Meet The Entrepreneur Making Gyms Accessible for All
After experiencing his own life-changing injury, Drew Graham set up Gym Possible as an accessible space for wheelchair users to enjoy the gym
With so many other things to think about when you’re in the gym, it’s likely that the stairs you climbed to get there, or how wide the machines are, never crosses your mind. But when Drew Graham became a wheelchair user after an injury, details likethese stood between him and the ability to work out independently at the gym. In setting up Gym Possible, Drew sought to provide wheelchair users with an alternative to standard gym space.
Tell us about the background of Gym Possible.
I was a middle-distance runner and in 2008 I got a scholarship to go to America. In 2014, when I’d retired, I was training for a triathlon in Denver and dived into a lake and broke my neck by hitting a sandbar, breaking my C4 and C5 vertebrae, and was paralysed instantly. I stayed out there for a year using accessible gyms which were amazing and I thought maybe there won’t be things quite as good as this in Newcastle, but surely there’ll be something I can do when I get back.
I got back in 2016 and there wasn’t anywhere where I could train. We came up with the idea of a pop-up gym in leisure centres around the area with specialist equipment, but then changed it to Gym Possible. We closed during Covid and in that time we started doing online content including an online fitness planner for every week with accessible sessions. We have videos on YouTube and live sessions as well, like adapted boxing, and wheelchair aerobics. We’ve recently opened our newest gym (our comeback after Covid). It’s our main hub at Gateshead Leisure Centre and we have about 50 members, but we’re getting busier all the time and ideally we can get up to 100 members.
How does Gym Possible differ from standard gyms?
When you go to a standard gym and use something like a weights machine, often there’s a big bench in the way for people to sit on and that’s not very wheelchair accessible. A lot of people in wheelchairs wouldn’t be able to move them. Many gyms are also downstairs and personal trainers we’ve found generally don’t have much experience with people in wheelchairs and are worried they’re going to hurt them, and don’t really know what to do. We’ve designed everything so that you can roll straight up in a wheelchair and use it. There’s a few bits of specialist kit, and some standard pieces that we’ve adapted to make it accessible from the chair.
Tell us about how the community has reacted.
Really well. We can already see the community forming, and people with spinal cord injuries who sit and chat and share their thoughts. People with all different types of disabilities can get together and just have a laugh.
What can first time visitors expect?
Going to a standard gym, you worry about being the odd one out, and about people looking at you. At our gym, I’m the founder and I’m in a wheelchair, and we’ve got volunteers who are wheelchair users – we get it because we’ve experienced it. We’ve always got a trainer there who can help users access the equipment and then we do free consultations where people can come in, see the equipment and test it out with no pressure to join.
Tell us a highlight that’s happened since you opened.
There was a guy who came into the gym who was 18 who had had a motorcycle accident. He’d just got out of the hospital and was really depressed and didn’t want to be there, but his mum had dragged him along. You could tell he was apprehensive about coming but within 30 minutes you could see him opening up, chatting to the guys about football, and then he started coming four times a week.
We asked him what his aim or target was and he said he loved cars and wanted to be able to transfer himself into his car and drive himself because he was a paraplegic. He didn’t have the strength in his arms or the core strength to get himself in and lift his wheelchair across, so we worked with him with a physiotherapist and a personal trainer for about three months and eventually he was able to do it. Now he’s driving everywhere, he plays wheelchair rugby and he’s got a full time job.
What are your aspirations for Gym Possible?
Personally, I think there should be a gym like Gym Possible in every city. You should be able to get to one within an hour’s drive no matter where you live, and the big dream would be to have them all over the place. In the nearer future we want to get 100 members at this gym, make it successful and get as much funding as we can so that we can expand.
