A student of the Institute of Social Technology, NSTU NETI, has developed a sports exerciser called "Adaptive Skipping Rope." It will help people with musculoskeletal disorders exercise anywhere.
Pavel Pavlenko, a wheelchair user, leads an active lifestyle and sees no barriers for himself. He manages to play rugby and go to the gym on top of his excellent academic performance. "My brother began playing rugby first. However, he suffered a minor injury and could not go to the training camp. I flew to the competition instead of him. We are both spunky guys who enjoy aggressive sports that provide an adrenaline rush. So, we got deeply involved in rugby. I competed instead of my brother and then began to practice on a regular basis, fulfilling the standard for athletes," Pavel Pavlenko shared.
The challenges he faced while exercising led Pavel to the idea of building his own equipment to meet his and other wheelchair-bound people’s specific needs for training. "Adaptive Skipping Rope" was one of his developments.
"Now there are a lot of sophisticated and expensive pieces of equipment for people with normal health and an acute shortage of simple exercisers adapted for wheelchair users". A normally developed person, for example, can jump with a skipping rope without difficulty, whereas a person with a musculoskeletal system disorder cannot. Because I do sports, I needed a skipping rope that would only strengthen my arms. So, I had to look for such equipment, but there is none in our city or throughout the country. I've only seen something like this in foreign sports stores, but there are no longer any opportunities to purchase goods from them. That’s why I decided to make my own exerciser."
People with a musculoskeletal disorder can work out their forearms, abdominals, and back muscles while sitting in a wheelchair, according to the inventor's concept. Depending on the exercises, the entire torso works out, and the load is distributed evenly. The exerciser's compactness is also an advantage: the skipping rope can be used at home or at a gym (video).
"For adapted sports equipment, we needed handles from a regular skipping rope, a nylon rope, and a wall socket adapter, which I made from welding machine adapters. There is an even simpler version of the rope that only has shrink tubes on it. This variant is appropriate for those who find it difficult to work hard", Pavel also added.