By Dana Granville
People are filing into the Jack Purcell Community Centre. Some are in wheelchairs, some are using walkers. But all of them are ready to work out.
“Is everyone in yet?” shouts a lady using a walker.
“Not yet,” someone else yells. “But almost everyone.”
Paul Ollivier, 77, and his fellow exercisers have arrived, most using their various walking aids. They have come to use the centre’s wheelchair-accessible weight room and other facilities for people with special needs, ranging from aqua fit classes to rehab walking programs.
Kathryn Watcham, program co-ordinator for the special needs program, says their facilities are some of the most accessible in the city. “Our pool, for example, is the warmest in the city, at 92 degrees,” she said. This is important for people with mobility issues such as arthritis.
“It helps with joint mobility, by loosening the joints,” she said. “It’s also popular for people with small babies.”
In addition to offering an almost fully accessible facility, manager Linda Pajot says the centre offers another key component in fitness training.
“Our staff is available to help out one- on- one,” she said.
Personal trainer Patrick York, who has been working with the special needs program at the centre for two- and- a-half years, says while part of his job is helping people train, a large part of his job is helping with the mental side of physical fitness.
Pajot agrees that more goes into the training than the physical work they put in. She says while the physical fitness is crucial, the social aspect plays an equally important role.
“It’s a great place to exercise and keep in shape,” said Ollivier, who works out at the gym three times a week. “Exercise is good, of course, and the company is wonderful. We’re a group of regulars. Everyone’s different obviously, but we all want the same things here.”
Ollivier, who has used a wheelchair since a back operation in 1994, says regular exercise is a vital part of his life.
“When you’re in a wheelchair, it’s strangely important to build up other muscles. You have to move around, have to transfer your weight. You have to strengthen your body as much as you can,” he said.
York agrees. “Since they’re sitting down all the time, they aren’t always using all their muscles so they degenerate much more rapidly,” he says. For that reason, they need to work at building up the remaining muscles as much as possible in order to maintain their health.
He says that this is not always an easy task. “There are people here with cancer, going through chemo who still come to train here. There are people with serious Multiple Sclerosis who still show up and work their hardest. The uplifting thing is that, in spite of all the obstacles, they’re trying,” he said.
Ollivier agrees, but says the benefits far outweigh the obstacles.
“You have to look around. There are people here who can hardly stand up and walk, but they work with what they have,” he said.
That admiration and support is what York says makes their gym different from most.
“It’s more of a family sort of feeling,” he said. “It’s different than most gyms in that people are more into how it feels than how it looks. They want to do this for their health, not for the way they will look.”