Is Your Fitness Center ADA Compliant?

Posted on by
Reply
Is Your Fitness Center ADA Compliant

Sample ADA Layout

March 15th, 2012 was the compliance date for using the new 2010 ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards for new construction, alterations, program accessibility, and barrier removal. These new standards contain elements that were not in the original 1991 standards and include public accommodations.

I am sure you are asking yourself, what is a public accommodation? Under ADA definition, a public accommodation is a private entity that owns, operates, leases, or leases to, a place of public accommodation. This means that both a landlord who leases space in a building to a tenant, and the tenant who operates a place of public accommodations, are responsible for removing barriers. To be defined as a place of public accommodation, a facility must fall into at least 1 of 12 categories. Categories include a wide range of entities like places of lodging, service establishments, and places of exercise or recreation.

Now that we have established what a public accommodation is and have identified that fitness centers are categorized as a place of public accommodation, you are probably wondering what the guidelines are for removing barriers in your fitness center. To remove barriers, the ADA calls for equipment to have an accessible route to at least one type of each unique piece of exercise equipment. An accessible route is considered to be a clear space at a minimum of 30” wide by 48” long where a person in a wheel chair could position themselves for transfer to the equipment. For example, if a fitness center has five treadmills, three cross trainers, one upright bike and one recumbent bike, the ADA would call for one treadmill, one cross trainer, one upright bike and one recumbent bike to be accessible. For strength equipment, since each piece is considered unique, each piece has to be accessible following the new ADA standards.

Advanced Exercise Equipment (AEE), the largest commercial distributor of fitness equipment in the west, has been working diligently with clients to help ensure that their fitness centers are ADA compliant. Ryan Lenderman, an AEE sales consultant specializing in the Colorado hospitality market, says, “Sometimes it is a challenge to get existing facilities compliant since they have accumulated so much equipment over the years. Many of these fitness centers do not have adequate space to meet these new regulations, so we have to create solutions that offer the same workout options with fewer machines.”

AEE’s recent work at a local hotel is a great example of removing barriers, ensuring that their fitness center is now ADA compliant. According to AEE, it wasn’t that their facility had equipment that needed replacing; they just had too much equipment for the space. AEE sat down with the director of engineering at the hotel and really looked at which strength machines were being used and which exercises the guests enjoyed most. After the evaluation process, AEE came back with some layout options for the hotel to review. These options included the new Life Fitness Cable Motion dual adjustable pulley machine which allows for multiple exercises from the same machine and really seemed to make sense for the hotel. They also removed the pieces that weren’t being utilized to create more space. The end result was a safer workout room that maximized the guest experience at the hotel.

Kent Collins, Director of National Accounts at Life Fitness, says they were extremely busy leading up to the March 15th ADA deadline. They have done close to a thousand revised layouts for customers including Marriott, Starwood, and Hyatt over the past months. Greg Leonard, the General Manager at the Grand Hyatt Denver, was one of these customers. Greg quoted, “With the expansion of the fitness center at Grand Hyatt Denver, we worked extensively with Advanced Exercise Equipment. Their efforts made the installation of an expansive and varied selection of exercise equipment much faster and more efficient. AEE is safety conscious and well versed in the detailed requirements that make a facility ADA compliant. We felt confident working with AEE during our expansion and now again to meet the new ADA standards.”

To ensure that your fitness center is ADA compliant, contact Advanced Exercise Equipment at 800.520.1112 x 1009 to set up a complimentary on-site evaluation with one of their trained sales consultants. To learn more about products and services offer by AEE please visit www.advancedexercise.com.

Fitness Centers Need Disabled Access Under Most Recent ADA Revisions

Posted on by
Reply

SciFit Adjustable Position Upper Body Ergometer Exerciser, one of the ADA-compliant fitness machines in the Advanced Exercise Equipment catalog.

Everyone can benefit from regular exercise and staying physically fit, even if they’re permanently or temporarily disabled. Many people who must use wheelchairs for mobility or have other physical limitations still participate in aerobic exercise and cardiovascular conditioning, strength training and weight lifting. Owners and managers of fitness clubs and other exercise facilities should keep this in mind when designing exercise space, choosing equipment and laying out all aspects of their facilities.



