UNIT 20 Disability

藝弊悝汜炾釬

Warriors on Wheels

by Colin Harte, Guilderland High School

The sound of barbells clanging discordantly can be heard just outside the doorway. Stepping through the Fitness Factory＊s entrance, I enter a world of aerobics, weight-lifting and the constant smell of body odor. Bodybuilders with basketball-sized biceps and tree-trunk frames walk past teenage boxers and sweatsuit-clad housewives. Yet amongst these aerobic instructors and forty-something weight-lifters are the members of the Warriors on Wheels fitness program.

Started two years ago by bodybuilder/fitness trainer Ed Norton, Warriors on Wheels is an accessible program that provides people with disabilities a place to lift weights. Weight training is a necessity for Norton＊s clients, who primarily have spinal cord injury, spinal muscle atrophy or spinal meningitis, so that they can take care of themselves without the help of others. Working with people as young as seven years old, Norton＊s strength and conditioning workout is similar for most clients in that it targets the upper body in order to increase mobility. As a client＊s upper body strength increases, the individual is able to do more things independently.

The fitness program not only serves as a place to work out but also as a place for social gathering. "Ned provides a place where you can get peer support and discuss any problems you might have. We teach one another how to take care of different problems. It＊s real nice to have that," said Tom Morin, who has worked with Norton for over eight years in order to cope with his spinal cord injury. Bob Dudley, a man who has to strap his wrists to the weight machine due to the adverse effects of spinal muscle atrophy, points out that the mixing of people with and without disabilities allows for a pleasant environment where he felt like "just another guy at the gym."

While Norton is credited with starting the only disabilities-oriented fitness program in the Capital Region 〞 Hudson Valley Community College has accessible equipment but no trainer 〞 it is his clients who have made it worthwhile. "They come here every week and work out with me and that＊s what I want to provide for them," said a grinning Norton. From biceps curls to bench pressing, Norton seeks to promote independence, improve upper body strength, and provide a program that allows people with disabilities to lift weights.

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