An investigation into anaerobic performance of wheelchair athletes.

Abstract The traditional methods for assessing muscle performance have been applied to the wheelchair athlete with some success. In wheelchair athletics, as in able-bodied athletics, there are a number of short races taxing the anaerobic capacity. Previous work from this laboratory described an anaerobic test specifically for wheelchair athletes. This essentially was a modification of the ‘Wingate test’ protocol, enabling a wheelchair athlete using his own wheelchair to work against a friction loaded flywheel over a 30 s period. The objectives of the present study were to use this wheelchair ergometer (WERG) to investigate (1) the week to week stability of power measurements, (2) the effects of varying the friction load and (3) the relationship between power measurements and sprint performance times. The first experiment was concerned with the stability of peak power, mean power and maximum velocity measurements obtained from the WERG with a frictional load of 1·2 kg. Seven males each performed a maximal ...