Exercise and nutritional benefits for individuals with a spinal cord injury or amputation

Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) or amputations result in direct negative effects on individuals' body composition, although many challenges in accurately assessing their muscle and fat status still exist. While resistance training can significantly increase muscular strength and power and even aerobic fitness in recreationally active individuals with SCIs or amputations, very few of these studies have included athletes with a disability (AWDs). The relatively modest literature on AWDs suggests that they are close to reaching a reasonable number of macronutrient and micronutrient RDAs but that their relative carbohydrate and absolute fiber, vitamin E, and calcium intake may be insufficient, even though many AWDs take nutritional supplements. The small number of studies that has investigated the acute effect of carbohydrate and caffeine as well as the chronic effect of creatine and vitamin D supplementation on AWDs has provided somewhat equivocal results.