Capacidad funcional en personas con discapacidad física y su relación con la practica de actividades ludo­recreativas acuáticas

Abstract

lt is generally accepted that one of the most interesting and natural ways to maintain health status is by mean of physical fitness programs in general and acuatic ones in particular. In this respect, they have been succesfully employed to delay the reduction of physical capacity associated with age. As a consequence of its demonstrated efficiency, there is an increasing part of our well-being society that requires strongly its application not only in healthy people but also in tose who suffer from any disability. In our opinion ludical-recreation-al activities have to play an important role in these programs given that their simple and easy development allow them to be applied to those physically disabled. In addition it should be also emphasized this programs must be designed individually, according to each one’s characteristics. To demonstrate our hipothesis we designed an acuatic physical activity program to be applied to 15 individuals with physical disabilities during 8 weeks with a total of 16 sessions. Our results clearly indicated acuatic physical activity programs improve significantly physical performance of their participants. For the reasons already mentioned we strongly recommend its wide application as an appropriate strategy to promote health and even to facilitate the social integration.