Thank you for the lessons. I have been walking on crutches for 65 years and now it's time for a wheelchair. This is a difficult time and I need to learn from you younger people. I wish you a good life
I am in a wheelchair I have a disability called spina bifida I was born with and I am 38 years old. I do the wheeley thing going down slopes and hills.
Thanks for the vid! Weirdly the part of this video that actually helped my own situation most was seeing that you also are having to put in considerable effort going up that slope. I’m brand new to wheelchair use and took mine out to practice for the first time just recently. I was very discouraged trying to cross over a road by my house which has a very significant slope up from the dropped curb, and found that I couldn’t make it over it. Fortunately right now I still have some degree of use of my legs, so I was able to get out of the chair and push it over the road, but I was embarrassed and discouraged. I thought perhaps I was just extremely unfit and that’s why I felt the slope so differently from the flat area, I didn’t understand why it felt like it was taking so much more physical effort. The slope was much steeper than the one in your video, so seeing that you had to turn the wheels constantly and that you also were not able to just kind of push the wheels and have them spin over is encouraging to me. I’ll get back out there and try again :)
I’m glad my video could help you!! And over time you keep improving so I have improved even more since then 😊 Keep trying and remember we all start pretty weak with the wheelchair because we aren’t used to it, but we get stronger the more we roll around. Good luck and I hope you find the rhythm of pushing the wheelchair that works for you real soon!
Thank you! That’s so encouraging 😊 I think I found part of the issue when my mum came out with me this evening and asked why I was holding one wheel in place every time I needed to adjust my angle instead of just only turning the other wheel. Things were smoother after that 😂 Partly the pavements around here all slope down on one side to the road and down on the opposite side to the houses, so it’s very difficult to stay in a straight line. I’ll get there though! ✌️Thanks for your videos!
It's so great to see others saying this. I just started using a wheelchair and am also having a lot of issues going up hill and I work out. Going uphill is so hard. I hope it got better for you!
Going uphill backwards also works for a steeper grade. Its awkward because of needing to turn to see every so often but I have way more power in my arms and trunk going backwards up large hills.
Oh cool, thanks! Do you lean forward or back into the chair? Cause I had seen it before but I was under the impression you would have to lean back into the chair, which I would struggle with because my core is paralysed so gravity wants to pull me down 😆 but if that’s not the case maybe I should give it a try 😁
Em Quattrocchi I have a lot of core strength so I actually lean forward a little at the start of the push or stroke (which in his case is a pull) and lean back as I pull which lets me use my core help. But its totally doable with back straight against the backrest as well and pulling only with arms.
