Handicapped aerobics, also known as seated aerobics, work primarily all the upper body and upper extremity muscles. When designing or taking a seated aerobics courses that need to produce a training effect, don’t think of this as a limitation, but as an intense focus on the muscles which can be worked out. You’ll need to be creative to find ways to put the muscles through their entire range of motion.
Of primary emphasis will be the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and arms. Oh sure, you could do hands, too, but imagine a roomful of people waggling their fingers.
The muscles used for upper body exercise are those of the shoulder girdle — rhomboid major and minor, upper, lower and middle trapezius, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior, subclavius and the levator scapulae.
Muscles of the shoulder joint are also used extensively: the anterior, posterior and middle deltoid, pectoralis major clavicular and sternal, teres major and minor, latissimus dorsi, supraspinatus, subscapularis, infraspinatus, coracobrachialis, the biceps brachii and the triceps.
Also used are the muscles of the elbow and radioulnar joints — biceps brachii, brachialis, brachioradialis, triceps, anconeus, and the wrist flexors.
“Only two sets of these muscles are the biarticulate muscles,” advises the excellent Web resource, Advanced Topics in Adaptive Aerobics, “since most of the muscles that cross multiple joints are lower extremity muscles.” Of the muscles listed above only the biceps brachii and the triceps cross two joints, the shoulder and the elbow joints.