A small orange dot placed by personal trainer Dion Peak sits in the middle of the SPIRIT Club gym in Kensington. Peak accompanies his client as she slowly encircles the dot while holding one pound weights in both hands. As Peak walks beside her, he’s reminded of himself and his own balance issues. Peak, like many trainers at SPIRIT Club, has a disability. Cerebral Palsy.
SPIRIT Club was created with inclusivity in mind. In 2012, Jared Ciner noticed while working at The Jubilee Association of Maryland that his clients, many of whom had developmental disabilities, did not have the same fitness opportunities. While at Jubilee, he met Sam Smith, a client there who was also pushing for a fitness class for people with disabilities. Smith, a seven-time marathon runner who has autism, would become Ciner’s assistant trainer and help lead group classes, finding he could relate to the attendees, particularly the ones with autism.
“I can definitely get what the clients [with autism] are going through,” Smith said. “I have this natural enthusiasm and given that I have that, it basically helps those with autism or developmental disabilities feel uplifted while I’m teaching and demonstrating the exercises.”
Having people with disabilities teach fitness classes was a key component that was eventually brought to SPIRIT Club when it moved to its own building.
“You’re able to see somebody who maybe you can relate to well,” Ciner said. “It’s always easier to get excited about something when you can relate to your instructor.”
SPIRIT Club also has a unique approach to group fitness classes. Typically, 12 or fewer participants would form a circle around the instructor and introduce themselves to the rest of the group. Ciner believes this creates a communal environment that other classes lack.
“So many exercise classes are people just standing in their spot facing the front, and you’re either looking at somebody’s back, in the front and then everyone’s looking at your back,” Ciner said. “Rather than having just a follow the leader approach from these classes [we wanted] to build more of a community.”
Rebecca Long has been teaching group yoga at SPIRIT Club since she moved to Kensington in 2019.
“I didn’t know what Spirit Club was about. I thought it was just a small gym until I started coming to the classes and realized the people here were not what I would usually see in a yoga class and it just felt right for me,” she said.
She mentioned that, even though her disability isn’t as severe, she can still relate to her students.
“I see pieces of myself in all of them,” she said. “It helped me actually discover more about myself because of all my personal struggles with neuro divergence and all my physical struggles as well.”
Long has ADHD and arthritis in one of her toes, which affects her entire leg. As a result, she cannot do certain yoga poses or exercises. She also has stretchy tendons because of her neurodivergence. Although her experiences are not as severe as those of her students, the recognition of shared traits has helped her understand how to better teach her class.
“I can more or less tell their nervous system state and … reflect on when I’m in a similar state, what feels good to me, and then I try to take what I’ve learned from regulating myself and pass it on to them,” Said Long. “I have learned to treat my own hypermobility through strengthening, that taught me how to give proper cues for muscle activation.”
Long’s teaching style has become more improvisational since working at SPIRIT Club and she often adapts the lesson plans to fit the needs of her class. As a result, she’s seen her students become more comfortable.
“Slowly [the students] realize it’s a safe space, that I’m not going to be a stickler for form as long as they’re not hurting themselves, that there are always ways to adjust to that they can do a pose in their own way,” Long said. “The chief aspects of yoga are universal and inclusive. There is no… ‘ you have to have this thin flexible body’ rule there is no, ‘you have to have a clearer mind rule’.”
Long’s philosophy of teaching yoga is emblematic of the inclusive culture at SPIRIT Club. Although SPIRIT Club caters mainly to people with disabilities, Ciner mentions that 10-15% of people at SPIRIT Club do not have any kind of disability. With a possible addition of 2,000 square feet to the gym, to potentially add open gym hours, Ciner hopes SPIRIT Club can be a gym where people of all abilities can work out together.
