Page 13 - The Mobility Project, 2021

to stand, which is why standing desks have become so popular in workplaces and home offices. Changing positions regularly can be good for our health and can positively affect a wide range of body functions.
If you’re a full-time power wheelchair user, standing can provide pressure relief by
shifting your weight off of your
main “sitting surface” — aka,
your rear end — so that blood has the chance to re-circulate to the skin and tissues that you’ve been sitting on.
But standing can do a lot more than just help your skin and its underlying tissues. Standing can also improve your respiration: When you stand, your chest opens up to make breathing easier, and you might also find that you can speak more easily and with greater volume.
Standing can help your
digestive system, as well as help to improve bowel and bladder function. And standing can help to maintain or improve bone
integrity, while the motion of going from sitting to standing and back again can keep
your hips, knees, and trunk moving. Those activities can help to prevent painful muscle tightness and can help you
to retain your body’s range of motion.
For these reasons, more
and more power wheelchairs
are now available with power
standing options, making it
easier than ever for power
chair riders to change position
and see the world from a whole new perspective. Standing wheel- chairs can have a more limited standing range than standing frames do — i.e., standing wheelchairs stop short of full vertical standing — but the advantages include being able to move into a standing position without needing to leave the power chair.
And standing wheelchair options aren’t just for adults: Pediatric power chairs can also be capable of standing. So how do you know whether a standing regimen could be for you? Ask your wheelchair clinician or provider.
Amylior Alltrack M3 with custom standing
Motion Concepts MPS Mini Maxx
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