ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Dillon Connolly plans to develop an app, which would allow Zuk users to access inclusive workouts from smart devices in addition to the Zuk Fitness website.

Connolly says physical activity has always been his “happy place,” but a person doesn’t have to be a former NCAA All-American to benefit from exercise.

“I challenge anyone, especially when you are feeling horrible or not having a good day, to get in a good workout,” he says.

“You’ll feel a little bit better. It releases chemicals in your brain and improves your mood.”

Zuk offers monthly, semiannual and annual pricing plans, starting from as little as $8.40 per month (when prepaid yearly). Find out more at:

zukfitness.com

ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Many — but not all — of Zuk’s expert instructors are wheelchair users:

• Shawn Fluke: A wheelchair rugby athlete and founder of the Live To Roll YouTube channel, Fluke leads several adaptive movement courses — resources designed for anyone with a C-level spinal cord injury.

• Bryan Williams: Founder of Painful Pleasures gym in Southern California and an International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Pro wheelchair bodybuilder, Williams is a full-time personal trainer who leads workouts for paraplegics and others for Zuk.

• Leo Harmon: Another IFBB Pro wheelchair bodybuilder, Harmon is also a personal trainer at Painful Pleasures and working actor who brings his energy to online Zuk workouts.

• Racheal Palmer: A workout enthusiast and influencer promoting independence.

ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Zuk’s website offers filters that allow subscribers to customize their workouts.

Many programs are tailored toward those who are paraplegic or quadriplegic, with options for any ability level throughout. 

The site also allows visitors to filter by equipment used, such as wrist weights, dumbbells, weight bars and resistance bands.

Workouts range from intense sessions led by champion bodybuilders to beginning exercises and meditation.

“Along with customizing to your physical ability, we also have filters that help you focus on what you want to concentrate on — cardio, range of motion, circuit training, etc.,” Dillon Connolly says.

“Even if you are not a wheelchair user, the programs are great for elderly people, so they can improve their strength through a safe, seated position.

My grandma does the quadriplegic workouts while on her recumbent bike because she likes Shawn’s instructions. They work great for her because she’s not able to stand for long periods.”

ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Dillon Connolly, who uses a power wheelchair, applied his design-engineering background to think about people with limited mobility and the ways uniquely designed exercise could benefit them.

“Depression and obesity are big problems in the SCI/D community,” he says, adding that he has battled depression and chronic pain for years. 

“Typical gyms are not practical for quads, and they are definitely not tailored for people with mobility impairments.

My goal is to bring highly specialized workouts to a broad audience of people with SCI, CP or MS, or anyone who can benefit from a seated workout, like seniors.

“At least 5% of people have a significant mobility impairment. That’s a large market, a viable market,” he says, noting that many studies have found that up to one in four people will experience some type of disability in their lifetime. 

“We did customer discovery, speaking to over 100 wheelchair users — not all with spinal cord injuries. We found out that many were dealing with some sort of pain, but on average, those going to the gym were happier and had less pain.”

ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Dillon Connolly took five years after his rehabilitation at Shepherd Center to plot a new career course, using a scholarship from the Swim With Mike Foundation to enroll in USC’s master’s program for entrepreneurship and innovation. 

During a class project, he met the co-founders of his next big endeavor: Zuk Fitness. 

They won money in a schoolwide pitch competition and were on their way.

Zuk is an acronym for Zero limitations and Unity through Kinesthetics. Connolly defines kinesthetics as anything that encompasses body movement. 

“We chose that word to celebrate moving anything that you can, even though it may be limited,” Connolly says.

ZUK FITNESS OFFERS NEW ONLINE WORKOUT OPTION

FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

Zuk Fitness is an online fitness service created by and for wheelchair users. 

It offers live and prerecorded workouts led by both paras and quads. 

Strength, cardio, warmup and stretching routines can all be completed from your wheelchair, often with minimal equipment.

The service was founded by wheelchair user and lifelong athlete Dillon Connolly.

An admitted endorphin junkie, Connolly used to rise before 5 a.m. each day to get in 26 hours per week of intense swimming prior to becoming a quad. 

He earned a swimming scholarship to the University of Southern California, where he became an NCAA All-American talent.

Connolly studied engineering and later worked as a design engineer at an aerospace company. 

Still wanting to push himself as an athlete, he planned to quit his job at 25 to focus on training for the 2016 Olympics. 

