All right, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals building accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or
excelling in adaptive sports. Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but to provide a platform to share their voice
and amplify their ideas to a more inclusive world. Today I'm joined by David Figueroa. David is a highly accomplished motivational speaker,
advocate, podcaster, educator and athlete. As a person with CP, cerebral palsy, David has faced numerous challenges and obstacles throughout his life.
However, he has successfully embraced his condition and become a source of inspiration and hope for numerous individuals. David, thank you for joining me today.
It's a pleasure to be on your podcast. It's an honor for you to reach out to me to be on here and I'm hoping to enlighten a lot of people with my knowledge and expertise.
Yeah, absolutely. Let's maybe share with the audience how CP presents for you. So what level or what GMFCS level of CP you have?
I was born as spastic quadriplegic. So it basically affects all four quadrants, so arms and legs. And I was told I would never be able to be able to walk at all by doctors early on.
And thankfully with surgeries and by determination and really wanting to excel alongside having a get support system, I was able to overcome that.
So your mobility, do you use a wheelchair? Do you use lofstering crutches?
Right. I used a wheelchair full time until I was eight and then I transitioned to a walker. And a little bit after that, I just used a cane and the power chair or a wheelchair is so often whenever there's long distances.
Okay. So what was involved in that transition from a wheelchair to something like crutches or a cane was fitness and just activity levels essential to that transition?
At the beginning, it was a lot of physical therapy, but then it was as I got older, it was more of like, you need to start taking responsibility for your health because that determines your own life.
And you know, if you don't take responsibility for yourself, then how are you going to become independent? You know, be able to live a normal life on your own.
So that I made that decision when I was 15, 16. I told myself, you know, I got to stop being sedentary. I got to start moving.
So that's where a lot of you being involved in sports. I was involved in baseball.
It was a challenge. Your leg was for kids with different disabilities. And then I got involved also in football.
That was pretty much the same aspect. So so what the ladies and tail is you have all these kids and all these individuals with different disabilities.
But then you have a buddy system pair. You better have a pair of them with a buddy in terms of buddy kind of helps them, you know, redirect them and how to play the sport.
Or if they can't catch something like a ball or something, they'll catch a forum and they'll help them complete the play and just be there for them, you know, as a sense of like support, you know.
Yeah, challenge your baseball was one of the first organizations I got involved with as well that highly influenced like the career I wanted to pursue.
And just my passion for inclusion as a whole.
What do you think the role of adaptive sports in a community is in you accepting and appreciating your diagnosis and I guess still being comfortable in your own skin and developing relationships with peers.
That is that is a that is like really very question a little loaded, but it's actually it's actually great because I feel like it's so underappreciated like these organizations.
Because you don't really hear much about adaptive sports, especially here where I live. I don't know where you're from, but I'm from Florida.
Florida you hear about adaptive sports and like Tampa and like those bigger cities, you know, Miami.
Like for me a couple years ago. No, this was.
Give or take 13 years ago I was about to graduate high school and prior to I was a you know, I was doing cycling and I was a three time state champion cyclist in the state of Florida with the Special Olympics.
But I was graduating high school and they were talks about me eventually jumping into doing the Paralympics and I got invited to the third facility up in Tampa.
And you know, I got the tour and it was a beautiful facility and they're like, we want to be a part of a banquet. You know, you get all the, you know, you'll be able to study and then compete at the same time and then have sponsorships and all this good stuff.
And at the time, you know, I just graduated high school and my body was like, I can't do this anymore because I went through all three sports and I was going through a lot of injuries.
Towards the tail end of my cycling and so I was like, you know, should I go for it and accept all these sponsorships and this money and this opportunity or should I walk away and go to go to school and be content with myself and I just to walk away and people are like, you're nuts.
Yeah, all this coming for you. I'm like, you know, when your body says you can't do it anymore, you can't do it anymore. It's, it's, you know, but in terms of your question.
Yes, it is under, it is underappreciated and I feel like it should, there should be more exposure to it and it really brings everybody together. You know.
Yeah, absolutely. The communal aspect is essential and that's what we've tried to replicate at our gym as well. I mean, unified sports influenced my career path and then it influenced my business name like our gyms, unified health and performance.
So it had a large impact on that as well. So definitely essential and I think the role of fitness can be pretty similar in that regard. So what was it like growing up where you lived with a disability where schools inclusive?
