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So welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals who are

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building accessible and inclusive businesses or products advocating for inclusion or excelling

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in adaptive sports.

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Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities but rather amplify

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their ideas and voice so we can help other people become more inclusive and accessible

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in their work as well.

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Today I am joined by Brad Clark of BC Adaptive Fitness.

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They have in-person classes out in California for individuals with disabilities as well

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as online offerings as well.

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Brad thank you for joining us.

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Yeah I am happy to be here man.

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So maybe we can take it back to your education background and kind of university as you are

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studying in school as their specific direction that you kind of expected your career to go

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into.

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Okay so it's a great starting point because when I first started all this it was obviously

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was just an idea but originally so basically I did plumbing for seven years before I did

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any of this but I also volunteered at a camp called Rad Camp since I was about 15 years

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old.

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And when I was 19 years old I am out there volunteering at Rad Camp and I see about 130

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individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities two out of three of them were

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overweight or obese and I knew that 99% of them were underline health conditions and

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my sister is one of them.

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And I was like these guys got to move.

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They got to start moving and I was like what I was like so I started thinking I was like

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okay maybe we can get them involved in some kind of gym or something and so I started

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looking at places for them to work out and I couldn't find anything.

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I was like huh.

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I was like well I love working out.

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I love working on people's special needs and so literally like the day I thought of that

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I was like I don't think I slept for like two days.

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My mind was racing I was just like thinking of all these things and I ended up already

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at this point I already dropped out of college and I went back to college and I started at

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like math one and English three whatever at community college and ended up working through

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got my undergraduate at Cal State Fullerton in kinesiology and in my undergraduate I actually

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met my advisor Dr. Daniela Rubin and through my process in my undergraduate there were

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people that were interested in working with people's special needs but most people were

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looking for occupational therapy and physical therapy that were interested in working with

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people's special needs.

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But no one was looking to try and create like or work with a maybe like some kind of either

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gym or create some kind of system where people with disabilities are able to work out continuously

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and not just work on like fine motor things as well as work on fixing injuries and yes

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those obviously are important but making sure that individuals just have access to exercise

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as a regular regimen like we all do is important.

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So in my undergraduate I ended up doing a little bit of research and then when I finished

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with my undergrad I was trying to figure out if I wanted to do a physical therapy route

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or a master's of science route and so I ended up going with the master's of science strictly

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because I was trying to create something new instead of trying to maybe because like well

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it may I'll make it I'll simplify it like my thought process at the point was like okay

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physical therapy is to fix people.

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I'm like we're not trying to fix individuals with disabilities we're just trying to improve

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their quality of life so I was like okay I'm gonna do master's I'm gonna try and see if

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we can come up with something cool.

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And then in my master's program COVID screwed up everything first of all so I ended up adding

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another year to that and originally what we're gonna do is a in-person intervention for like

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a group class for individuals with disabilities intellectual and developmental disabilities

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and we narrowed it to just people with Down syndrome and then we ended up with COVID happening

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we ended up doing an online intervention and we created something at home progressive resistance

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training for adults with Down syndrome and so we created it was a 10 week intervention

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and basically it was like the exercise is progressively increased so this is actually

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pretty cool so what we did is we actually so for example for like a sit to stand exercise

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we would shoot the exercise at 14 repetitions for the video for the actual film but for

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weeks one and two we would only show six repetitions and weeks three and four we would bump it

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up to eight repetitions and we would continually progress and then we did that for a bunch of

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exercises and making sure that individuals would be able to get a full body exercise

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every time they came and hops onto our videos so that was pretty cool I actually enjoyed

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that a lot the people we used to film it we was one of them was my sister she was one

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of the models because we felt it was very important that individuals with Down syndrome

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were actually models for the exercise so that when people with Down syndrome tried to go

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to do it they see someone like themselves and say like hey that person is doing it they

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look like me I can do it so we actually used two neurotypical people a male and a female

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one being me and then two individuals with Down syndrome male and female so it was a

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pretty cool experience you know despite the COVID that messed up a bunch of stuff we

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made the best of it.

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Yeah you said a lot of things in there that kind of echo some of the things we look at

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like one that adaptive fitness doesn't have to be reserved for physical therapy a lot

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of our young adults and older adults with disabilities find it motivating to be an environment

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that's like you said not rehabilitative but performance oriented so I think that is definitely

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a way where strength conditioning can hopefully kind of bridge that gap and there just needs

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to be more facilities that are willing and competent in terms of accommodating people

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with different needs but is so you had your master's degree project that revolved around

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this did it then like transition into what you do now is training people with disabilities

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the only population that you work with now or do you kind of work with various groups?

