Adaptive Exercise
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Adaptive Exercise specializes in providing appropriate fitness programs with appropriate levels of support for people with autism and other special needs.
10/05/2026
Monday Morning Recap — A Look Back at Last Week
One more week of slowly ramping things back up before returning to my full schedule this week.
I trained 21 clients, had a few appointments mixed in, and tried to balance everything with my own training. I fell well short of a couple of my goals,no running this week and not quite enough stretching, but I did get my lifting in, and that’s alright. Adjustments are part of the process.
Most importantly, my sessions went really well. Some of my clients are already right back where we left off before my leave, which has been great to see.
Colby is still loving life, getting his long walks with Miles and me and enjoying some fun fall outings along the way.
🏋️ Lifted: 215 minutes
🏃 Ran: 0 miles
🧘 Stretched: 30 minutes
👥 Clients trained: 21
🫁 Breathwork: Daily
🐕 Long walks with Colby & Miles: Daily
🔄 Adjustments made: Daily
Back to full-time this week. Ready to keep figuring out the new routine.
10/02/2026
10,000 followers!
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has followed, shared, commented, supported, or simply taken the time to watch what we do here at Adaptive Exercise.
What started as a way to share the work I was doing with a few athletes has grown into a community of 10,000 people interested in adaptive fitness, inclusive exercise, and finding ways to make movement more accessible.
My goal with this page has always been simple: share practical ideas, highlight the abilities of the athletes I work with, and show that exercise can be adapted to meet people where they are.
Thank you for being part of it.
Same abilities. More possibilities.
One of the biggest parts of adaptive training is finding ways to make a movement more manageable without losing the purpose of the exercise.
In this older video, we’re working on lunges using a few different supports:
• Footprint visuals to give a clear target for foot placement
• Hand support to help with balance and stability
• A pad on the floor to reduce the range of motion and give a clear stopping point
None of these adaptations change the goal of the exercise. They simply help create a version of the movement that the athlete can perform more safely and successfully.
From there, support can be gradually reduced, range of motion can be increased, and the movement can continue to progress over time.
The goal isn’t always to start with the “standard” version of an exercise. It’s to find the right starting point for the person in front of you and build from there.
09/30/2026
Form doesn’t have to look identical from one athlete to the next.
Every athlete brings different strengths, mobility, posture, coordination, and support needs to an exercise. Because of that, the “right” setup may look a little different for each person.
That might mean adjusting stance, changing hand position or grip, using a chair or other support, or modifying the movement altogether.
The goal isn’t to force everyone into the exact same position. The goal is to find a version of the movement that is safe, functional, controlled, and appropriate for that athlete.
Good coaching means knowing when to correct form and when a difference in form is simply part of adapting the exercise to the individual.
Throwback to Natalie working on straddle steps using a low step!
For this exercise, we added a few supports to help make the movement more successful and easier to understand. Visual footprints were placed on the floor to show Natalie the stepping pattern, the step was set to its lowest height, and she held onto a resistance band that I controlled to provide some extra balance and stability.
The goal isn’t always to perform an exercise exactly as it was originally designed. Sometimes the best approach is to adjust the environment, add visual cues, provide support, and find a version of the movement that allows the athlete to participate successfully.
From there, we can gradually reduce those supports and progress the exercise as appropriate.
Same abilities. More possibilities.
09/28/2026
Monday Morning Recap — A Look Back at Last Week
This past week was pretty similar to the week before, continuing to slowly ramp back up with clients, keep my own fitness goals in place but flexible, and balance everything around being a dad first.
I trained 18 clients, which is still well below my normal caseload, but a significant step back toward my regular schedule. It was great seeing some clients I hadn’t worked with in a few weeks, and I’ve been really impressed by how active so many of them stayed and how well they’ve jumped back into their programs.
Colby is also loving having us home more, having no restrictions, and settling into his new role as big brother. We’ve been getting our long morning walks in whenever the weather allows, and even got out for a family trail hike.