On the same weekend that Connolly decided to pursue his Olympic swimming dream, he dove into a wave at Newport Beach, California, hit a sandbar and injured his spinal cord at C5-6.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Everyone should be able to go to the bathroom when they want and need to, but without the proper supplies, it can be a difficult and frustrating task for people with disabilities.

Betty Sherril reached out to the Resource Center because she was not receiving enough catheters per month from Medicaid and didn’t know what to do.

“Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had hard ceilings on how many catheters they would provide to a CMS beneficiary,” Bill Fertig says.

“Supported by the Resource Center information specialists and the United Spinal policy department, Betty was eventually granted an exemption from CMS catheter limits and began to receive all of the monthly medical supplies that she required.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Annie Mitchell reached out to the Resource Center for accessible gardening ideas two years after becoming a paraplegic.

She ended up with several ideas for home modifications and other hacks that Bill Fertig and his team came up with to enhance her quality of life.

“We try to phone people, rather than email,” Fertig said.

“Rather than answering a quick question from a category on a form, it gives us the opportunity to chat and respond more fully and directly.

Hers was a typical case where we were able to identify so many areas of information that she could utilize comprehensively.

When our information specialists make direct personal contact with people, very good things happen.”

On the gardening end, the team suggested a short-handled gardening rake for gardening from a wheelchair.

The gardening chat let to simple home modifications such as:

Spring hinge pins for exterior doors to simplify door opening/closing from a wheelchair

Adding a magnetic catch to the back of the door to keep the door open when needed.

Fold-down kitchen cabinet rack choices for quick accessibility to upper kitchen cabinets.

Vanity drain and trap options to facilitate roll-under bathroom vanity access.

 

 

 

 

 

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Thanks to a combination of Daniela Castagnino’s personal knowledge, contacts at D.C.-based home-health agencies, a local center for independent living, department of disability services and the local United Spinal chapter, the team was able to help Wes Holloway find a PCA and make the move.

“It is great to see that the Resource Center responds quickly in a personalized, thorough and individualized way.

I didn’t get the call center, voicemail runaround,’’ says Holloway, who hopes to teach at the university level while continuing with socially-engaged art projects.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Wes Holloway reached out to the Resource Center for help finding a personal care attendant when he moved to Washington, D.C., from Houston to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at George Washington University.

An accomplished artist, Holloway took his first year of coursework via Zoom.

But when in-person classes for his second year demanded a quick relocation adjacent to campus, the scramble was on.

Castagnino, who is based in D.C., remembers getting an email on a Friday afternoon that Holloway needed PCA help for the weekend.

“Bill and I put all ideas to work and put all hands on deck at the last minute.

I checked a Listserv for caregivers, CILs and agencies and showed Wes how to narrow a search on Care.com,” says Castagnino.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Shannon Cobb participates in wheelchair lacrosse, searches for more adaptive sports in her location an hour-plus away from Chicago and is interested in extreme wheelchair sports.

Fertig wrote a letter of recommendation to help Cobb with a grant to fund a wheelchair that stands up to the abuse of WCMX.

The center also has helped the budding social worker with peer advice on how to stretch the paltry disability payment that she receives each month.

Lindsey Elliott, a social worker who serves as United Spinal’s director of member initiatives and as an information specialist, invited Shannon Cobb to one of the Resource Center’s new Zoom-based nationwide peer sessions.

“Her participation led to resources and information from her peers who were on the call — United Spinal members from all over the country.

She was on the call with notebook in hand, furiously taking notes on all the resources,” says Elliott.

“We started these calls to address the isolation born of COVID. They are a time to kick back and chit chat about all kinds of things.

Lots of questions are asked and information is shared.”

“I have learned to be very resilient. I cannot imagine how my journey would have been without the team of people at the Resource Center,” says Cobb.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Shannon Cobb, a sociology student at McHenry County College in Illinois, says she is one of the Resource Center’s most frequent users.

“I’ve sent so many random questions to the Resource Center — it’s hard to list all the things they’ve helped me with.

Overall, it’s nice to know someone has your back,” says Cobb, a paraplegic who uses a manual wheelchair — often pulled by Princess, her Rottweiler-Shepherd service dog.

“I was having a lot of problems figuring out how to get things done when I was first injured [in 2018],” she says.

