View article

Background: lt is weil established that physical activity is beneficial to health. For the individual in a wheelchair, a regular exercise program might not be available or may be too difficult to participate in physically and/or psychologically. Many exercise devices and regimes are boring. The goal, therefore, is to develop a device that makes exercise more exciting and, thus, motivates a person to exercise more or for a Ionger period of time, yielding increased energy expenditure. Our Iabaratory developed an interface between an arm ergometer and a computergamethat allows the user to control game play on the screen as if using a joystick. The purpose of this study was to determine (a) whether the GAMECycle system would elicit an exercise effect similar to arm ergometry, (b) whether perceived exertion would be different between the 2 devices, and (c) individuals' impressions regarding the GAMEcycle system …