Were you able to find a good friend group? Well, I started actually started school in Puerto Rico. I went to school in Puerto Rico for about eight years and they weren't very, they weren't very inclusive at all.
Like the other facilities, teachers were very like, they didn't really like me being in their classroom because I was kind of set apart from other kids because I walked differently. I talked differently and they didn't want anything to do with me even though I may straight as another class as I did everything I had to do.
Even if I had to have an aide at the time, but they were like, nah, you know, you don't want him here. He's too slow and you know, and that's what at the time I was living with my stepmom now mom and my dad and my stepmom now mom took it to heart.
You know, she's like, they can't treat my son like this. You know, she went and took the student file that they had at the office tore it up and said, we're coming to Florida. I got here.
Things started to open up a lot more as far as more opportunities. Of course, I started sports over there in Puerto Rico because my, as I started in the very first leg in my hometown there, or baseball for kids with disabilities, I was a poster child.
Everybody, I was pretty much famous around town. Everybody knew who I was. And it was pretty cool. I mean, to be eight years old and be, you know, recognizing the kid who started that league and was the face of it becoming here playing baseball until 2007.
And then, of course, my education was a lot better here. It was a lot more, you know, more welcoming and more inclusive. Of course, you had your few bumps on the road where, where teachers were like, what can we do for this child and how can we assist him and that's where my mom now she came in and she taught me it's all about advocating for yourself.
You have to, you have to tell people what you have, how it makes you different and how it makes you unique. And when they understand you, that's how they learn and how they appreciate you and how they're willing to assist you.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that echoes an important point that I can know as much as possible about cerebral palsy, but the best way to know how to help you is to ask you. No one knows your diagnosis better than you. No one knows your support needs better than you.
But there's still that like fear and concern that sometimes people have about talking about disability or talking with someone with a disability. Do you have any advice into kind of how to alleviate some of that like maybe for example let's just do a scenario so if you were to walk into my gym for the first time, what would you want me to ask you about your disability.
Well, for me is what can you do what are what are your limitations and what you what you can't what can't and you can't do and how can I make it more accessible for you.
Yeah, absolutely. So less less about the specific characteristics of the diagnosis and more about how it manifests through ability and opportunity.
Right, right. Of course, you know, you'll have those moments where people do ask about, you know, your disability and and, you know, the differences between a child and an adult, you know, you have to approach it differently like a child, you know, they're so they're so learning.
They're still trying to understand process it. And this is a moment where you could teach them, you know, one on one, you know, being a former educator myself, I dealt with a lot of that too like I had to teach my students about me.
You know, the same way I taught I was learning about them, you know, and the same thing with adults, you know, adults, you know, they can be taught but it's very different because they've they've seen it and they have some sense of understanding, you know.
Yeah, absolutely. That's actually an interesting point like kids are learning about disability as they go. Was there also a similar period for you kind of learning about your diagnosis and coming to terms with your diagnosis where you ever resentful.
Well, yeah, there are times where I felt resentful but then I realized, you know, this is a part of you at all. It'll always be a part of you and if anyone if no one else can accept it at least at least you do and be proud of it and be proud of yourself.
We're grateful for the support of our first show sponsor.
Resolution Fitness offers leading brand health club equipment and accessories for residential and commercial use. In addition to traditional exercise equipment they specialize in adaptive fitness products and wheelchair accessible machines.
If you're interested in outfitting your fitness facility or home gym to be more accessible. Visit www.resolutionfitness.ca or the link in the show notes below.
Yeah, absolutely. So you got through high school in the states here and then you went on to university. Do you want to tell the audience a little bit about where you went to school what you studied and what that experience was like.
I went to UCF and I studied sociology and I had a pretty good experience. It was very interesting because UCF is one of the largest campuses in the United States and getting around it was very interesting.
You know I had to learn all the shortcuts. Of course my the shuttles were my best friend getting around campus.
One of the things that I disliked about it and this is something that I was that I was trying to really push was to have have the opportunity to have people like in I can golf carts or staff members pick up students that have different disabilities.
And but I learned the hard way by getting on by getting on a golf cart. One of the members of the staff was like I'll do it for you. You know technical methods supposed to do this but I want to help you and he was very wonderful and you know and to this day I'm very grateful for him.
But you know they were like you know but you getting on this golf cart your liability your this your that I'm like if a student can get on a shuttle.
And take it around campus but they're not sometimes are too far and sometimes students can't afford you know a power chair or scooter or even a manual chair to get around campus.