For my own fitness, lifting has been the easiest to manage by breaking workouts into smaller chunks throughout the day. Running is still harder to fit in, but thanks to my wife I was able to get in 20 miles. Stretching was also more of a priority this week because I’ve been feeling pretty sore.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how things are going.
🏋️ Lifted: 230 minutes
🏃 Ran: 20 miles
🧘 Stretched: 40 minutes
👥 Clients trained: 18
🫁 Breathwork: Daily
🐕 Long walks: Daily
🔄 Adjustments made: Daily
Still figuring out the new routine, but so far the balance is working.
Throwback to Kev and I working through a bodyweight aerobic routine together!
This workout included bear crawls along with other bodyweight movements to keep Kev moving, challenged, and engaged throughout the session.
Bodyweight aerobic exercises are a great way to work on endurance, coordination, strength, and overall conditioning without needing much equipment. They can also be easily modified to match the athlete’s ability level and progressed over time.
And sometimes, jumping in and doing the exercises together makes the workout that much more motivating.
**Better. Together.**
09/24/2026
**Trainer Tip: Find the Movement Pattern First**
Before worrying about how much weight someone can lift or how many repetitions they can complete, start by finding an exercise that gives them an appropriate movement pattern.
For the athletes I work with, exercise selection has to make sense for the individual.
That means choosing an exercise that:
• Provides a meaningful physical benefit
• Allows the athlete to perform at least an approximation of the intended movement safely
• Can be modified to match their current ability level
• Gives us somewhere to progress in the future
We should also know how to intervene when needed. That may mean using props, changing the setup, providing physical support, adjusting the range of motion, or modifying the exercise entirely.
If we select an exercise, we should have a plan for how to help the athlete be successful with it.
A squat does not have to look like a traditional barbell squat to be valuable.
For one athlete, it might start as sitting to a chair. For another, it might be a supported squat, wall squat, box squat, or simply practicing lowering and standing back up with assistance.
The goal is to first establish a movement the athlete can understand and perform successfully.
Once we have that foundation, we can gradually work toward better control, greater range of motion, less assistance, more repetitions, added resistance, or a more challenging variation.
**Find the pattern first. Then build from there.**
One of the biggest parts of adaptive training is finding the version of an exercise that works best for the individual.
Garrison has always had a hard time with traditional squat variations because he naturally wants to hinge forward instead of sitting down into a squat. We’ve tried different forms of support and several modifications over time, but they just weren’t the right fit for him at that point.
Recently, we switched over to wall squats.
For this exercise, Garrison stands on foot markers about a foot away from the wall, facing forward with his hands placed on the wall. He then squats down toward an exercise ball behind him.
Because he’s facing the wall with his hands up, he can’t excessively hinge forward like he normally would. The setup naturally encourages him to sit down into more of a true squat pattern instead.
His form has looked much better with this variation.
We’re now in our fourth week of working on wall squats, and Garrison has already progressed to sets of 20 bodyweight reps!
This is a great example of why exercise selection and modification matter. Sometimes the goal isn’t to force an athlete into a movement that isn’t working. It’s about finding the version that gives them the best opportunity to understand the pattern, be successful, and build from there.
Great work, Garrison!
It’s always cool to look back at where an exercise started and see how far an athlete has progressed.
In this older video, Ed is performing overhead presses with two 8 lb sandbells.
To give Ed a clear target, I’m holding two pads overhead and having him press the sandbells until they make contact with the pads before lowering them back down. The pads provide a tactile cue that helps give the movement a clear end point and lets Ed know exactly how far he needs to press.
Ed worked on this exercise for a long time, and we continued progressing it little by little.
Eventually, he worked his way all the way up to pressing two 12 lb sandbells for sets of 17 reps!
Since then, we’ve progressed beyond the sandbells and moved on to barbell overhead presses, but it’s pretty awesome to look back at videos like this and see where that progress started.
Not every athlete is going to perform an exercise the exact same way or respond to the same cues. Sometimes finding the right support, target, or modification is what allows someone to learn a movement, build confidence, and continue progressing over time.
Great work, Ed!
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