Learn about how Adaptive Fitness uses education and exercise to create personalized fitness programmes for adults and children with autism. You’ll discover how bringing your mental and physical workout together can improve wellbeing and overall life satisfaction.

Introduction to Autism and Exercise as Therapy 

Autism is a spectrum marked by incredible strengths, remarkable talents and life-changing differences that connectivity, character and courage can help us transcend. The goal of Exercise and Autism is to share stories and good ideas that help us navigate the world of autism, while expanding our hearts, minds and bodies through exercise. Exercise on the spectrum is more than an exercise programme; it’s a mindset and a philosophy. It’s meant to offer a comfortable and accessible bridge between connecting with yourself and connecting with the world around you, and, in the process, help forge a new vision for a life lived well ­– together. Adaptive Fitness offers professionally tailored, home-based training programmes that are authentic and rooted in the values, struggles and successes of people with autism. Exercise is purposeful and meaningful, helping individuals connect with themselves, express themselves, engage with others, and enjoy new opportunities to play.

Understanding Autism: Key Concepts and Challenges

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents itself in many different forms including neurological and developmental differences that affect how those on the spectrum process, interpret, form and utilize information. There are often difficulties with social communication and interaction including verbal and non-verbal language, learning, emotional regulation and sensory sensitivities. These challenges can be varied and specific to the needs of the individual, and for this reason, everyone on the autism spectrum is different. Enmeshed in this array of challenges are a remarkable range of abilities, talents, strengths and exceptional thinking styles. These are laboring under misconceptions and the weight of stigma. However, an alternative is to move our focus from the difficulties presented to the adaptive responses, compensatory skills, indicated skills and the ability to apply this to life skills. This holistic view of autism, paired with a recognition that Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) is linked to successful fitness goals, can help create an enjoyable and adaptive environment where each person’s strengths can be celebrated, developed through a systematic adaptation, and utilized as a gateway to achieving goals. Adaptive Fitness offers a framework for approaching autism through a multi-sensory system of inference/appraisal, meaning-making, self-regulation, engagement in activities, and subsequently fitness adaptation. 

The Role of Exercise in Managing Autism

Exercise becomes a piece of a larger management strategy. And for those of us who tend to be resistant to change, it is an important part. Exercise comes with many benefits, including physical, of course, which are particularly important in those with autism as they are often sedentary, overweight, and have gastrointestinal issues. But the benefits are not just physical. Exercise has many emotional and cognitive benefits that can be potentially important to those with autism. It reduces symptoms of anxiety and stress. It can assist with focus, including making it easier to stay on task, and improve sustained attention, important cognitive tasks. It can help improve social skills. The benefits of exercise are broad and deep, affecting not only how you feel, but also impacting your overall health. Adaptive Fitness understands the many benefits of exercise programmes. However, not only do they create programmes that are physically beneficial, they also maximize emotional and cognitive benefits – one of the main goals of exercise programmes. Many times in an adult person with autism there are sleep problems, mood issues, and other quality of life effects that can be – and indeed are – improved with exercise. By adding exercise into someone’s daily regimen, we are actually helping to build a better foundation on which this person can live the life they want to lead.

Designing an Autism-Friendly Exercise Routine

Efforts at designing an exercise programme to meet the needs of these individuals need to be thoughtful and personalized. For example, at Adaptive Fitness, every programme is tailored to each individual’s acute like/don’t like preferences, strengths and challenges. We cater workouts or activities to target underdeveloped areas, incorporate multisensory, joint-positive activities for tactile hypersensitivity, tweak the amount of work or the length of time, or even include interests and hobbies, such as goalball or fencing, into the exercise programme. Unquestionably, the focus has to be on comfort and enjoyment as well as mastery of functional skills or cardiorespiratory conditioning so that everyday activities become less tedious and more rewarding over time. In this way, Adaptive Fitness not only provides programmes that promote optimal physical health, but facilitates the attainment of greater autonomy for each of our clients.

The Psychological Benefits of Exercise for Autism

Exercise is also psychological: by engaging in regular physical activity, people with autism can also reap psychological benefits. The psychological benefits of regular physical activity are well established. Physical activity builds a sense of accomplishment and self-esteem and promotes emotional stability. Adaptive Fitness helps navigate psychological waters through a programme designed to celebrate achievements and face challenges with full support. The regularity of exercise also brings a sense of control and predictability in a world often felt as overwhelming. This can have far-reaching consequences in other aspects of life. Previous studies showed that exercise can have a carry-over effect that affects things outside the gym: it can improve general confidence-building skills that can be applied to other life situations.