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So basically so it's a good question because what we did in my master's program is we

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just literally transfer it all over to what we do in my business and we just I think we

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almost use it pretty close to the exact same warm up it's a full body warm up and it's

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almost designed as like a super set warm up so like you'll like target your upper body

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like say so for example like the beginning of the warm up starts with small forward arm

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circles big forward arm circles goes to high knees and then back up to low small backwards

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arm circles big backwards arm circles the butt kicks.

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So we're it's really we really try and optimize the physiological aspect of muscular strength

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and endurance.

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So when we are training individuals we always try to make it as efficient as possible and

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then actually I'll go back to answer your same question we do train pretty much anyone

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like we have neurotypical we have individuals with autism downs syndrome, cerebral palsy

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so like yesterday actually I go this is most of the people that come to me but I do have

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one client and he was really my second client ever when I started and his name is Jay and

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this is actually a pretty cool story so so Jay he so he has quadriplegic cerebral palsy

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spastic cerebral palsy to be specific and he is pretty severe but mentally he's like

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he's there he knows what's up he knows what's going on.

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He has also called a wind sweeping hip so for maybe someone who's listening this will

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happen is when like so basically your torso is facing forward and both your legs are like

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wanting to decide and they're kind of a fix there.

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His mom reached out to me and she's like Brad I don't know what's going on Jay has had three

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or four spasms in the past five months so bad that he's had to go to the ER every single

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time and this dude's freaking he's tough as hell like so like if he's talking about being

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in pain it's something serious.

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So for him to go to ER that's like when I heard that and I've known Jay I knew Jay from

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Rad Camp so I know since I was 15 years old when I started volunteering for that camp

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so I've known the guy for a long time so when I heard he was in pain I'm like oh shit like

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he's it's serious and so basically I went in there and like at this time I was like

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still forming the business still forming protocols still putting things together and I was just

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honest with her I was like I was like not really I told her I'm not really sure what

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to do but I'm going to come in and I'm going to just give my best shot I'm going to try

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and analyze the situation and my best theory was that since his wind sweeping hip was something

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that he's been dealing with I might what my guess is is that his neurological system was

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trying to correct his hips and trying to put him in a neutral position straight up massage

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fixed everything huge the doctors they put them on all these pain pills put them on the

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GI pills and I think after like four weeks of massage only one time a week got them off

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all the pain pills and so and like something that might be interesting to you and some

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listeners is that when people that have spasticity on the level of tendicity when it's reduced

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we actually found so like the level of spasticity was reduced and bringing tendicity to more

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of like a normal tonicity instead of spasticity we actually found that he was able to have

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way better motor function so once we got his legs and pain under control we actually started

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I just started doing massage on his upper body he went from when he got his hair cut so I'm

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having to hold his head up to actually gain control of being able to postural control

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his cervical sign and that was straight up just from massage then like he's not able

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to necessarily exercise so there's a lot of cool things that came out of that.

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That's awesome.

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Yeah and so the classes like is that more of a personal training versus the group classes

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and then you guys also do some small groups.

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So right now we have five group class locations so as you're as I'm sure you're familiar

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with individuals with disabilities are not able to access things as well as most people

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so what we do is we actually do pop-up locations so we actually have kind of Northern Orange

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County kind of on lock and so we'll do group classes in that situation and the group classes

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we have I mean we'll have like on average anywhere from like 12 to I think I think on

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Tuesday we had like 27 people and it was just insane it's like organized chaos it's like

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it's pretty sick dude like it's like everyone's working out we have like we have like four

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interns working with us we got my staff going we have like a volunteer to running around

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it and we have this everyone's working out everyone gets their sets in and whenever people

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come to our group classes they get a full body exercise we work on upper body push pull

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lower body push pull core strengthening coordination balance and we spike their heart rate once

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every time they come to a group class that's good yeah so the the structure of your staff

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is you're getting do you have several coaches and then in addition a few interns as well

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and volunteers so right now it's me and my manager Andrea her and I have been working

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together a long time she was actually an intern of mine when I was a health and fitness director

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at a day program before I started my business so her and I what we do is we just train everybody

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we just train them brand like when they come in we train them we put them in situations

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where they can succeed so that way our athletes can succeed and so for example we'll have

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stations and so we will train them how to run a certain station and what you like to

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start to put them start them off a little small say hey we want you just to focus on

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how to do this exercise and then want you to implement this exercise properly making

