Glasgow gym owner launches inclusive gym for city's deaf community

Amy, who has just opened her new gym Body by Amy in Dennistoun's Alexandra Parade, is one of the first (if not THE first) gyms to run training classes for the deaf community.

"It all began with my mum and dad" Amy told The Glasgow Times.

"My parents are both profoundly deaf, and I recognised that they didn't have anywhere to go and exercise. Whilst they could go to the gym, there is still a communication barrier and it was a slightly uncomfortable experience for them.

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"In Viper, the lighting system was already there. I was training my dad one day and playing with the lights on the DJ booth and something clicked, and I knew I could use this to train a deaf class.

"I needed to find something for the deaf community and that's how I ended up doing this."

In Amy's gym classes, she uses her own lighting system to signal when to start circuits and when to stop, simply changing the lights from green to red while she signs the instructions in between.

"When I moved units, the lighting system was the one thing I had to have - I though it absolutely needed to have something like that in place.

"I'll be able to adapt more things with my own lighting system now, too.

"Changing the colours from red to stop and green to go is something that is so simple that I simply just didn't even realise. It was right in front of me the whole time."

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Amy started her journey from occasional exerciser to full time Personal Trainer after she realised how important exercise was to her own mental health.

"I started as a PT after being a fitness instructor, which I started because it helped me deal with my own anxiety."

Amy's own experience with anxiety, and particularly its relationship with exercise, has also contributed to the layout and facilities of her own gym when she started.

"When I was thinking about what space I wanted to have, I obviously knew that it had to have the lights but I also wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing.

"I wanted it to be a nice environment for people to come to, not a typical gym where people come in, work out and leave. I want it to be a place where people want to come before their class, work out and actively want to spend time in there."

It was a matter of time before Amy came up with her 'zen' room, where clients and trainers could retreat into if they were having a bad day or an experience with their own anxiety.

"There is a zen area upstairs with candles and fairy lights where people to feel comfortable and chill, or relax if they aren't feeling up to it.

"When I trained clients in Viper, I had clients coming in for a session but feeling down and not wanting to train. I knew that it was linked in with their mental health.

"I've personally had experiences with my own mental health and I understand people when they don't want to train so upstairs is a place for me to take them, have a cup of tea and have a chat if that's what they want to do. I'm not a therapist in any way but I think people do need to talk. I wanted to make sure that my gym had that space, where people felt comfortable no matter what their abilities."

All Amy's classes, not only just her classes for the deaf community, have been incredibly successful - enough for her to think about expanding the types of classes she can offer to the deaf community.

"When I started I built up a client base really quickly, quicker than I had thought I would have. Before I knew it I was running big classes with about 30 people in them. I blinked and before I knew it this was happening.

"Ireceivedcieved so many messages off people who say that they're so happy that gyms in the community are finally running classes like these. It's down to me so it is a bit difficult but I'm hoping to expand it in the future.

"In March we are going to have Scotland's first deaf Yoga classes, where an interpreter will sign alongside the Yoga instructor. It's so nice to see people having a passion for fitness and taking it seriously themselves."

Running classes for the deaf community is a signal to the future, believes Amy - something that shouldn't be a novelty, but a staple element of any public facility. While her classes are open to everyone, her main priority is focusing them on the comfort of the deaf community.

"I want it to be the start of something" says Amy. "If there is something I can do to make it better and more inclusive then I'm all for it.

"I've lived with deafness my whole life and I see barriers that comes between deaf people and the world, and I really felt for my parents.

"The classes are open to everyone, but I am mostly concentrating on the deaf community. It's about comfort, which is the most important thing to me."