ANÁLISE DA INTENSIDADE DE ESFORÇO DURANTE O JOGO DE RUGBY EM CADEIRA DE RODAS

The Wheel Chair Rugby (WR) is a Paralympic sport designed for people with tetraplegia. The performance of WR athletes relies heavily on the technology used and the athlete's physical capaticy. The heart rate (HR) is an important physiological parameter used to control training in team sports, thanks to its good practical applicability. In the present study it is used in parasports, taking into account the physiological and metabolic changes present in athletes with spinal cord injury. The objective of this study was to analyze the intensity of effort by HR behavior of athletes with Spinal Cord Injury during a match of WR. This present sample comes to 6 athletes from WR with spinal cord injury above T6, male, while 9 games, where they were monitored through their HR. The average HR found was 138 ± 18bpm (beats per minute), this value is close to the values presented in the literature. The intensity zone in 54.52% of the game was the recovery training zone that is not consistent with the literature, because in this study was not performed one maximal HR test, it has been estimated by equations and because it is tetraplegic individuals, turned out to overestimate the maximum HR. It was conclu- ded that WR athletes have reduced HR, reaching the maximum average of 138 bpm during the game, there was no correlation between maximal HR found and playing position and it is not possible, for search limitations, state that certain intensity zone found matches real effort of the athlete.