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sure their breathing is correct making sure they're going to fall into motion making sure

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they're engaging their muscles properly and another thing you've seen that I feel like

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it was just overseeing is just the quality of exercise we just we just we just we just

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scream it the whole time we're like we're insane about it it's like quality not quantity

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we want to make sure they're moving correctly everyone needs to make disability or not if

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you're doing something with crap form you're gonna move like crap so we need to make sure

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that our people with disabilities who are already susceptible to motor dysfunction low muscle

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tone need to they need to really focus on their form so it's super important and I think

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that we've seen a lot of I like you know not obviously anything about other people but

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like I've seen like on Instagram and stuff I've seen other people trying to do what we

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do and it's like when you see people they they're they're giving maybe a really good

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effort but the exercise isn't being effective and it's I think people that are in our shoes

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that are trying to work with individual disabilities really need to take a step back and regress

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the exercises and stop putting so much stress on the individuals and really focus on making

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sure that the form is correct because they're just gonna put those individuals in a situation

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where they're gonna they're gonna strengthen those muscle imbalances yeah I think one

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of my one of my biggest gripes I try not to be cynical because I think every opportunity

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for people with disabilities to be more active is a net positive but like using disability

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as an excuse for like accepting like subpar performance and subpar like coaching like

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yeah that they're just gonna check the box and that that's sufficient or they're just

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like I see it actually just as much on like LinkedIn through a few popular like adaptive

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fitness instructors just like a couple people at Down syndrome sitting next to a stationary

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bike and they're like both like turning the pedal with their hands and then it's like

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oh a plot so and so for working out they're doing such a great job and it's just clearly

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just trying to like drive engagement but that that's like an inadvertent consequence of

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that it's just everyone sees that and they're like wow that's I guess that's what people

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with disabilities can do and the expectation just becomes like lower and lower and so I

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think that's like my biggest concern is like rewriting that narrative and trying to get

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people to expect more out of those with disabilities but also like having the tools to like safely

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progress them through exercise yes yes I you said it really well man because you'll see

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these individuals and like for example like you'll see the guy next to a stationary station

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you're bike and you like pushing the pedal or something it's like he's not doing anything

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right and if he was doing he's not doing it right and it's like first of all those individuals

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individuals that are posting that and using it for engagement online you're just if you're

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listening to this you're just enabling the stereotypes you're not helping the community

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at all you're like absolutely it's it's it's it's moving backwards really and so like and

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like I've seen it before like to say these they'll get these we get these super viral

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videos and it's like that is like the worst form I've ever seen in my life is the crazy

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song yeah it's like as as someone that works with a lot of people disabilities and fitness

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space it's always tough to like find that balance between like sharing my client's successes

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but not feeling like I'm like using them for engagement so like I want to celebrate what

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they're doing well but I also don't want it to be because it always it always shifts to

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like wow Brendan you're doing such a great thing by like training people with disabilities

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and I'm like no like that's not what I'm trying to show you like it's not a noble act like

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I'm not trying to draw any attention to myself but people always just gravitate to like that

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idea that like wow this is such great work you're doing I'm like no I don't want you

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to see the work that I'm doing I want you to see the work that this athlete is putting

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in and it's not like supposed to be inspirational because they have a disability it's like it's

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supposed to be inspirational because despite their disability they're still training a

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lot harder than so much of the population so it's always that tough like putting content

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out finding that balance between like demonstrating competency but not having it turn into just

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some like inspirational narrative it's been a tough balance yeah yeah I can 100% relate

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to that because and first of all just just as a brother with someone who has special

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needs it is it is a good thing we're doing it is a good thing it's it's something that

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not a lot of people are doing so like I like and I appreciate what you're doing like as

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a brother but someone has a dancer I'm like it is important what we're doing like it is

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this is almost a noble act because no one is else doing it so like I appreciate you for

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doing it Brendan like seriously but for like the Instagram thing like it it's I I'm so

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bad at it dude like like and I like when I say I'm bad at it like I mean like I know

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like the thing is like if I wanted to be good at it if I want to focus on it I could do

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it but my thing is that's like I have so many of my athletes who are just they're just working

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their ass off and they just try so hard and I'm just I'm just there with them either whether

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it's a group class or a personal training session and it's like I was like I want to be there

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with them in a moment I don't want to like is it I don't want to win it it's hard to

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win my phone out I'm like okay like I know you're going to break through moment I don't

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want to think I want to hold on let me film you let me let me film you have an emotional

