The BerkelBike is the brainchild of Rik Berkelmans. Berkelmans graduated of Chemical Toxicology at the Catholic University Nijmegen and Exercise physiology at the Free University Amsterdam. Because of his background, he is always been very conscious of the importance of exercise for the functioning of the body.
Knowing this, he understood that people with a spinal cord injury have a big indirect health risk. The tissue, which is not or hardly used, will decline in quality and become vulnerable. This results among others in decubitus ulcers at seat, feet and ankles.
The second risk is the general health. While the government proclaims from the housetops that we should move more, Berkelmans knows that this not very useful for people, who cannot use the biggest muscles of their body. By intensive use of the arms, these relatively small muscles go sour even before a good condition exercise takes place.
The performance-determining factor is the muscles in the arms and not the general condition. Accordingly, it is not amazing that even wheelchair athletes, who do endurance sports, have upper-body of a bodybuilder.