And you know how how how else are they are they going to. And one of the things I propose that never went through was.
You know if you are a part of student services you have your documented you have a documented disability.
Why not have your student ID you know there and it's documented hey I need I need help getting around campus.
And if you have a certain idea or certain badge you can show the staff there and golf cards or whatever that you have a documented disability.
And of course find a way to make the golf cart accessible like if they have a chair or if they have something that they can't carry by themselves.
Make it accessible so that they can put it on there and they can they can ride with you of course you can make the golf cart to where.
You can have doors or something to where they don't fall off and have seatbelts because that's what they're made for seatbelts are and this is not a this is not a PSA by the way but see.
Save lives you know put seatbelts on golf carts.
No make it accessible as possible and by doing that you're promoting more inclusivity and more opportunities for students to be successful because.
I can tell you I can tell you a handful of times where I had an exam and I had to go across campus and I had a certain amount of time and by the time I got there.
I was exhausted.
Yeah, I mean yes yeah not only the accessibility but I guess that under appreciates how much more energy expenditure it requires for someone with CP to ambulate.
Something like three to five times as much of a metabolic cost of exercises it does for someone without so.
Not only the speed but also just the energy demand I mean you get to class probably depleted.
Oh yeah and I spent a full days there from like seven from like I used to get up at 430 in the morning take a three hour bus ride and get the first class by 730 in the morning and I was there till eight o'clock at night.
Yeah that's that's dedication to your education I can appreciate that for sure.
What influence what influence you to study sociology.
Well it was primarily all my life experiences you know that were encompassed you know dealing with a lot of you know trying to accept myself and find myself and I'm like you know I have to use my ability to hope I like to use my ability to hope people and that's what I'm doing nowadays is just.
Sharing my story sharing my journey I'm not just this platform but my own and bringing other people with different disabilities and obstacles on my show and letting them share their stories and so by doing that I'm just not help not helping just myself but helping others to.
Absolutely when you when you go to a keynote speech or presentation what do you hope that the audience takes away from it.
That they can they can achieve what they want to achieve if they really put in the work for it.
That's as simple as that and believe in yourself always believe in yourself no matter what.
How do you go into those presentations and prepare for them do you come with a speech that you practice or do you have a set of talking points.
I do actually make a I make PowerPoints actually so mine is very visual.
I try to get the crowd involved so I have like a little activities here there to kind of you know make people think or like make them really you know get involved something fun you know I like to have some proud interaction you know versus just me talking because when you when you spend time talking for like 20 30 minutes.
You know you're bound to lose engagement you know there's no like what what can this guy bring to bring them to bring engagement you know as long as you keep your crowd engaged don't want to keep watching you want to keep listening to you you know.
Yeah, absolutely yeah that's that's something that's tough as I start to do some more public speaking is just making sure that you're tailoring a presentation to the audience and finding ways.
To break up the monotony of speaking and kind of like you said fostering that engagement it's tough the discussion prompts and trying to get people to engage sometimes people are hesitant in an audience to kind of speak up.
I mean I'll bring up a lot of like my fitness videos talk about that I've done fitness seminars for and and you know I've been able to like really keep the crowd engaged and I also proposed a couple of my you know football videos and like yeah like.
I'm like yeah of course I'm like how'd you do this how'd you do that and then you know I bring up the I was a size of a water bottle so I usually bring like a water bottle to share with the class and I'm like okay so if anybody can guess why I have this water bottle here you know I'll give them like a piece of candy or something.
And when I told them the true the true significance of the meaning of that bottle they're like whoa for real and I told them that I was I was at size I was a size of water bottle like no way you know I guess true you know.
Speaking of fitness I guess I guess this is a good good transition point to that conversation. Since our audience is ideally fitness professionals and that's who we want to speak to and kind of help the industry become more inclusive and accessible.
What do you think fitness environments gyms need to do to better accommodate people with disabilities.
Listen to your your members your members have disabilities they have a lot of insight and they offer a lot of knowledge and resources to what how you can improve a gym.
You know simple simple as that because you know it's like.
You know these these documentaries that they do with specific athletes like docuseries especially with athletes have different different disabilities you know how they tend to have actors that don't have disabilities or able body.
But they're not really they they might be playing the role but they're not essentially they don't know what it's like physically.
You know and this is the thing with gyms is is you're not going to really get a change or less you listen to those those members that have those specific disabilities.
