Personal training · Ages 13 and up
Work hard.Laugh often.Belong here.
One coach and one athlete, for teens and adults with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. Fitness is what we provide. Our athletes, coaching relationships, and culture are what make us Train Unique.
The culture
The people are the point.
Coaches here learn what makes each athlete tick: how they communicate, what they enjoy, when to push, and when to share a laugh. Athletes bring their own personalities to the floor, and their preferences and voices help shape the program.
These moments are from Train Unique in Louisiana, where it all started. California is built on the same approach.
Damon Vincent
Started Train Unique in 2014
Damon’s first class was called DREAMS. Six athletes showed up. He knows what it’s like to have people see a diagnosis before they see the person, so on his floor athletes get coached, challenged, and expected to improve.
Here, an athlete has an arm hooked around his neck, and Damon is laughing.
From our Louisiana community · Lafayette
What a session looks like
Real training, coached closely.
Our coaches work directly with each athlete, learning how they communicate, what motivates them, and where they need support. They teach the equipment, demonstrate each movement, correct form, and adjust the exercise when the day calls for it. Athletes train alongside other gym members, on the same floor and with the same equipment.
We work on strength, balance, coordination, mobility, and endurance. We also pay attention to progress that doesn’t show up as a heavier weight: remembering the next part of a routine, communicating a need, or trying again after something felt hard.
From our Louisiana community · Lafayette
From our Louisiana community
Moments from the floor.
From our Louisiana community · Filmed in Louisiana, not in California
Milestones
Consistency gets celebrated.
On the Hero’s Journey, athletes earn milestone shirts as their session count grows, starting with a blue shirt at 100 sessions. The shirt itself isn’t the point. What it stands for is: showing up, again and again.
From our Louisiana community · Lafayette
In Damon’s words
Fitness training, not therapy.
Train Unique is a fitness program: strength and conditioning, coached and progressed the way training is for any athlete. It’s different from physical therapy, a medical service many families value, and it isn’t meant to replace therapy or any other support a family relies on. In the video, Damon explains how he thinks about the difference.
Read what Damon says in the video
If there’s a stigma, it’s that we’re either doing like, kiddy exercises, like we’re like tossing a foam ball back and forth, or that we’re doing physical therapy. because that’s all that people know. That’s the only frame they have of working with people with special needs. So on the physical disability side is people thinking that it’s gonna be like physical therapy. We’re gonna be like stretching and. doing some seated quad extensions or whatever else they do in physical therapy. And that’s not what we’re doing. We are doing. fitness-based training. strength and conditioning base training. We’re getting stronger, we’re getting fitter, we’re getting more flexible, we’re increasing core stability, we’re doing conditioning. We’re focusing on body composition. We’re focusing on nutrition. It’s a training program. It’s not therapeutic.
Good to know
The details.
Who it’s for
Teens and adults, 13 and up, with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. No gym experience or competitive goal needed. Ages 5 to 12 start in Fun Fit.
One coach, one athlete
Every session is one-on-one with a coach, on a real gym floor alongside other members.
Where
Long Beach: Trinity Training Facility, 117 W 5th St.
Corona area: we’ll talk through the details with you.
Longer sessions
For some athletes, the need goes beyond an hour in the gym. Depending on their interests, goals, support needs, and approved services, we can build longer two- to three-hour sessions.
Paying for training
Families in the Self-Determination Program may be able to include training like ours in their spending plan. How funding works.
Your first visit
We talk first, by phone or email. Then Jose meets you and the athlete in person before anything starts. No workout and no commitment.