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moment it's like no I want to be there with them so like I don't know I post like I don't

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know like three times a month I'm awful at it yeah the only like the only way that I've

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found to be able to create consistent content is to like have someone there filming for me

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it like it makes it not genuine like you said if you're if you're training someone and then

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you're like wow this is going great let me film like the only way I've been able to like

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consistently create content over the last five or six months is because I did hire someone

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to like manage that job and I think it's important to to get that footage and I've found my self

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using it in a lot of different scenarios whether it's posts or integrating it within educational

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videos so it's good to have but like you said it's the people that are making a lot of content

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on their own typically aren't the ones that are like coaching a lot so for you and I being

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like the ones that are running a lot of sessions you almost have to outsource media side of

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things because we're too busy with actually working with athletes yes and I understand

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yeah that's exactly it and I don't know maybe I'm answering this your question better now

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but so like for group classes we'll do through our five locations or group classes we have

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like eight classes a week and then I do personal training actually do it out of my garage I

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turned my garage into a gym super accessible for everyone especially me and so like all

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like you know I'll do my morning usually I'll try and get like a judicious session in like

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6am or something come home do breakfast whatever and then start doing sessions at like 9am

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and then from like 9 to 1 do personal training sessions and then like from 2 to 6 we'll do

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group classes and like the thing about our group classes is we actually we'll do so I

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know you have no relative like our understanding of like where am I when I say Fullerton or

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Brea or anything like that so say we'll do like a group class a and we pack up and then

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we drive 20 minutes and we and we set up a group class B and so that'll take and like

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what doing that is like it's like a it's about two hours like so like just like I always

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like give it might give it me and my staff a little bit extra time so we'll do group

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class a so we get there we set up run the class pack up go to group class B get there

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set up run the class and we pack up and we're done around like 6pm and then I head back

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back to my pad and I do like another two sessions maybe I'm done like 8am 8.30am night so I'm

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doing long days but I love what I'm doing it's like it's pretty cool and I think working

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with individuals with disabilities is like one of the it's like one of the coolest things

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like because they're working with people that not everyone gets a chance to and I think

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people are always like oh my god that must be like so hard or I'm like I'm working with

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like some of the sickest people in the world like like like like these like these are literally

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like like these are people that like no one else gets to work with like you guys are looking

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at a different way so I mean I this is and I'm I feel like you have like a similar feeling

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I don't know I think I think it's just like it's something that is super unique and that

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a lot of people they just don't even see it.

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Yeah I mean my life is all around it for the last like 15 years as well like you had that

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first experience at a camp I had my first experiences through Special Olympics and Best Buddies

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in high school and it like just kind of molded my approach to my career and I met individual

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Jacob with Down syndrome and autism when I was 16 started becoming a PCA when I was

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19 and now he lives with my wife and I every weekend so I can definitely relate to like

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the you having a sibling with Down syndrome I more or less have this kid who's been a

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part of my family for the last 11 years with Down syndrome as well and like I just want

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to see exercise become more accessible for people like him and just like more opportunities.

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I was curious like are you how do you find those locations that you have the classes

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at are they strictly outside or?

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Yeah so good question because so first of all it's super cool what you're doing for

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that dude is it Jacob?

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Yeah.

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Yeah and like I'm like first of all before we get there I just want to point out like

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I always like I always had like a special place for people that don't necessarily so

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like individuals that work with people especially these of it they don't have it in their family

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was like for me it's like I can't imagine I like if my sister April was in my life I

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have a hard time believing I would have been in this industry you know what I mean so I

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mean so people like that are doing it just like they just like people that saw it and

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like oh this is cool I'm like I really applaud you guys but for group classes so what we

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do is like it's actually kind of tough so we do have like two outside locations and we

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only do that on Saturday but what we do is like we it's like it's one of those things

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where sometimes people they don't want people with disabilities in their location we've

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been kicked out of like five places and it's like and they they go they never give like

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a real reason like okay I got it I get loud and clear got you bud so it's like so like

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well like churches are really cool we've had we have like but like now the people that

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we are working with are awesome they're great I'm very thankful that we have like great

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relationships with these people so we have like two churches one gym a dance studio so

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it's you know and then it's just and then we do a park I don't know like I'm just waiting

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for it to get kicked out of that I guess I don't know but it's like it's but like it's

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so like I'm like stepping on my words but it's super important and it's just finding people

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to understand what you're trying to do because we've worked even with people that are in the

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same industry but they didn't see what we're trying to do like you're like oh you're just

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there's doing a workout class like no it's like it's so much more than a workout class like we're

