Exercise as it relates to Disease/Benefits of exercise for people with cerebral palsy

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What is Cerebral Palsy [1][edit]

Cerebral Palsy is physical disability that affects both movement and posture. Cerebral Palsy is a disability that will affect a person throughout their life but will not worsen over time. Cerebral Palsy is caused by some form of damage to the developing brain of the person either during pregnancy or shortly after birth and will affect them differently; it can affect their body movement, muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle control, reflex, posture and balance. It may also have visual, learning, hearing, speech, epilepsy and intellectual impairments.


  • Cerebral Palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood, with the incidence being 1 in 500 births, this is to be about a child born with Cerebral Palsy every 15 hours in Australia
  • In Australia there are approximately 34000 people living with Cerebral Palsy
  • Worldwide there are currently about 17 million people living with Cerebral Palsy

Types of Cerebral Palsy [1][edit]

  • Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
Least common form of Cerebral Palsy and People with Ataxic Cerebral Palsy normal are clumsy, imprecise or unstable.
  • Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
People with Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy have variable movement that is involuntary. This is a result of damage to the basal ganglia of the brain
  • Spastic Cerebral Palsy
Most common form of Cerebral Palsy. The muscles of these people often seem stiff and their movements may look stiff and jerky

Benefits of Exercise[edit]

Exercise for a person with Cerebral Palsy will have the same benefits as an able bodied person as it will have help improve general fitness, muscular strength etc[2]. For people with Cerebral Palsy for people to do physical activity they might require other aids to help them perform the task or they will have to make sure they aren't pushed into anything they can't do or will struggle to do with a proper technique or a modified technique that will help with the movement that wouldn't harm the person.

Main Benefits of Exercise for People with Cerebral Palsy[edit]

  • Improved sense of wellness and body image[2]
  • Increase capacity to perform everyday activities[2]
  • Increase Lung and Heart efficiency [3]
  • Increase Strength[3]
  • Increase Flexibility[3]
  • Increase Morbidity[3]
  • Increase Coordination[3]

All this will lead to helping improve the overall well being of the person and to improve their general way of life.

Types of Exercise[edit]

The type of exercise will factor on what the person truly whats to get out of the physical exercise. Whether the person wants to just improve their fitness and improve lung or heart efficiency they would mainly focus on doing Aerobic type exercises like running or swimming, while if the person wanted to focus on increasing their strength or their coordination they would need to focus on Anaerobic type exercises like resistance training and weight lifting. All these types of exercise will have a benefit for the person one way or another and will help improve the persons way of life.


  1. a b c Cerebral Palsy Alliance, https://www.cerebralpalsy.org.au/what-is-cerebral-palsy
  2. a b c Exercise is medicine, http://www.exerciseismedicine.org/documents/YPH_CerebralPalsy.pdf
  3. a b c d e J. Green, Exercise Programming for Clients with Cerebral Palsy, http://www.ncpad.org/869/4965/Exercise~Programming~for~Clients~with~Cerebral~Palsy