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Basic Takeaways
A survey found that 81% of people with disabilities did not feel welcome in the gym and that more than 90% did not believe that exercise professionals were adequately trained to work with this population. These statistics should be a wake-up call for the industry. Mentoring and educating clients with disabilities can be incredibly rewarding as it provides the opportunity to create inclusive and equitable fitness spaces. While there can be challenges in finding accessible fitness programs and knowledgeable staff, the impact of making fitness more accessible is extremely significant. The Lakeshore Foundation is an Alabama-based facility working to drive the change needed to create an inclusive industry for people with disabilities. The facility has been designated as a US Olympic and Paralympic training facility and offers high-performance training to athletes with and without disabilities in an effort to create more equity and address the huge disparity between the number of people with disabilities who have access to sports and physical activity compared to non-disabled individuals. Read on to find out what you can do to make a difference.
This is the first in a series of blogs from the Lakeshore Foundation, so stay tuned for more!
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With Olympic fever in the air, I hope you’ve had a chance to catch the story of male gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, the horse hero who had an important role to play for the USA men’s gymnastics team. It teaches a valuable lesson in leaning into your strengths and working to be the best at what you do.
Today, we want to tell you a story about another previously unknown artist who is leaning into his own strengths. While everyone seems to be familiar with the Olympics, there isn’t as much awareness about the Paralympics. In fact, most people don’t get it right when asked what the Paralympic Games are. The Paralympic Games, often confused with the Special Olympics, take place two weeks after the Olympics in the same city and venues and are for athletes with disabilities. The athletes who compete in the Paralympic Games are the best of the best in their sport and classification and also compete for Gold on an international stage.
While these Paralympic athletes are elite in every way their Olympians are, their access to high-performance training and facilities has not always been the same. Enter this previously unknown performer: Lakeshore Foundation.
The Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama has the distinct honor of being the first facility to be designated as both a US Olympic and Paralympic Training Facility, welcoming elite athletes from around the world to train and compete. We are also proud to serve as the National Governing Body of two Paralympic sports: USA Boccia and USA Wheelchair Rugby – the most decorated Paralympic wheelchair rugby program in history.
From this designation, Lakeshore is well-equipped to serve athletes at the elite level. However, research reveals that almost half of all adults with disabilities they do not receive leisure-time aerobic physical activity and are important less active and more obese than their non-disabled peers. This lack of equity extends from grassroots and community programs to elite-level athletic performance.
As a non-disabled athlete, if you wanted to train like an Olympian, you wouldn’t have to look far to find the latest tips or access a facility that has these opportunities, but the same can’t be said for athletes with disabilities. . That’s why Lakeshore announced its newest endeavor, the Lakeshore Sports Science and Performance Center (SSPC), in early 2024. Our goal is to provide a wide range of in-person and online sports performance services to athletes with disabilities , advanced sports science research and to pave a path for emerging and elite athletes with disabilities to achieve athletic success and a healthy life.
Whether your goal is to reach the podium or just finish the neighborhood 5k, our new SSPC can help you get there. Just like Stephen with the horse, we built on our strengths and decided to focus on something we believed we could do well, and now our new center can ensure that athletes with disabilities of all levels have fair access to change sports performance services such as sports nutrition, mental performance and strength and conditioning.
But it doesn’t stop there. According to a survey we recently conducted to assess access and acceptance of people with disabilities in the fitness industry, 81% of people with disabilities say they do not feel welcome in the gym. This is an impressive number for all of us in the fitness industry. But the report had more to say:
- 73.3% of disabled people do not think that fitness facilities are welcoming.
- 90.9% of participants do not believe that exercise professionals are adequately trained.
- 84.3% do not believe that fitness programs include people with disabilities.
While it’s certainly not good news for our industry, it’s something that Lakeshore is uniquely equipped to help change. If you or your clients want to train like an Olympian or Paralympian, check out our tips below to help you get there. If you want more information on how your gym can be more inclusive for people with disabilities, keep checking back for more blogs on the topic. In the meantime, you can check out some free resources in our learning lab at https://lakeshorefoundationlms.litmos.com/.
Our goal is to show that access to these resources—either online in our training lab or in person at our high performance center—helps change the game and open doors for these athletes.
Whether it’s an up-and-coming athlete who wants to make the team for LA ’28, a high school wheelchair track athlete who wants to make his school team, or a local wheelchair basketball player who wants to play collegiately, we want to apply a plan that can help get them where they want to go.
So while you’re beaming on your living room floor or critiquing like a distinguished judge from your couch, cheer loudly for Team USA and don’t forget to tune in to the Paralympic Games starting August 28, 2024.
To learn more from the Lakeshore Foundation about how inclusive and equitable fitness spaces begin with the built environment, read The Built Environment: Ensuring Accessibility for Clients with Disabilities.
