Hello, I'm Louise Ogden, and while the Naked Scientist team take a break over Christmas,

here's a special program I've helped to produce on a technology called functional electrical

stimulation. This technology, known as FES for short, allows people who have been paralyzed from the

waist down to row and cycle by stimulating their leg muscles with external electrodes.

To lead us through the story, here's Michael Van Antini from the University Hospital of Heidelberg.

Hello, my name is Michaela Van Antini.

What you're hearing behind me is the noise of an indoor rowing session.

You can hear the seat of the rowing machine moving backwards and forwards and the flywheel spinning

to simulate the resistance that you would get from the water on the oar blade if you were to roll on a real boat.

But there's something you can tell from an audio recording.

In this case, the roar is a paraplegic person, paralyzed from the waist down. I'm going to In this audio documentary you will discover how a technology called functional electrical

stimulation, or FPS for short, can be used to make paralyzed muscles contract and enable

paraplegic people to roll on a rowing machine and cycle on a recumbent

tricycle.

You will hear some interviews recorded on a very special occasion, the first International

Effies Sports Day held in Cardiff in the UK in 2006.

This event brought together a small number of paraplegic rowers and cyclists from all over the world, as well as scientists

involved in research on muscle stimulation technologies. The An injury to the spinal cord can leave your body splitting too.

Your brain will be able to control the muscles of your arms and trunk as before, but will lose

the connection with your legs.

You won't be able to move them and you won't be able to feel them either. with your

connection with your legs.

...