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literally trying to change these people's lives in the future like we're trying to make sure

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that these people are set up for success we're not just it's not just a workout class like for you

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when you go to a workout class it might just be a workout class for you but we're not doing this

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workout class this is like a yeah it's super fun and we got like good music going and everyone's like

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having a blast but this is this is serious stuff we're doing here and when people see what we're

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trying to do and like they see like a little insight they're like oh okay we want you guys here we

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want to help you out like you know people offer like okay we'll just do it for free like no no

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come on this is a this is a partnership it'll pay you still and I think it's important to pay people

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because that way you can still have you got some you got some uh spit in the game instead of just

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being able to you know let people do whatever they want with you yeah that's that's another thing

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where like I feel like are you a for-profit or a non-profit um so I have BC Adaptive Fitness which

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is a for-profit company and I have a National Adaptive Fitness Foundation which is a non-profit

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company which we just we just launched it last August and what does the non-profit do

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so what we're trying to do at the non-profit is one we're trying to

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allow individuals with disabilities to access and funding for adaptive fitness programs so

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and we're not just trying to like do it for BC Adaptive Fitness we want to go all over we want

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to do it for companies like like you know like I want to like I want to help people like in your

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in your neighborhood you know people that are like hey I want to go work out of Brendan

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and they can't afford it we want to send money to you guys we want to like get you guys hooked up

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we want to make sure that you're like you know Jacob's friend can make sure he can go to the gym

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excuse me yeah I think it's I think it's important I think it's important that like

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some inclusive fitness businesses function as for-profits and I think it's important to

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demonstrate that like the inclusion of people with disabilities can be a profitable endeavor

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like my gym is a for-profit entity AdaptX this podcast our education is a non-profit so I have

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a similar structure to you in terms of like having a branch that can provide some funding and having

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a branch that does education based and then the non or the for-profit brick and mortar facility

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like the actual classes the actual sessions and we don't work with only people with disabilities

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about a quarter of our 250 members have disabilities and the rest are high school collegiate athletes

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general pop adults etc so try to make it like as inclusive as possible so it's all populations

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like seamlessly coexisting but I think it's important for for-profits to realize that catering

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to people with disabilities can be beneficial for their businesses so like when you say like

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some gyms don't want you there that's just like that just kind of sucks because they don't really

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realize the value proposition of it I was curious have you ever considered like opening your own

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space that's kind of central to the different areas that you work in? Totally I've always

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considered it it's just so expensive California is nuts it's insane how much everything is it's

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literally wild like so you actually said a few things that I want to touch touch up on like

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that will actually look I might answer some of your questions that you just asked me

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so you said so first of all you said that you wanted to demonstrate that working with people

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with disabilities can be a for-profit company that's crazy because I've never heard anyone

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else say that and that's something that was just a thought in my head when I first started my company

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I was like I'm not doing non-profit I'm doing a for-profit because I'm sick of all these stereotypes

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that people with disabilities are just like we need to help help help help help like no like

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freaking people like come on you know what I mean so that's that's that's cool to hear I like to hear

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that and I'm gonna say it was um maybe about the opening your own space yeah it so it was and also

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going back to like I would like to ask you actually about uh you know I'll get back to the opening

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one space like but have you ever like do you guys work at regional centers at all? What do you mean

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by regional centers? Government funding? No we don't get any government funding we have some

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programs like they have programs as well as special education schools that send classes to us

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but outside of that it's all just a private sector a lot of our young adults with disabilities are

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still either supported by their families or maybe they have like flexible savings or flexible spending

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for their 22 plus budget and they're able to build the gym into their uh into that funding but I don't

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work directly with any funding sources um we whether you have whether you're a wheelchair user that

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requires basically one-to-one for our coach or you're a high school athlete that's relatively

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independent uh you pay the same price based on frequency um to train with us so yeah I understand

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um okay cool so um

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kind of try and tie everything in together um so like our non-profit uh so we're doing three things

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I enter the first one this uh as mentioned the first one excuse me the second part is what we're

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trying to do is we're also trying to create a a community of adaptive fitness professionals

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nationwide so we want to be like we create a community and so that way like we're trying to

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get all on the same page trying to talk about what we talked about earlier and trying to make it

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like create like a stringent a stringent program so that people that are in our field they know it's

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like hey like we have a we got to do things right um like a big thing that I've been like focusing on

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is like um recognize the effort make sure it's effective and then it'll be efficient and be

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efficient because like if someone has good if a good effort but the exercise isn't there

