The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Fitness Programs

Fitness is a life skill. It is the pursuit of a healthier, stronger, more able body through activity, both planned and spontaneous. That’s one of the main differences between general fitness/active play and sports programs. Sports, team or otherwise, usually have a shelf-life. Even if a child or teen does play a sport, it is likely that his or her window of opportunity to do so into adulthood will be limited. We want physical activity to be a lifelong pursuit. To accomplish this requires a greater focus on fitness programs for the autism and special needs population in gyms, schools, therapeutic environments, and yes, at home as well.

If you’re going to initiate a fitness program, it might as well be appropriate, fun, and progressive. This is a long-term thing. No real need for stuff that doesn’t meet the needs of the individual or doesn’t take into account specific skills and abilities. If we’re going to do something, it should actually do something. Here are my seven, supersecret habits of fitness programs that now only you (and everybody else who actually reads my articles) know.

1) The Initiation should be positive.

Pairing physical activity with known reinforcers (things and activities we are certain will increase the likelihood of repeating the target behavior) can lessen that “You’re making me do something new and dreadful” quality that physical activity may have. In the early days of introducing a program, try a few minutes of physical activity followed with a longer period of break or leisure time. Preferred agendas can be used effectively here, so long as the contingency is not “Do four medicine ball push throws and then you can have gummy worms.”

2) Exercise and Activity Selection is Crucial.

I use the different variations of the same 8-10 basic movement patterns. You’ll never see my “101 Autism Fitness Exercises” because it would be a lot of fluff that you, or I, would never use. There are basic movements that need practice and development. All of my athletes squat, perform Dynamax ball throws (push, overhead, and scoop), crawl, jump, press weighted things overhead, carry heavy objects (relative to their level of strength), and locomote (get from point A to point B), usually with hurdle steps. These are the general movements that seem to have the greatest carryover to other physical life skills.

3) Variety is also important.

Adopt the mantra of “Same but different,” for this is where we dwell. Congratulations, you successfully taught Theodore to independently perform a bear walk for five feet. Now, to capitalize on this, ‘lil Teddy (he’s 19, so the ‘lil is sarcastic) needs to perform a lot more repetitions. This develops the strength and stability necessary to master the movement from a physical perspective.

Building the proper movement pattern is needed to build more complex skills. We do this with math, but not so much with physical activity, which is also a learning process particularly when movement deficits exist. The “Same but different” approach incorporates all the basic movements/ exercises and scatters them around a session. We may do weighted overhead walks first, we may do them last, but we’re doing them. We may do those overhead walks around cones, or while stepping on fish-shaped spot markers, but we’re doing them.

4) The Removal of “Have-to.”

The use of language in fitness programming and coaching cannot be overemphasized. I cringe when I hear “you have to do exercise now.” Think of the last time you went out to the late-night, pogo-stick, karaoke, vodka ice-luge Brazilian BBQ place. Nobody told you that you “had” to go. You went. You went because you wanted to. It already sounded fun. Now, I know that some of my athletes with autism won’t take kindly to exercise initially. I know they’ll wander and stray (yours may too) from the target activity, but you simply can’t say “have to.” It turns it into work.

Trade “have to” for “let’s try…” or “It’s time to…”

5) Embrace the Exploratory.

Creative physical play and seeking out novel movement is something often lacking in young people with ASD and related disorders. However insignificant it may seem, if an athlete tries something new and different, or demonstrates a preference for one activity over another (frog hops over bear walks), I let it happen. Providing the tools is the first step towards building something new.

6) Scalability.

Programs for both individuals and groups need to be scalable, meaning they can be progressed (made more challenging) or regressed (simplified) rather immediately. More open-ended activities including fitness obstacle courses or circuit stations (non-machine, please) are ideal for groups as they can meet the needs of each participant. While one athlete performs long jumps to a variety of spot markers, another may be working on short steps over low hurdles. We start where they’re at and set goals from that point.

7) Find Your Fitness Fun.

The things we love doing are often the things that we tend to share. It is somewhat difficult to teach fitness activities when you don’t engage in them regularly and enjoy doing them. I have parents pull me aside and ask, “What’s a good exercise for __________” (could be legs, arms, but is usually abdominal in nature)? I show them an exercise that is strikingly similar to something their son/daughter just did during our session. When you get away from the gray sea of treadmills and elipticals, fitness can be fun, challenging, effective, and something you want to do.

Eric Chessen, M.S., is the Founder of Autism Fitness. An exercise physiologist with an extensive ABA background, Eric consults with families, educators, and fitness professionals around the world. Eric works with his athletes in the NY metro area and is the author of several E-books. Visit autismfitness.com for more information.

More Fitness Fun

This post originally appeared on our January/February 2015 Magazine

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Fitness Programs

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