Gym Works To ‘Bridge Gap’ Between People With Disabilities And Fitness
Training at the gym used to be a frustrating experience for Emily Grodin, a woman with non-verbal autism. But then she discovered ZOOZ Fitness, an inclusive gym located in Encino, California, working to change the way the world thinks about fitness, and what a gym should be.
ZOOZ Fitness provides a place for everyone to get fit -- both people with and without disabilities -- and they hope other gyms/fitness centers take notice and become more inclusive too.
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Allison Norlian (Journalist): Why Do you like ZOOZ Fitness?
Max: To be healthy.
Allison Norlian: To be healthy?
Sivan Buchinsky (ZOOZ Fitness athlete with Down syndrome): It's been a great motivator for me. So then I can start having workouts weekly and on Zoom.
Jake Weiner (Founder/CEO of ZOOZ Fitness): ZOOZ fitness is an inclusive gym space. We welcome anyone and everyone. We focus our attention on folks with disabilities. My background is in working with people with disabilities in various capacities— public schools, private schools, nonprofit. And the one thing that I kept noticing was that these individuals were very sedentary and did not have opportunities to move their bodies.
So over the years, I just kept thinking to myself, like, I love to exercise. I love to train. You know, there is a huge need. Why is no one doing this? So that was the inception of ZOOZ really early on— really organically started from just that very idea that I just want to get people moving.
Emily Grodin (ZOOZ Fitness athlete with nonverbal autism):
I love ZOOZ fitness. I have been coming for a few years now. I really enjoy being here. I like everything that I have accomplished so far. Before, it was hard getting into a routine to work out myself, but ZOOZ has helped me to change all that and be more consistent.
Jake Weiner: You know, when I first started, I kind of I quit my job. I was like, You know what? I love doing this. I'm going to try this full time. So I put all my eggs into this basket, and you know, there were feelings of nervousness and ‘Oh, my God, did I do the right thing?’ My wife was asking me like, ‘Well, what are you doing? We need to make money.’ And really, just I knew I had an immense passion for this and excitement, and there's no way that it can't succeed.
Around 150 families that we see every week between our private sessions and group sessions. So that like since 2015 when we started this really kind of part time to see where we've grown and to have this space. I mean, this was always the dream When I first started, you know, I want to help people. I want to start training. We were at parks, we were in community centers. And the dream was always like, I want to have our own space that we can feel the sense of community and we can feel, you know, parents can feel like there's, there's a home here. And that's really what we created over the years. And that for me, every time I walk these doors like that is the best feeling. I hit the lights and I'm like, it's amazing. It's an amazing feeling to know that parents and our athletes are excited to come. When I created this space, you know, our brick and mortar gym, it was those things in mind trying to look at it from a you know, from the mindset of someone with a disability. And I even talked to many of my athletes. Here's what I'm thinking. What do you think of this? Lights? Colors? And got incredible responses. And that's, you know, when new parents come in, they see the space and they are like, ‘Wow, this is like a real gym.’ And that piece is always something that I laugh at. Of course, it's a real gym. Again, we remove any stigma. We don't want you to think of anything else other than a real gym space. We have all the same equipment. How we break down movements is the only thing that's different. I firmly believe that this population, folks with disabilities, deserve every right that everyone else does. So for me, it's not like, I don't feel like I'm doing something really special.
You know, I feel like I'm helping people that everybody should help. I don't look at people with disabilities any differently. I joke with them. I'm super sarcastic. I treat folks with disabilities exactly how I would treat a neuro-typical peer. And I think that's also what people respond well to. And that's the stigma I'm trying to remove. Just because you have a disability doesn't mean anything. It means you have disability. Like, fitness has an incredible way of breaking down these barriers.
Allison: Why is it important to have a place like this for people with disabilities?
Sivan: To get them motivated and also excited so then they can learn the new things about their bodies and just relay it into their own lives? ZOOZ Fitness is about having fun, being motivated exercising, having a housing start to your life and just having good friends and supporters around.
