TRAINER’S STORY PUMPS THEM UP
Personal fitness trainers and physically challenged seek Ryan Armitage’s advice
Ryan Armitage trains Hannah Halpern at the Jewish Community Centre. A Citizen story about Armitage’s work with physically challenged adults has inspired others to do the same.
Sometimes a story sparks a surge.
Our profile of Ryan Armitage, who trains physically challenged adults at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC), changed his life and is changing the lives of others.
Since the story was published three weeks ago, Armitage has been swamped with requests to work with others facing hurdles just to get to a gym, let alone work out. Global National interviewed him for one of their Everyday Hero TV segments. He has been asked to speak in public about the extraordinary progress made by ordinary people told they could no longer walk or jump or lift.
He has also heard from personal fitness trainers inspired to expand their client base.
“One of them said, ‘I do 35 sessions a week. And I’ve decided I’m going to put an hour aside for someone who can’t afford it. Or, someone who really needs my help.’ ” That brought a smile to Armitage’s face.
“There’s no reason you can’t spend an hour or two per week to help someone who fell through the cracks,” says Armitage, who inadvertently got involved with special needs clients several years ago at the JCC, where he is the fitness centre manager. It has become his passion. Those who can afford to pay private trainer fees do so, but if they can’t, Armitage trains with them for the basic club fee cost. Most other gyms don’t offer that flexibility.
But that might change if enough trainers find it in their heart, and have gym operators who can make it work for their budgets.
One trainer told Armitage he had been working with elite athletes, as Armitage once did, but was now motivated to switch to working with people with specials needs. That’s a good thing, because Armitage could use a clone of himself to cover the care required for adults in need of some personal attention in this region, without paying expensive training fees.
If five more trainers take on even one special-needs client, Armitage figures there’s five lives changed for the better.
Armitage helped a man suffering from Guillain-Barré syndrome learn to walk again. Another, a double amputee with dystonia, overcame addictions to devote himself to workouts. He is now self-sufficient. All it took were 12 sessions with Armitage to free up the use of his right arm, allowing him to open cupboards and doors. And cook. It opened up his world, after numerous gyms had turned him down.
Armitage has no special potions and promises no miracles, but he accepts people willing to try and inspires them to heights they didn’t imagine in their lowest days.
“I’ve seen some incredible feats based on the power of having someone say, ‘Sure you can,’ ” Armitage says.
“The mind is the most powerful thing in your body.”
Brian Tardif, executive director of Citizen Advocacy of Ottawa, wishes other facilities were as open and accessible as Armitage and the JCC.
“It’s too bad we don’t have more people like him,” Tardif says, lamenting that there is no insurance or benefit plan for physically challenged adults to take on a personal trainer. Some, with benefits, have access to physiotherapy and massage therapy.
Nothing duplicates training with a professional, especially to get a start on recovering from a debilitating injury.
“Exercise, for people who need somebody to do it with them, can be a tremendous benefit and could end up saving our system money in future health costs,” Tardif says.
While some severely disadvantaged people are eligible for “Passport Funding” through the Ministry of Community and Social Services, the limit is $35,000, money that evaporates quickly for those in dire need of critical support care. Gym training is not the top priority for some struggling with basic living. Others, more able, might in some cases devote a small amount toward training.
Widespread public accessibility is not there yet. Not even with the services available in Ottawa.
“We talk about ParticipACTION, we talk about the need for physical exercise, but we do it from the lens of somebody who is able-bodied, or has the cognitive capacity to do this,” Tardif says. “We don’t consider it from the lens of people who don’t.”
Meanwhile, back at the JCC, Armitage’s door remains open. He has just finished a session with Tim Fauquier, who rebounded from Guillain-Barré syndrome and learned to walk again, under Armitage’s guidance. It’s a bright morning in late August — “a red letter day,” Fauquier says. He just set a personal best on the rowing machine, after which Armitage encouraged him to do a solo walk.
He knew Fauquier had it in him, even if Fauquier wasn’t certain.
“You don’t want to disappoint that guy,” Fauquier says. “You just don’t.”
Armitage insists it’s easy to work with motivated people who have been told they can’t do something. A chip on the shoulder can be powerful. He won’t soon forget the moment Fauquier, his first severely-challenged client, took his first steps.
“I don’t cry, but I was bawling my eyes out with a grown man,” says Armitage. “I knew then this was what I wanted to do.” wscanlan@postmedia.com Twitter/@hockeyscanner
Exercise, for people who need somebody to do it with them, can be a tremendous benefit and could end up saving our system money in future health costs.