Fitness For Kids With Autism, And What I Learned Coaching Them
In 2025 at Heroes Fitness, a mix of shock, embarrassment, and hidden laughter moved through the gym. Collin (name changed for identity protection) was a pre-teen who was enrolled in our Junior Heroes Fitness Club, a 5-week group fitness program we did to help kids with autism experience personal training in an inclusive, welcoming environment for free. We finished our last exercise on the rower, as we often do, and Collin's foot slipped out of the machine.
"F*@K!!!" I hear, and wonder if the day has finally come that we get our first lawsuit.
To be totally transparent with you, it's not an uncommon word from our clients. Some clients have even gifted me nicknames, like "A-Hole." But when I hear that language in a kids fitness session, the feeling is different.
Thankfully, Collin was okay. He was only irritated that he didn't reach his goal time of 2:15 for our 500m rowing challenge. His mom ran out of the office, where we typically have parents wait, and the shade of her face was similar to that of a tomato.
During our 5-week Junior Heroes Fitness Club, I learned a lot about these incredible kids, and how to coach them. Throughout the past decade of my career, I have had the privilege of working with a handful of kids that have autism. This was always done on a one to one basis. The thing that stuck out to me was that I was only able to help kids that were fortunate enough to be born into a family with disposable income, as personal training is considered by many to be a luxury expense.
I was growing a business, spending 6-10 hours a day training clients, 2-4 hours working on admin tasks or marketing, and about one hour crying in my car (hah). I felt really good when working with these kids, and I would get incredible feedback from the parents on how they would notice improvements in their child's balance, mood, or energy. I wanted to do more of it, and I wanted it to be free so it can be accessible to all kids with autism.
The only bad part was I didn't have time to give anything for free, as some weeks I'd be feeding myself Ramen Noodles and a protein shake just to get by. So, I pledged that when the day came that I had time available, I'd give it away to those who need it, doing the thing I do best: coaching.
In 2024, I finally was able to hire trainers, freeing myself from the day-to-day struggle, and worked to improve the business. I also upgraded my dinner meals to rice with tuna.
Then, in 2025, I decided to give it a shot. I reached out to my local community about our inclusive group fitness session. We could host a max of 5 kids, especially considering their parents would need to stay in the gym with them. The spots filled up quickly, and the first session was a one-on-one assessment, so I could see where the kids were at, and learn how to program the workouts.
Once the day ended, one thing was very clear to me: autism truly is a wide spectrum. One boy was very kind, but honest about how he had no desire to exercise. "I really didn't want to come here today," a young man told me with a smile on his face.
Another boy had so much energy, while I asked him to do squats, he ran over to the hamstring curl machine and tried to sit on it, then to see if he could lift the 100 pound dumbbell.
I have my work cut out for me.
Another young lady was sweet, and ready to work out. She had some balance issues, and needed me to hold her hand while we did step ups. Her dad told me that was great, because she had a hard time going down stairs and that exercise was helpful.
But the hardest challenge of all was the young lady I could not help. She doesn't speak, and got overstimulated very easily when visiting new places. The most progress we made was a few reps on our Concept2 Ski machine. Unfortunately, every session she came to had the same outcome: her parents had to take her home.
I struggled with my feelings about this. She was the kid I wanted to help more than anyone, and I couldn't. I felt like a failure.
But the rest of the kids showed up to every session, and worked really hard. I gave them all suckers at the end of their workouts as a reward. I also learned that I needed to hide the suckers really well, because one of the young men would spend all of his rest time trying to find them.
Amongst our 5 weeks, the kids had different struggles. Some had a hard time with balance. Others balanced perfectly, but had a hard time staying focused. The time spent with them was rewarding, even though I was unable to help everyone, and our last session ended with a bomb... the "F-Bomb!"
What do you guys think? I'd love to read your comments in our comment section below, and I would greatly appreciate a rating! See you all in our next post.
If you want to help out people with autism, here are a few non-profits you can check out, and potentially donate to if you have the extra funds.