THE GOAL WITH ANY EXERCISE IS TO CONDITION THE BODY TO FUNCTION BETTER. It’s the same when the person exercising has a disability or condition that changes the way they can go about it. The Monterey Sports Center has evolved over the years to be an inclusive facility, with programs, classes and access for people with disabilities or special needs. It’s called adaptive fitness.
“We have members and guests that range from [very young children] to individuals over 100, and every type of ability and interest that you can imagine,” Fitness Manager Bill Rothchild says.
He earned a master’s in physical education with an emphasis on exercise physiology and adaptive physical education. He’s worked with Mark Makjavich, adaptive physical education director at Monterey Peninsula College; and he teaches adjunct classes in Dr. Kent Adam’s Kinesiology and Special Populations Department at CSU Monterey Bay, from which Monterey Sports Center recruits many of its staff.
Rothchild came to work for the city of Monterey in 1995.
“I see great potential in every individual regardless of ability and have devoted my professional career to working to provide access and opportunity,” he says.
The Monterey Sports Center offers 124 classes for all levels and abilities, like aquatic exercise and yoga for people with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s, or classes for people with arthritis or for those who want to prevent osteoporosis. There are small group classes for people with severe physical and mental challenges.
The focus of the classes and programs is physical and motor skills. There is adaptive equipment for land and water for people confined to wheelchairs, staff who have sign language skills for the hearing impaired, trainers and therapists who can assist people with vision loss, and aquatic exercise for those with severe limitations or people, including veterans, who are missing limbs.
But there are also exercises, personal training and physical therapy for people with intellectual, emotional or cognitive challenges.
Rothchild says people with special needs regard their classes and programs as “invigorating and life-giving.”
The Sports Center has a team of local physicians who serve as part of a medical advisory board, and help develop adaptive classes and programs. The exercises and regimens are created by organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association, the Arthritis Association, the American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
But all the physical accessibility doesn’t count for much if it’s not financially accessible.
The Sports Center was the first municipal recreation department in the country to provide full physical therapy services covered by Medicare and most insurance companies, Rothchild says. Some sessions are available for a small fee; in some cases, the fees are paid by the nonprofit Central Coast Quality of Life Programs.
It all adds up to what fitness professionals refer to as a prescription for health – one that is available to all.