Exercise Program Improves Lives of Disabled Kids
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Comment| Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 | Kristen DiPaolo | CWK Producer |
“If you’ve even been to a regular gym, they have the machines side by side. It’s very hard if you get a patient that comes in with a wheelchair, a walker, even with canes to manipulate through the machines and do their exercises.”
– Angelica Gomez, Owner, Allternative Gym
We hear the warnings all the time: children in America need more exercise. But one group of kids in particular can benefit from being more active, and their physical fitness is often overlooked.
The group is disabled children.
Seven-year-old Reed Johnson, for example, wants to walk. At 11 months old, a brain bleed damaged his cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls mobility.
So Reed’s grandmother brought him from Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the rare gyms where disabled children can workout: the Allternative Gym in metro Atlanta.
“He came here and was taking eight, ten steps independently,” says Pat Cooke. “Now he is taking as many as 28 steps independently.”
Colette Strawn and her three-year-old daughter Megan came all the way from Seattle, for the gym’s three-week boot camp.
Megan was born with a brain tumor. She had surgery to remove it - but ever since, hasn’t been using her right arm.
“Just in the first week,” says Megan’s mom Colette, “she started moving her right hand around and she actually would hold her toothbrush. And she brushed her teeth! It was incredible.”
At the Allternative Gym, the spaces are wide open. The equipment is easy to use.
“If you’ve even been to a regular gym,” says owner Angelica Gomez, “They have the machines side by side. It’s very hard if you get a patient that comes in with a wheelchair, a walker, even with canes to manipulate through the machines and do their exercises.”
Around the country there are few sports teams, walking clubs or aerobics classes for kids with disabilities.
Even physical therapy sessions are few.
“Some insurance plans just pay like 20 visits per year,” says Angelica. “In Reed’s case, who you saw walking, 20 visits per year. That’s less than twice a month. He’s really not going to get to that next step.”
Experts say exercise is cheaper than physical therapy and can be done every day.
Reed’s grandmother agrees. “The exercise is extremely important because it strengthens the muscles,” says Pat Cooke. “That even though you have therapy, therapy is teaching you how to do things, but it may not necessarily be strengthening the muscles.”
At the Allternative Gym, with hard work and high expectations, kids are redefining their disabilities.
“It’s awesome, awesome!” says Angelica Gomez. “We see a lot of first steps here, crawling for the first time, sitting for the first time. It’s just amazing. And parents are just overwhelmed - we get overwhelmed - about what the kids are doing.”
Tips for Parents
- Children with disabilities should get at least an hour to 90 minutes of exercise, two to three times a week. (Angelica Gomez, Owner, Allternative Gym)
- Families of children with special needs can band together to hire a personal trainer to lead group activities. (Angelica Gomez, Owner, Allternative Gym)
- Special needs yoga is available in many areas of the country. (Angelica Gomez, Owner, Allternative Gym)
References
- The Allternative Gym, Lithia Springs, Georgia (http://allternativegym.com/)
- National Disability Sports Alliance
- Disabled Sports USA