“The Resource Center has helped with finding accessible housing, adapting a home to be more wheelchair-friendly and helping me find a wheelchair and getting grants.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS 

“Rehabilitation stays have decreased so dramatically over the years I’ve been involved in the field, and it can be so difficult for people to get all of the information they need in such a short time,” Jane Wierbicky says.

“It’s very gratifying to talk with people to help them drill down to the information they need when they need it and hopefully feel supported and less overwhelmed.”

“This is why the Resource Center is here: to fight for people and give them the support they need — on a personal and professional level — to attain the best quality of life possible,” says Fertig.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

At Shepherd Center, respiratory therapists went to work trying to wean Chris Dunn off the ventilator and strengthen his voice, while physical and occupational therapists attempted to undo the damage a year of lying in the ICU had done.

The team helped Chris build up the lung capacity to only need the vent at night. He was able to go fishing.

After four months, Chris returned to Maine.

He continues to fight the system to receive maximum benefits, while his mother serves as his primary caregiver.

“I don’t know that I would have been able to make things happen without United Spinal Association,” Carol says.

“I was getting tired.

I wasn’t going to give up, but they came in and propped me up and gave me some courage and some encouragement to keep going.

They pointed me in some right directions and stood behind me, and that’s all I needed to cross that finish line.”

 

 

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Working together, Carol Dunn and the Resource Center team enlisted Disability Rights Maine, state legislators and federal representatives and held weekly calls with hospital staff and the state’s Medicaid program.

Ultimately, their advocacy got Chris Dunn into Shepherd Center in Atlanta — one of the nation’s premier SCI rehab centers.

“What it came to down to, up in Maine, was a hospital administration that looked at the injury level he had as not being any kind of quality of life.

So they denied him care that would have given him quality of life,” says Resource Center director Bill Fertig.

“Here is a guy with a very, very significant disability.

But through it all, he has almost universally maintained a strong perspective.

He has taken all that came to him, and he’s happy.

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Jane Wierbicky fielded the question and emailed Dunn’s mom Carol the next day.

That started a partnernship between the Dunns and United Spinal that eventually got Chris back to living his life.

Dunn relied on a ventilator, pacemaker and feeding tube. His complications were challenging, but Wierbicky was determined to help.

“It’s always shocking to me when we see cases where that doesn’t happen,” she says.

“It became clear to me through this case that people living in rural states that don’t have dedicated spinal cord injury programs and those who are on ventilators are in an especially vulnerable position.

All Carol ever wanted was for him to be evaluated by people who understand his condition.

That seemed like a very reasonable goal.” 

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Chris Dunn survived a diving accident in July 2018 that left him paralyzed, on a ventilator and mostly blind.

A father and concrete worker, Dunn spent a year in a Maine ICU, fighting for his right to rehab and get back to living his life.

“I’m pretty sure they just wanted to kill me,” he said in a 2019 interview.

Dunn’s family was repeatedly told there was nothing more that could be done for him and, even though he was in his early 40s, they should put him in hospice to die.

After seven months of reaching out to hospitals and rehab centers all over the country and receiving nothing but rejections, Chris’ mom, Carol, filled out the online form to join United Spinal Association, writing: “We are desperate. We need help, please.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Bill Fertig and his team note that the best success stories are when the person’s issue is resolved, and they are given the tools to better advocate for themselves.

“It’s not that we do it all for the person in a vacuum — we make them part of the team, let them know they are on the right track.

We give them factual, current information to base their appeals on,” he said.

“That empowers them to go further and be more successful.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

 “Hearing that message from someone living with a spinal cord injury can make a big difference,” says José Hernandez, a Resource Center information specialist.

    With 26 years of life as a C5 quadriplegic under his belt, Hernandez brings a deep blend of lived and professional experience to his work.

   “I take pride in being able to relate with callers and emailers on a deeper level and going beyond what the textbook or doctors may tell them.”

UNITED SPINAL’S RESOURCE CENTER

TACKLES TOUGH QUESTIONS

Longtime Resource Center specialist Daniela Castagnino says responding to inquiries is as much about making personal connections as solving the immediate issue at hand.

    “When you answer the phone and can tell they are very stressed and upset, and you’re empathizing, and you are familiar with the issue, you can almost sense them start to see that things are going to be OK,” says Castagnino, a quadriplegic.

    “Having a positive effect on people — helping people who are family members of people with new injuries — you can transmit to them the idea you’re not alone.

    It will get better.

    And you will get through this. There’s a whole and rewarding life that’s available.”