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that's not effective if they if they're not being effective we're not being efficient so

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um so like if someone is doing an exercise and they're doing it poorly

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hey that was a really good effort but let's do it like this let's let's take it back a step

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um and then so going back to norm that so our non-profit we're also trying to

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um influence the dds so the department and the disability services we actually are trying

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to conduct research so that we can influence them so to create a health and wellness sector

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so that people like you and me can get funded um or are rendered so that individuals that can come

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to us and they don't have to pay out of pocket they can they can do they can have access to these

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programs that are you know just really change their lives in the best way possible so um

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you know I definitely think after this we should uh create a communication between ourselves and

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relationships so that way I can work with you and I can make sure that you can um keep your

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people on a list and so you know if you got a list of people like hey they can't afford it I'm like

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okay let's figure out how we can get you guys some money let's see if you guys do some fundraising

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so that way you can get people on like off your list and in your gym because like and it's you

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know it's like it's like it's the government um not knowing what to do and so what we want to do is

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we want to create research so that they can we can kind of show them like hey this is what we

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can do it's going to improve their quality of life it's going to actually reduce caregiver burden

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which is a technical term I'm not just saying that um that's what the government calls it caregiver

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burden and reduce caregiver burden reduce costs in the future so there's a lot of things that we

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can come out that can come out of that by trying to create health and wellness sector yeah a place

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like DDS might not like they might not know that programs like ours really exist to like serve their

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clientele so it might not be like they're not willing to do it they might just see that there's

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not enough spaces because then everyone might start coming I shouldn't say everyone but then

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people that aren't really qualified aren't really sure what to do might start coming out of the

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woodworks and trying to leverage that funding um so kind of like you said like I for the AdaptX

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course that we teach we're trying to create a large database of certified professionals who are

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are competent and qualified to work with people with disabilities so then um like on our website

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we have a directory so you type in your zip code and it kind of gives you a listing of who the

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closest person who's completed our course is so that's kind of a similar project that you mentioned

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that trying to like just create a large community of people that are both passionate but also um

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excellent like adaptive fitness instructors as well so yeah I I looked into your uh your uh

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the certification it looks solid dude yeah I think that's really cool be happy to happy to

385
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give you a chance to it if you want to take a look yeah no I I mean I just peaked on like

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Instagram and stuff and I'm like this is cool because this is there's something that um I will

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I'll create my own eventually but I think uh like you're definitely setting setting the bar high for

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that and that's super cool it's like because it's just not it's not out there and people need to know

389
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and like and like and just something as simple as like understanding multiple sclerosis understanding

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Down syndrome like that's like so important and people just they don't even think about that stuff

391
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and that's like and so I saw that I'm like that's sick like that is that's cool as hell

392
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how do you do in that so I'll give you problems in that dude enough enough about me though so

393
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maybe let's go back to let's go back to like uh whether you have any ambition maybe to open a facility

394
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yeah um

395
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slash how can I convince you to open a unified health and performance in California

396
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um it it it's it's it's one of those things where it's just it's like I'm down but

397
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um I mean gym ownership is not some people I feel like some people think gym ownership is

398
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like the pinnacle uh but it's really not and I think sometimes people get into owning a gym

399
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because they like working out themselves and then they realize owning a gym is 75% just managing

400
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people and making sure the admin side is is uh dialed in so I certainly by no means think that

401
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like owning a gym is peak career success like if you're if you're training people all day

402
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you're improving lives it's financially uh supports the life that you want like the risk

403
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that's associated with opening a facility and like absorbing all that overhead isn't necessarily

404
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gonna be the right choice unless the socioeconomic makes sense yeah um and I mean there's so many

405
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things going on when you ask me that like that's why I don't know what to say first uh I mean like

406
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right now everyone's trying to push back like in California like in like Orange County is not as

407
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maybe like uh they're not gonna fall into it as soon as other places but everyone's trying to

408
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:43,480
push like mass mandates and stuff and I'm like dude are we doing this again because obviously

409
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:48,840
I want everyone to be healthy and safe but if we bring that back and it's like we will open a brick

410
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:54,200
and mortar if you just shut down like but then we're paying rent and we go like you know we go back

411
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:59,640
to working out in the park and it's it's it's just it's really tough because like we don't know what's

412
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:05,880
happening above us and if other people have a say on what we do I just I don't like the idea of that

413
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:11,800
um so it's it's hard for me to say I'll have something um I definitely would love to have

414
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:16,760
something and I I think what I would actually do is I would create a facility with a non-profit

