The FES Rowing Team

Robin Gibbons is team captain of the FES team, and this will be his second year competing at the BIRC. Robin is currently working closely with the Aspire National Training Centre, the aim being to roll out specially adapted Concept 2 FES rowers to other facilities and gyms around the country.

Those who were there will not forget the roar of support from the crowd as Robin Gibbons made history as the first disabled rower ever to complete the 2,000 meter Olympic distance on an indoor rowing machine, using FES, at the BIRC in 2004.

Robin stresses that competitive rowing is only one part of the process: 'I wanted to stay fit and healthy as a paralysed individual, and also if I was ever able to walk again, it would give me a head start. The most important consideration is that we are not able to train like able bodied people, we cannot feel our legs and for many of us it has been years since using our leg muscles. Therefore our leg muscles are very de-conditioned but with proper training we can train our paralysed muscles again and use our lower body for exercise. It is great to see your paralysed muscles play a role again while exercising and the benefit for our cardio-vascular health is huge.'

He went on to add: 'Within one year we have another FES rower capable of rowing the Olympic distance and four or five newcomers that are projected to be in a position to achieve that distance by the New Year. One of our newest team members had not done any form of lower body exercise in twelve years, prior to starting FES rowing training. If you could see the progress she has made in just two weeks you would get some idea of the scale of what we are achieving here. I have no reason to doubt that with her present rate of improvement, that she will be one of the team using the adapted rowing machine by the New Year!'

Find out more about FES Rowing