The gym dedicated to women with disabilities in Nungambakkam, Chennai.
| Photo Credit: M. Srinath

M. Nathiya swiftly pulls one side of the cable crossover machine, which weighs over 6 kg, and proceeds to pull at the other, grunting every time. Seated in her wheelchair at a recently established gym for women with disabilities, she soon gets into her usual training rhythm.

The seasoned para powerlifter is required to spend six hours at the gym — three each in the morning and evening — as part of her training regimen. As a para powerlifter, she is required to train every muscle in the upper body. As each set also requires rest, and factoring in the time to move around in her wheelchair, it takes a total of three hours to complete each session. However, with no accessible gym in the city, Ms. Nathiya was earlier forced to complete her routine in one-and-a-half hours.

“I require someone to help me get my weights or dumbbells at a gym designed for normal people. I require more time because I have to shift from my wheelchair to the equipment and most others would request that they finish first. I couldn’t train at ease,” said the seven-time national winner in powerlifting.

But the scene has changed in the last two months with the setting up of the gym dedicated for women with disabilities to Nungambakkam, thanks to the Better World Shelter and the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).

“Today, I can train for three hours. Every piece of equipment is spaced with a wheelchair in mind, nobody is hurrying me to finish my set. I can access the dumbbells and weights myself. The independence to train by myself has been liberating,” Ms. Nathiya said.

Many challenges

Like Ms. Nathiya, other women with disabilities recall the hardship in finding an accessible gym in the city. Most gyms are located either on the first or upper floors, and are not accessible via elevators. They had no space to manoeuvre their wheelchair in the area, and the gym constrained their training to about one-and-a-half hours.

“When we did finally find a gym that accepted and fit our requirement, it was on open ground. The sand and stones made it difficult to travel between equipment. It just added to the difficulties,” Matilda Fonceca, international para basketball winner, said.

The women stress on fitness for persons with disabilities. Mary, a national-level para basketball player, said, “No doctor tells you that you need to exercise. We are on the ground usually at home and hence there is no need to move around using a wheelchair. It’s only when our body starts aching that a doctor tells us that we need to reduce weight, not exercise,” she said. Set up on 500 sq.ft of space at the Better World Shelter, the gym is now open only to the inmates of the shelter. It will soon begin enrolment of non-residents. The gym does not charge any fee, and is open on all days.

“Tamil Nadu is very ready for innovating in sports, especially in para sports. Sports is not just about personal fitness. It is also a good contender as a source of livelihood. It has given women with disabilities a lot of exposure to the world and independence,” said Aishwarya Rao, founder of Better World Shelter for Women with Disabilities. She also added that the GCC has not been looking at shelters as one block but also given attention to the unique needs of it too in such as for persons with disabilities.

Noting that the gym was completely designed by the non-governmental organisation, GCC Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran said: “We lent our support to the initiative. Since the announcement of the gym, we have been receiving requests to set up more such facilities for persons with disabilities. We are also considering the possibility of opening such gyms in the city.”