No, we are not moving to another location but moving our bodies.
Last fall I was thinking about ways to enhance our ski and snowboard program at Colorado Discover Ability. While our snowsports school needs a lot of enhancements that require people and money, there are some things we can do on a shoe-string budget and affect a lot of change. It was easy to identify a major obstacle to enjoying snowsports and to performing in ski racing, which is the lack of physical conditioning. In short: most of us are not in shape to enjoy sports. When working with our guests at Powderhorn we often get consumed by adapting the sport to a person with a diagnosed disability but overlook an obvious challenge of getting somebody who is out of shape to move on skis or a snowboard. Ability to perform on skis or to just enjoy skiing is a sum of everything athletic we do prior to skiing.
After talking to Trish, Adrienne and few other instructors I started inquiring about gym space in town. Many other CDA instructors got involved and in January we had our first fitness sessions. We meet every Wednesday at 6 p.m. One hour a week will not get anyone is shape but it might help. At a minimum I hope to introduce an element of health and fitness into the lives of people who we teach skiing and snowboarding.
We will keep the program going year round.
Because exercise is simply a lot of hard work I didn’t expect that anyone would show up for these fitness sessions. I was really happy to see about fifteen people come to the first session! We’ve already had five workouts and I hope that this program will grow.
Trish drives from Delta every Wednesday to conduct the training and that’s a huge commitment for her. She spends almost two-hours on the road after work to lead each workout session. Jess, my trainer from Ultimate Fitness in Grand Junction wants to volunteer her time and expertise as well and she will give Trish a break at least once per month.
I am thrilled that we have this program going!
(You can see more on CDA’s web site and you can help, too.)
Participants of the Feb 18, 2009 fitness session. (click to enlarge)
Trish: our fitness instructor. (click to enlarge)
Games that make you sweat. (click to enlarge)
Cynthia and Greer are stretching. (click to enlarge)
Eric gets ready for pushups. (click to enlarge)
Jake stretches. (click to enlarge)
Miranda engages Josiah in exercises. (click to enlarge)
Ginger and her student on wall pushups. (click to enlarge)
Trish with one of the participants. (click to enlarge)
I am stretching and Casey is pretending to be stretching… (click to enlarge)
Erin catches a ball during one of our games. (click to enlarge)
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | disability, exercise, fitness
Trish, if you need my help, for instance to work individually with one/two kids, at PT exercise Wednesday night, I’d be glad to do it.
It is a great idea! Ilona
Ilona – We would love to have you come work out/play with us. Call me if you’d like a ride and I’ll pick you up on my way.
Trish
Trish, perhaps not tomorrow/Wednesday. I have to know if you really need my help, so, I would have to see and talk to you before I would come.
Sort of bad experience before, of course not with you!
Ilona
This is such a great program guys. Thanks so much to Martin and Trish for all your efforts to help us get healthier while having fun. Extra kudos to Trish for commuting!