Research Including Persons With Disabilities: Practical Issues and Contributions to Knowledge of Exercise Physiology.

Attention is drawn to specific practical and ethical concerns that may arise when researchers study responses to vigorous-exercise in populations with disabilities. It is argued that the study of such individuals can provide important information regarding responses to exercise by non-disabled people. This thesis is illustrated by selected examples relating to (a) central versus peripheral limitation of oxygen transport, (b) the contribution of muscle pumping to venous return during vigorous exercise, (c) the contribution of sympathetic innervation to aerobic training responses, (d) the ceiling of muscle fiber hypertrophy, (e) the functional demands of daily living, and (f) the responsiveness of young children to aerobic training. It is concluded that exercise physiologists have already learned much about normal reactions to exercise by studies involving those disabilities, but there remains scope for many further investigations exploiting the special characteristics of such populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]