415
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:22,200
creating like an adaptive lab somewhere we can that we can continue to build research and then also

416
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:28,200
um maybe train some people and then also how it holds some group classes but then we still want

417
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,520
to maybe make it like a hub location so that we can still branch out and reduce that barrier of

418
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,280
access for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities so we can still go

419
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:41,240
out in different communities and instead of just saying hey you got to come to come to us because

420
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,280
that's just not realistic for a lot of people and we want to make sure that we can be there for

421
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:51,720
people instead of just saying this is the only spot that this happens yeah we want to be like oh

422
00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:57,320
hey it's actually only 10 minutes from here so yeah yeah absolutely no I and that's where like

423
00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:04,280
I have my gym in the small area of Massachusetts we can serve people within a 30 minute drive radius

424
00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:11,800
but then my goal as a whole is to help as many people with disabilities as possible become healthier

425
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:17,000
so it's like my way of doing that initially was like the course we created helped more people

426
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:22,920
start programs like ours run programs like ours but now it's kind of like the more physical

427
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:28,680
locations we could come up with the more places there'll be for people with disabilities to train

428
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:34,920
and I also think it's important for a lot of our clients without disabilities as well to like see that

429
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:40,840
to like be in the same environment as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities so

430
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:47,000
they can kind of so their perception of disability changes like I got a really nice letter from one

431
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,600
of our college athletes before he just left for school and he was it was very it was like really

432
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:58,360
vulnerable he was like I joined your gym in seventh grade I was a bully in sixth grade and now he's

433
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:04,520
like one of the volunteers like in some of our adaptive classes and he was like just being exposed

434
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:10,680
to that environment and seeing all those people completely changed how I saw differences so I

435
00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:16,600
think like brick and mortar environments that are cohesive and are inclusive are really important

436
00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:22,440
for like kind of rewriting some of those narratives so not to push you in one way or the other but I

437
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:28,680
think a gym that trains people with and without disabilities simultaneously can be a really good

438
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:36,360
source of change for communities at least in my small experience. I mean that's super cool to

439
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:45,080
hear that and it's it's something that we've always always talked about and it's just something that we

440
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:51,400
haven't really pulled the trigger it's like we've had we just have so much we've had so much work

441
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:56,600
going on already so it's like oh my god I don't even know where I think we would fit it in and like

442
00:39:56,600 --> 00:40:00,760
a big thing right now that we're dealing with is just trying to find people to hire I can't like

443
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:07,880
we've been we've been hot and like people like I don't mind training people at all but so like the

444
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:13,480
way I look at it is like you either need to have an exercise background or you either have trained

445
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:17,960
people exercise background exercise science background preferably or you need to know how to

446
00:40:17,960 --> 00:40:22,360
work with people with disabilities and I'll teach one or the other if you're open like you know it's

447
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:27,560
like I don't mind teaching at all but just finding people it's been tough it's been tough and no one

448
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:32,760
wants to work I don't know what's up with that yeah yeah it's tough I can definitely relate to the

449
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:39,720
struggle of finding coaches that I really saw and I got two awesome full-time coaches here now that

450
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:45,080
make a lot of the burden of my work a lot easier but without them it would be a lot tougher to

451
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:51,240
run the facility that we run maybe we wrap up a lot of these conversations with the question like

452
00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:57,000
what do you think needs to be done to make fitness more accessible for people with disabilities?

453
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:09,160
I think the biggest thing is educating individuals so that way people like that wanted

454
00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:17,160
they be in like our shoes can know what to do when they go to train people I think the biggest

455
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:22,600
issue is individuals that want to go and help people with disabilities don't necessarily know

456
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:30,040
what to do and I think another huge aspect of that is educating families and parents and saying

457
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:36,840
how good it is for individuals with disabilities to exercise so specifically like people with

458
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:42,120
Down syndrome I don't know if you're familiar with this but there is the early onset of Alzheimer's

459
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:47,320
disease dementia are you familiar with that? Yeah one of my research coordinators is kind of leading

460
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:56,280
the charge in that at Kansas State. Oh cool cool yeah I mean obviously it's not the coolest thing

461
00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:00,600
to talk about but it's something serious but and so here I'll put this out here something you know

462
00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:07,640
when I was when I was wrapping up my master's program I kind of did some A plus B equals C

463
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:15,880
research and so typical and this is a little fishy on this one not 100% so like typically

464
00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:20,280
developing people when they get Alzheimer's disease a lot of it the plaque deposits happen in their

