brian Andrews is the FES project leader at Brunel University originally created the technology with research partner Gary Wheeler at the University of Alberta in Canada, the initial aim being to improve the health and fitness of individuals with spinal injuries.

As Brian Andrews explains:

"Originally FES rowing was developed as a therapeutic form of whole body exercise that enabled paraplegics to safely achieve a high intensity workout to improve their health. As the athletes became fitter through our laboratory trials they decided that they wanted to try the system out in a competitive environment on an equal basis with able bodied rowers, so last year we entered two rowers into the BIRC.

"Following their success, much progress has been made in the last year. FES rowing machines, developed for the FES project by the charity DEMAND, have now been installed at the London Regatta Centre on the Royal Albert Dock and at the Aspire National Training Centre in Stanmore. This allows more paraplegics to train outside of the laboratory environment."

Robin Gibbons is team captain of the FES team, and this will be his second year competing at the BIRC on the Concept 2 FES rower. Robin is currently working closely with the Aspire National Training Centre, the aim being to roll out specially adapted Concept 2 FES rowers to other facilities and gyms around the country.

Robin stresses that competitive rowing is only one part of the process: "I wanted to stay fit and healthy as a paralysed individual, and also if I was ever able to walk again, it would give me a head start. The most important consideration is that we are not able to train like able bodied people, we cannot feel our legs and for many of us it has been years since using our leg muscles. Therefore our leg muscles are very de-conditioned but with proper training we can train our paralysed muscles again and use our lower body for exercise. It is great to see your paralysed muscles play a role again while exercising and the benefit for our cardio-vascular health is huge.

He went on to add: "Within one year we have increased our team of FES rowers by four. One of our team members had not done any form of lower body exercise in eleven years, prior to starting training on the FES rower. If you can imagine what progress she has made in the last six months to allow her to compete at the BIRC then you can get some idea of the scale of what we are achieving here."

Further Information

The Spinal Injuries Association
http://www.spinal.co.uk/

bbc.co.uk disability sport page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/disability_sport/4099805.stm

Leander Club
http://www.leander.co.uk/popup/james_paraplegic_indoor_rowing_champs.htm