Target that demographic you know when you target that demographic and you ask him hey how can we how can we help watch this make it more inclusive.
Speak to them you know.
Have meeting you know conduct surveys.
You know speak to them directly you know I personally love when somebody speaks to me directly and says how can I improve something for you.
Or how can I make something how can I help you understand what I have.
You know.
Yeah absolutely can you think of any of like the low hanging fruit that a gym could maybe address to make the environment or the services more accessible.
Just like have you seen any gyms do inclusion well.
Where where I used to go.
No not really.
I could I could say this because the doors weren't they weren't any they weren't any automatic opening doors.
The locker room was not really accessible like I try I would sit down and try to change my shoes or something.
And I had to literally sit on the floor just to get my shoes on or something or just to get just to be able to get dressed and the lockers are hard to to close or to even open.
You know because I'm only have use of really one hand.
So even that was difficult and then if you're going to.
The showers for example like you know you go in there and there's not much of a railing or something to hold on to or even a chair.
You know to sit on if you if you're somebody that can't really stand for long periods of time but you still want to you know wash off or like you know rinse off or something you know.
Yeah so looking at the entire experience not just the gym equipment but also bathrooms showers even like front desk and I mean obviously if you can't enter the building you can't use the building so addressing those those key accessibility standards for entrances and doors is the first
step but then kind of beyond that I guess have you had any good experiences like with fitness professionals.
Oh yeah there was there was this guy or this this trainer rest of peace to him he was such a wonderful guy.
When I first started going to the gym he actually approached me and he was very friendly and he's like you know he's like you know what David I've been learning a lot about stroke palsy and different disabilities I want to be a personal trainer for
those different disabilities and the first question he asked me which is something that we discussed earlier was how can I make this experience more accommodating for you.
You know how can I help you train and get fit and so we started working together for a couple years and unfortunately he ended up passing away very young at a very young age at 29 from a heart attack and you know but I took everything they taught me to heart and I still use it to this day.
And that's the thing too is is a lot of these gyms need to have not just trainers working with ill body individuals with trainers that are equipped to help assist and teach those with physical disabilities how to train properly and how to get in shape and that's really important too.
You know don't neglect the elephant in the room.
Yeah yeah that's where we're like we emphasize education for the trainer instead of the individuals so our content is less curated to like OK you have cerebral palsy you should do XYZ but it's more so to educate the fitness staff so they're more comfortable and competent in working with people with disabilities so when you do enter that gym.
You're greeted with a welcoming environment and a professional that can support those needs that you have so just teaching teaching fitness professionals personal trainers physical therapists strength conditioning coaches about like disability etiquette communication strategies expectations and like you said at the end of the day the best way to learn is just to have communication and to have conversations with people with disabilities and learn how they need to be supported instead of implying that you know.
So I think that's just I mean that's a pretty consistent takeaway that we found when having these conversations.
Yeah I would definitely I would definitely agree and I think and that the main the main thing about this is.
You have to keep it going you know you can't stop once you start something.
I don't don't quit just keep it just keep it going and eventually it'll stick you know just like what we're doing now educating the public on on disabilities and fitness we have to keep it going you know we can't stop.
Yeah yeah you mentioned inspiration in your in your bio.
Inspiration porn and kind of this narrative of people with disabilities as overcoming challenges is a pretty prevalent one. What do you think about people calling you inspirational.
Well honestly I mean for first and foremost I'm flattered that you know people think I'm an inspiration but.
At the end of the day we're just we're all human you know we all do things just like everybody else you know I I go to work I you know I I pay rent I have my own pet and I take care of that's like my son who was born early.
Well you know and it's it's one of those things you know you have to.
You have to treat somebody with disability just like they're treating you just like they're human you know just they might look different they might act different but at the end of their they're just human like everybody else and they just want to feel.
Accepted in society.
Yeah that dog's just passionate about inclusion accessibility just wanted just want to be a part of the episode that's all.
If people are interested in listening to your podcast or learning more about you where would you recommend that they find you and we can include it in the show notes but.
You can definitely find you can find me on on Instagram at David CP Fitness.
You can find me on on Twitter at David CP Fitness and if you guys would like to listen to the podcast itself it's the David Sirle Paul's the infinite podcast.
Awesome David I've enjoyed learning from you over the years I'm glad we finally got the chance to connect and and have a little bit of a conversation today and look forward to sharing this with our audience.
Definitely I was a pleasure and thank you so much for being on today.
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