465
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:28,840
temporal lobe in their in their brain and there's another part too I'm just blinking right now

466
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:33,960
and then but people with Down syndrome they have a high accumulation in their frontal lobe of the

467
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:43,240
plaque deposits they also saw that physical activity is the only thing to reduce mitigate

468
00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:49,960
or even suppress the onset or the progression of Alzheimer's disease dementia plaque deposits

469
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:59,080
with that being said resistance training is a form of physical activity resistance training

470
00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:03,160
specifically targets the frontal lobe where people with Down syndrome have a high accumulation of

471
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:10,280
plaque deposits so that's kind of like the way when I when I found and I kind of put that together

472
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:16,680
I was like wow resistance training specifically is so important for people with Down syndrome

473
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:22,440
it's like it might be like almost like the golden ticket to improving their quality of life because

474
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:27,480
I think what like in early 1900s like the average age of someone with Down syndrome was like what like

475
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:34,280
12 yeah but now with modern medicine or yes I mean it's you know modern medicine we're able to

476
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:39,720
we're able to do heart surgery my sister has had two open heart surgeries um when she was before

477
00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:44,440
she was 10 she was hospitalized five times with pneumonia in which she was 22 or something she

478
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:49,720
had a pacemaker put in and it's all modern medicine so now like that's great that's awesome I mean yeah

479
00:43:49,720 --> 00:43:54,440
obviously it's great but now we have to do the other end how are we gonna make sure that their

480
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,920
life is good how are we gonna make sure that they can have a good life how can they make sure that

481
00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:05,160
they live longer um exercise exercise exercise and lifestyle making sure they're eating healthy

482
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:11,160
um just like having it's like you know just like anyone and it's it's I feel like it's so crazy that

483
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:18,760
we have to force this it's not it's not force it really push it but it's it's so important just to

484
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:25,080
have a good lifestyle and just eat healthy exercise moderately at least so I think people

485
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:29,160
are surprised when they kind of find out that there's more similarities and differences in

486
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:33,240
training people with or without disabilities and like how you set up exercises how you set

487
00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:38,120
the environment how you queue is going to differ a little bit based on the the client's cognition

488
00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:43,160
and their motor skills but at the end of the day like good strength conditioning is good

489
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:48,520
strength conditioning um whether you have a disability or not and um I whole hardly agree

490
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:52,760
with the Down syndrome stuff we're about to submit a grant proposal for a study on high

491
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:58,680
intensity resistance training in clients with Down syndrome um and so we're hoping that gets funded

492
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:05,320
um early 2024 so we can run the intervention um so yeah it's something maybe I'll maybe I'll pick

493
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:09,400
your brain or kind of loop you in on some of that stuff if it's anything that interests you but

494
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:15,400
I think the the conversation was great and it's um I love that there's other programs out there

495
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:23,640
that run quality and uh that really like care about the quality and not just the access but also

496
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:29,160
uh the products that they put out there so it's great that you kind of hold that to a high standard

497
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:34,840
really well aligned with what I hope to see and what I want to accomplish with my work as well so

498
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:41,080
Brad I appreciate kind of having you as as a part of our connections now and if we can send any

499
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:48,360
people your way in California then um that would be great so yeah it was a it was great talking to

500
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:54,040
you um it was great hearing uh kind of echoing what you said like someone that's trying to

501
00:45:54,760 --> 00:46:01,960
create the access and uh keep the quality control so it's um it's really cool talking to you and

502
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:08,040
meeting you dude because I think we need we need more people that are doing things that you know

503
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:14,600
you and I are doing and making sure that there's just doing it right so um hopefully something

504
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:20,360
wonderful and encourage people yes yeah and I hope we can hope we run into each other someday

505
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:26,680
yeah like last all right well thank you for joining us today I'll be sure to um share some links to

506
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:33,880
your work and profiles and the show notes um and we will be sharing the episode in the next few weeks

507
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:40,920
so uh Brad thanks again for joining me all right Brandon thanks for having me a great day man you

508
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:47,160
too thank you for listening to the adaptx podcast our effort to amplify the ideas of our guests and

509
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:51,320
create more inclusive and accessible industries is futile unless these episodes reach a larger

510
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:55,720
audience if you enjoyed our discussion today please leave us a rating or a review on whichever

511
00:46:55,720 --> 00:46:59,960
platform you use and if you would like to learn more about adaptx the course that we teach to

512
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:04,440
health and fitness professionals and the projects that our organization is working on you can subscribe

513
00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:12,440
to our newsletter through our website www.adaptx.org until next monday