Participant Richard Marsolais and volunteer George Hajesek during their weekly exercises
On Friday evenings, a fitness class at the Jack Purcell Community Centre is a noisy affair.
Instructor Peter Staniforth blares music and meticulously vocalizes every move he makes as volunteers ensure that participants can follow along.
One step into this fitness studio, where guide dogs line the walls, reveals that this fitness class is no typical one.
Visually impaired individuals of all levels of fitness participate in the specially modified class, the only one of its kind in Ottawa.
It began as a pilot project in 2008, when founder and participant Brenda Bush couldn’t keep up with fitness classes she was attending. Bush is partially blind, with no vision in her left eye, and says that classes she tried were “too visual.”
“I was going crazy, I just wanted to exercise,” she says.
Bush came up with the idea of the program with other visually impaired friends. The group decided to meet with Jack Purcell Community Centre directors, since they “tend to be a bit more open to people with disabilities,” she says.
They program, run through the National Visually Impaired Sports Association, was so successful that the city picked it up, she says. Six years later, people are still registering.
“For me this program allows me to exercise with that extra bit of verbal instruction that you need,” Bush says. “In a normal class, you’d have to always be watching the instructor, then of course if you can’t see the instructor you can’t really participate.”
Staniforth relies on verbal cues and volunteers to guide participants. “I show the volunteers and then they go around and show (the participants),” Staniforth says. This can take quite a bit of time “as you transition from one exercise to the other. That’s the biggest difference,” he says.
Bram Caron has been volunteering with these classes since the program’s inception. He says that another challenge is gauging how the participants will move in their environment.
“There are various levels of vision in the group, so figuring out where everyone is going to stand and how they’re going to work together is probably the biggest challenge,” he says.
Despite the challenges that the adaptations bring to the program, both Staniforth and Caron agree that the people makes the experience a rewarding one. Caron says that the group members keep him coming back every week.
“It’s one of my favourite classes to teach,” adds Staniforth.
“I just love the energy, they’re a really close tight-knit group, and despite varying degrees of fitness and physical strength, they just bond together as a group. Everyone has just accepted who they are.”
Though the program has been running for six years, Caron says there used to be many more resources available for the visually impaired.
“When I started, there were a number of courses that were offered,” he says.
“Because of lack of volunteers for these programs, a lot of them have stopped running. There haven’t been enough people to give their time to do the setup and all the takedown of the equipment, which needs to be done with this clientele.”
Staniforth hopes that there are funds in the city’s budget to keep the program going, and possibly expand it to other communities. First, he says, they need to spread the message about the program, as well as encourage people to volunteer.
“It’s just tough getting people out. People are intimidated by their level of fitness, or their special needs. If you have a visual impairment, and you’re doing fitness, and you’re not in shape…getting people to come out and try it is hard,” he says.
He says he believes people with visual impairments would be more inclined to come out if there were free sessions, or trial runs.
Regardless, Staniforth says he would teach the class for free if he had to. “It’s such a great group of people, it’s worthwhile, and it’s just fun. And that’s pretty key.”