Noise, chatter and a feeling of camaraderie are typical of most fitness center visits. Gym-goers are rarely alone, sweating it out, even if conversation is kept to a minimum.
But for people with spinal cord injuries or some neurological diseases, opportunities to exercise in a social setting are often rare, and workouts at a facility built especially for those with disabilities is usually expensive.
Gary Balletto, a former world champion boxer who is paralyzed from the chest down due to a spinal cord injury, saw an opportunity to level the playing field by creating a space that allows people with disabilities to exercise on machines designed to address special needs.
One of the best parts of the 2,500-square-foot space, which opened last month in the Cranston YMCA, is that it’s alongside the rest of the gym.
Balletto, 44, works out there every day. So far, he says, the adaptive gym has attracted approximately 25 members, and can handle about 100.
“I had all these people coming up to me saying thank you for this priceless gift, because they never had anywhere to go,” he said. “I want to go to the gym with my children, or my girlfriend, or my friends. That’s what gyms are about. It’s also a social time. That social therapy is very important, too. A lot of those people with these injuries don’t get out of the house.”
‘It’s a way for them to experience a sense of normalcy.’
AMY WAGENFELD, Johnson & Wales University associate professor
A sense of isolation can be nearly as detrimental as a lack of physical activity for people with injuries and diseases that include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders, according to Dr. Amy Wagenfeld, associate professor and capstone coordinator of Johnson & Wales University’s occupational therapy doctoral program.
Inclusion is “incredibly important,” she said. “It was absolutely visionary of Mr. Balletto to create a space within a space for those who have experienced neurological challenges. To move it out in the community and nonmedicalize it is very, very important. It’s a way for them to experience a sense of normalcy that they may not otherwise be able to,” she added.
For Balletto, regaining a rhythm was crucial after he broke six vertebrae in his neck in a backyard training accident in 2013. He went to rehab, completed a year of physical therapy and then wondered what was next.
“My therapist said there’s not much more we can do, and after that I realized there’s nowhere to exercise,” he said.
Balletto did find a specialized gym in Massachusetts, but knew that at $100 per hour with a two-hour minimum, its cost was prohibitive.
“I just realized that it’s not affordable for everyday people,” he said.
So Balletto did some research, learned about a stationary bike made for people with paralysis, and called the Cranston Y to see if it would invest in one.
He wound up speaking with Steven O’Donnell, CEO of the Greater Providence YMCA. The two were old friends, and O’Donnell knew about Balletto’s drive to recover after his injury.
“What I learned from Gary is that people with disabilities typically work out in facilities specific to them,” O’Donnell said.
He agreed to help, and a fundraiser generated enough in one night to cover the bike’s $20,000 price tag. Installed in 2015, it was soon in high demand.
“It ended up being booked full time,” Balletto said. The equipment’s popularity moved him to create the Gary Balletto Foundation, a nonprofit that so far has raised $100,000 for more equipment and the hiring of a neurological fitness specialist.
Balletto worked with the YMCA to ensure that high costs of the equipment and staff weren’t passed along to users of the adaptive equipment. He partnered with the Y to raise money to offset some of those costs, O’Donnell said.
Equipment in the space includes two specialized stationary bikes that allow people without the use of their legs to pedal. A machine vibrates users’ legs in a gait pattern, and a recumbent trainer moves paralyzed legs while users get a cardio arm workout.
A standing frame stand straps in exercisers, moving their legs back and forth while allowing for an arm workout, similar to a traditional elliptical machine.
Adaptive calisthenics and physical therapy can be done using a bariatric mat platform, a table-height exercise space that users can transfer onto from a wheelchair. Wheelchair users also can do resistance training on a weight machine with a pivoting seat.
The adaptive gym in Cranston may serve as a pilot for similar spaces in the future, O’Donnell and Balletto said.
“We’re fine-tuning this model,” Balletto said.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.