Most people can relate to the challenges of starting an exercise program, but it’s not just starting that can be difficult. Adhering to a program over time and progressing through a fitness program are challenges in themselves. These challenges can present for anyone, but for individuals with special needs they may require support to overcome them. Adaptive Exercise focuses on providing the most appropriate supports for each of the clients we serve. Our approach is systematic and backed by data so our trainers can monitor performance in each and every exercise session. This approach can show how our clients are progressing and making progress in their sessions. Many people base their exercise success on results, like I will lose 10 pounds in two months. It is important to not only focus on results, but the process. Making goals based on the completion of or performance in exercises and/or activities. Our appropriate autism exercise programs address both product and performance based goals to ensure client progression through their fitness program.
The road to progression starts during the very first session and continues over the course of personal training. During the first few sessions the personal trainer will conduct a series of informal assessments to determine their client’s current level of fitness and functioning. While we must support each client so that they can progress through their fitness program, safety is of the utmost importance. Autism exercise programs must be designed to first ensure that clients are performing exercises safely and accurately. Exercises that can be performed accurately are noted during the assessment phase and continuous data is collected by trainers each session to ensure this standard of practice. Once a client’s baseline data is collected during the first few sessions, trainers have the information necessary to track progression.
The first focus for many of the clients we serve is teaching an array of different exercises addressing the five types of functional movements, bending and lifting, single leg movements, rotational movements, pushing, and pulling. These are the ways we move in our everyday lives so these are great skills to start with. Learning a collection of exercises is the first noted progression in a fitness program. This is necessary to achieve before focusing on improved performance in a specific exercise. The exercises mastered in this phase will serve as the foundation of their exercise program. Autism exercise programs like any fitness program must progress at a realistic rate for the client. Doing too much too soon can lead to disengagement and make exercise aversive. This is the last thing we want, as many of the clients we serve have little to no experience working with a personal trainer or in a structured exercise program.
Once a foundation of functional movements is learned and mastered by a client, the trainer must determine the most appropriate means of progression. The trainer can teach more exercises from the functional movement areas, increase or add resistance, increase the repetitions or sets of an exercise, increase the complexity of a movement (this is not applicable to all exercises), or increase the speed of an exercise. The data collected by the personal trainer through the assessment phase and from prior sessions can help determine, which mode of progression is most important. If a client at any point can no longer complete an exercise with good form, the trainer should regress the exercise or support their client so that they can perform this movement safely. Autism exercise programs often do not progress in a linear fashion. Clients will often progress in one area and regress in another, or display variable performance from one session to the next.
Adding resistance is a common strategy used to progress performance in resistance training exercises. A client who shows that they can safely and accurately perform an overhead press with no weights, may be ready to perform this exercise with a 2lb or 4lb sand bell. The trainer can record their accuracy and performance using this resistance and over time periodically increase the amount of weight used. This mode of progression increases strength and is easily tracked by data.
Increasing the repetitions of an exercise is another strategy personal trainers can use in their autism exercise programs. Like any other form of exercise progression our focus is still on safety and accuracy. If a client shows the ability to perform 5 reps of an exercise with good form, the trainer can progress their ability to perform this movement by incremental increasing in the amount of repetitions each session. This progression should be done at a gradual pace, and if at any time the exercise form becomes inaccurate the trainer should intervene with prompts, regress the movement or terminate the exercise. Progression through increased sets is very similar to increasing repetitions. Over the course of sessions the trainer can gradually increase the number of sets of a certain exercise a client is performing.
Increasing the speed of a movement is another way a trainer can progress a client through their fitness program. But, for safety purposes this is not a common mode of progression used by our trainers at Adaptive Exercise. Increasing the speed of a movement requires mastery of an exercise. A client must show the ability to consistently perform the exercise with good form. Using sand weights and resistance bands certain exercises can be performed at higher rates of speed and resistance to increase power.
There are many different ways to progress clients through their exercise program. But, it is important to stay cognizant of the fact that we are teaching exercise to improve physical and mental health. The programming must still be appropriate for the individual. Progressing to extremely heavy weights, or to achieve body builder status is not our goal. Adaptive Exercise strives to offer the most appropriate autism exercise programs to the families we serve. That means that we must understand our clientele, their needs, how to best support them, how to keep them safe and how to help them benefit from physical activity.