The Gym Isn't Accessible To Those Who Are Deaf. This Personal Trainer Is Fighting To Fix That
I was always active growing up—a tennis player and track and field athlete in high school. Despite my love of sports and fitness, though, I pictured myself becoming a lawyer some day. But after I studied abroad, I wasn’t sure anymore. The experience studying and traveling the world led me to realize I was still struggling to figure out what my place and purpose were in this big world.
I grew up Deaf. And growing up being Deaf, you typically hear the word no a lot. "No, you can't do this because you're Deaf," or, "No, you're not going to be able to experience that the same way because you’re Deaf." You learn to nod your head. But I didn't want to continue limiting myself and letting others decide what my abilities and opportunities were for forever. I took those no’s as fuel to show what I was capable of.
I knew I had to actively choose my own path in life. I soon after discovered that the fitness industry was my perfect fit.
As an adult, I always worked out a little bit but I missed the competitiveness of sports. I needed that competitiveness if I was ever going to find my purpose in life. So, in 2013, I hired a personal trainer and found a new passion for and relationship with fitness.
I needed something tangible to remind me that I could in fact accomplish big things. That trainer and I worked together for two years, and I learned that sweat is an equalizer. In the fitness world, moving and challenging your body is a shared language. It doesn’t matter where you came from, where you started, what language you speak, what job you have, or what your culture is. If you can do five pushups with me, then the struggle is going to be the same, the challenges are going to be the same, and the victories are going to be the same.
Through fitness, I found a place and a platform through which I could help people. So I decided to study and become a personal trainer myself.
In 2015, I got my first job as a personal trainer at Equinox in Chicago. Since then, I’ve gone out on my own and done everything from CrossFit coaching to teaching group classes, as well as additional fitness certifications like kettlebell. (I also was on season 10 of American Ninja Warrior!
One of my proudest strength feats was completing the salmon ladder.) I’m now based in Atlanta, Georgia, and I’ve recently started working with Marvel Studios to get others ready for their roles, which has been amazing.
I forged my own path into the fitness industry by using soundless coaching.
Sometimes my clients use or learn American sign language (ASL), but I don’t rely on that. I work with both hearing and Deaf people and have figured out how to be understood by both. (Social media has also been an amazing outlet to connect and communicate with others, and another place I can show others how I do things.)
With soundless training, I focus on filtering out all the noise—literally. The way I train is very visual, and I do a lot of physical demonstrations. I think that even people who are not Deaf are still visual learners, so heavily utilizing demonstrations is really valuable.
Because I can’t sign or talk while demonstrating an exercise, I make my cues and instructions extremely obvious via my facial expressions and by shaking or nodding my head. I demonstrate the correct way to do it, and then the incorrect way to do it, then back to the correct way.
I also use tools, like paper towels. Allow me to explain: For example, I put paper towels under my hands when I do a push-up, and tell my client to watch me. I twist the paper towels with my hand as I do the pushup, which helps them see the movement my hands are making based on how the towel moves, how the joints are moving, as well as how you should keep your hands under your shoulders (because we don't want the shoulder shrugging while doing the pushups!) Then I put the paper towel under my client’s hands to see how much movement is going into it while they do a rep, and I make sure to realign their shoulders in the correct way.
In my own training, I typically work out five days a week.
I work out two to three days in a row, then I take a day off. One day is a squat, lower leg-focused day; another day might be upper body and core. I also do kettlebell circuits and conditioning with mobility exercises. I also work in a hinge day (think: deadlifts!), and my fifth day is usually a full-body workout. The other two days are active rest days, where I will go on long walks or do stand-up paddle boarding.
The fitness feat I’m most proud of is my pull-up work. I remember working with my personal trainer at the beginning of my strength journey, and I could not even do a single rep. But my personal trainer would refuse to let me go without me doing my pull-up attempt. I felt frustrated, and I felt like it was forever until I was able to do it. Now, I can do pull-ups in my sleep. And on a good day, I can do 10 in a row.
Kettlebells are one of my favorite tools to strength train with. I always say that instead of music during my workouts, my reps are my power jam–and my music is the rhythm of my reps. When I talk about kettlebells, two words come to mind: grit and grace. Obviously, kettlebells are iron weights that are not definitely not easy-to-use at first. But once you do, you're really challenging your center of gravity and working with your inner strength in a way that is graceful, but a bit gritty. They are a really tough but intense workout, and you can get a great workout in such a little amount of time using them.
I won't deny it, it was a struggle at times to find my place in the fitness world too. But I can confidently say I've founded my purpose.
I am definitely an example of how the fitness community still lacks accessibility and an understanding of people from many different backgrounds, abilities, and languages. I know how it feels to go to the gym and feel left out of a class. Too many times I wasn’t able to participate in group workouts, and the gym was not always the most welcoming place.
That's why I became a trainer: to give other people who may feel intimidated or alone in the gym a safe space, because I know exactly how they felt.
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