New guides aim to make more disabled people Fit for Life & Sport

A series of practical resources to encourage people with a disability to live healthier, more active lifestyles, and to signpost those already active into competitive sport has been developed by experts at Loughborough University.

Five Fit for Life & Sport guides containing information on physical activity, exercise and sport, nutrition, and psychology have been written for adults with specific disabilities: visual impairment, spinal cord impairment, amputation, cerebral palsy and les autres.

Each guide has been split into two main sections; Fit for Life is for those who do very little physical activity or exercise and want to improve health and fitness, while Fit for Sport is for regular exercisers who would like to improve performance or take their training more seriously.

Terri Graham, a research assistant in the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport (PHC) at Loughborough University who compiled the resource, said:

“The aim of the guides is to improve peoples’ understanding of what they can do to improve their health and fitness as a disabled person.

“All of the disability-specific information they may normally have to spend hours searching for is now all in one place. It allows the reader to progress at their own pace through the guide, or they can simply dip into topics that are relevant to them.”

The guides are available in print format and are downloadable online at www.lboro.ac.uk/phc-toolkit

Hard copies of the guides are being distributed to local and national sporting organisations, disability charities and at various ‘get into sport’ days such as the ParalympicsGB Sports Fest. Individual copies can be ordered via the PHC website or by emailing phc@lboro.ac.uk.

The new resources have been developed by the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport in Loughborough University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences (SSEHS), as part of the Fit and Healthy project funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation and supported by the British Paralympic Association. Expert contributors include practitioners from the field of disability sport and rehabilitation.

Upcoming events

View all events