Social Connections Through Shared Exercise Experiences

Often described as an ‘exercise wellness secret’, this is an area in which the social interactions of companionship and exercise can function as a bridging mechanism – another strength of adaptive Fitness. It could be achieved primarily between an individual with autism and another focal adult or sibling, but fortunately peer interactions can be achieved in many of these settings. Online or ‘live’ virtual group interaction can also help facilitate these connections. I feel good about something I’ve worked on, I can do it again, and my confidence grows. When children and adults with autism begin to use what they’ve practiced for social learning and communication, they can begin to improve – even if at first they don’t or can’t. Simple things such as how to respond to a coach’s questions; or in parallel play, to address another child; or using ‘box-training’, like when using a punching pad, saying something like: ‘Why don’t you transfer your weight more on your right foot? … That’s more like it!’ Social interactions will likely continue in post-fitness social-skill interaction situations that will build towards reciprocal interactions. Even an individual lacking social skills may reach a point where they begin to understand how to communicate better with a person, peer or parent, via the process of shared personal discomfort of physical activity. Shared post-fitness high-fives (‘yes, we felt good; good thing we did it together’) lay the groundwork for social interactions.

Overcoming Barriers to Exercise with Adaptive Solutions

Workouts for individuals with autism can be tough: sensory sensitivities and fine- and gross-motor issues can pose major barriers to exercise. Adaptive Fitness addresses these barriers by finding ways to make exercise work for people of all abilities and interests. From using technologies and sensory environments ‘with and for’ individuals, to customizing activities to accommodate a client’s needs, the Adaptive Fitness trainers can make working out fun and fulfilling. Adaptations can be physical and equipment-related (such as the use of assistive technologies), environmental (like sensory accents to create a focus or the use of props to boost motivation) or relational (ie, encouraging individuals to deepen their social and emotional bonds). As constraints are addressed and created, the potential for physical exertion as a medium of expression and inquiry grows. The ultimate goal is to foster a space where everyone feels they can be an athlete.

Empowerment Through Personal Achievement

At the foundation of an Adaptive Fitness mindset, there’s an emphasis on feeling empowered through personal accomplishment. Feelings of personal triumph come with every step upward and onward, no matter how small or incremental. Because the exercise programmes are so personalized, success is measured on a person-by-person basis, with the emphasis on personal bests and progress vs other people, promoting a spirit of continual growth. An autistic client is able to experience the enjoyment of setting and attaining fitness goals based on his or her own capabilities and timing. The feelings of pride and accomplishment from overcoming challenges to that person’s self-confidence are incredibly valuable, and vital towards building a foundation of empowerment and independence.

Conclusion: A New Horizon in Autism and Exercise

Adaptive Fitness is part of a movement that recognises exercise as an integral part of the daily life of individuals with autism. When exercise is carefully designed to incorporate the physical, psychological and social aspects of exercise with a comprehensive knowledge of how autism affects individuals, those with autism have a new way to improve their wellbeing and quality of life that goes beyond the status quo. Our approach recognises and values what is unique to autism rather than forcing the autistic client to conform to the status quo. Together, we are continually pushing new boundaries of what is possible. It is time for individuals and families to take a thrilling new path into the future. This path is forgeable, and with exercise as therapy there can be a brighter, healthier future ahead for those with autism.

‍

 Here at Adaptive Fitness, we know that people with autism and related conditions face specific struggles and challenges. Our aim is to provide one-on-one physical training and coaching that serves not only a client’s physical life, but the psychological and social life as well. Our fitness training is specifically designed to include and empower the individual with adaptive challenges.

We take great pride in our activities that promote a supportive environment for you or your loved one with autism as we celebrate every grain of success with expert advice or encouraging words! Our programmes combine the best of the two worlds, fitness and personal growth, to improve the quality of life for persons with autism.

We want you to know that whatever fitness programme you choose, we are here to guide you through it, to support you, and to help you enjoy a longer and healthier life – whether your condition is autism or something else. Adaptive Fitness isn’t simply a ‘fitness coach’. There is pride and love inherent in this programme, and you will find that in every encounter you have where we are involved.

‍