The latest revisions to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will require fitness and exercise facilities to be accessible to the handicapped and to make at least some of their equipment accessible to those with physical disabilities by March 2012. The new regulations were adopted more than a year ago, but operators of affected facilities were given 18 months to comply.



Fitness facilities – at least ones which can be defined as “public accommodations” under U.S. civil rights laws – need to consider the accessibility of every aspect of their business, from the parking lot to the bathrooms and snack counters. Many of these are considerations that every other kind of business also has to take into consideration under the ADA and other laws.



Fitness and exercise facilities, however, face special challenges in complying with ADA guidelines. They must figure out how to make sure patrons who have physical limitations can participate in inherently physical activities to the fullest extent possible.



The first step is simply to ensure access to a facility’s exercise machines for everyone. Because those in wheelchairs need a little more space than someone who is on foot, there must be an accessible route by which wheelchair users can navigate through the entire public area of any facility. That means a continuous path through the facility at least 36 inches wide (although 48 inches is highly recommended) and turnaround areas where necessary of at least 60 inches diameter. That includes routes by which a wheelchair can approach exercise machines; in other words, all of the machines can’t be spaced so closely together and close to the walls that a wheelchair user can’t get through to at least some of them. Also, there must be sufficient clear floor space next to the route-accessible machines to allow a disabled patron to use them (i.e., enough room to allow a person to park a wheelchair or other mobility device next to the machine and transfer themselves onto it). The ADA regulations specify that at least one piece of equipment of each type – cardiovascular and strength – will have to meet these accessibility guidelines.



As for the machines themselves, they should be accessible and usable by all of a facility’s patrons to the fullest extent possible. If there are no legitimate safety issues that could preclude a disabled person from using a particular type of machine, there should not be barriers to prevent him or her from doing so. In many cases, this simply means having a bench or seat that folds or moves out of the way to allow someone sitting in a wheelchair or scooter to position themselves to use the equipment. Wheelchair-using patrons, after all, can engage in many upper-body exercises as long as they’re not unnecessarily blocked from doing so. The following are a few examples of exercise machines that we carry that are ADA-compliant:



The fitness consultants at Advanced Exercise Equipment can help you build or modify your facility to be ADA compliant and welcoming to patrons of every kind. Our consultants can provide free layout and design services for your facility and recommend just the right mix of equipment for it. AEE is a top supplier of commercial fitness equipment, including quality reconditioned used commercial fitness equipment. Contact AEE today at 800-520-1112, or e-mail us to find out more.



On-Site Exercise Facilities Can Increase Employee Health and Corporate Wealth

Posted on by
Reply
American Fidelity Corporate Gym

American Fidelity fitness center in Oklahoma City, a corporate gym Advanced Exercise helped renovate and expand.

Many studies have shown that employees who are healthy and fit make better workers. Even in a job that consists more of mental exertion than physical labor, an employee’s performance will be helped by physical factors such as good nutrition, proper weight, toned muscles and a high level of cardiovascular fitness.



A fit workforce can have a big impact on a corporation’s bottom line by reducing health insurance costs, because employees who are healthy and in shape tend to suffer fewer acute illnesses and experience lower rates of chronic disease and injury. Improved workforce health leads to fewer and less costly claims, which results in insurance premiums decreasing (or at least rising less slowly!) for both the company and its employees. For larger corporations, these savings can be in the millions of dollars.



American companies obviously have come to recognize the importance of a healthy workforce – even in the current economic downturn corporate wellnessand fitness programs as a rule are not only being kept, they are still being expanded. That’s because spending on employee fitness is a human resources investment that pays back in higher productivity and lower insurance costs.



The ultimate way for an employer to invest in corporate fitness is to build an on-site fitness facility. Giving employees the opportunity to work out right at the office before, after or during the workday, without having to make another opening in their busy schedules, is the easiest way to maximize the odds that they’ll get regular exercise.



Providing commercial exercise facilitiesmakes the clearest statement possible that a company values its employees and their health, in a way that providing free or subsidized memberships at an off-site gym will not. Convenience is an all-important factor in determining whether or not someone exercises regularly. Statistics show that three times as many employees will use an on-site exercise facility as will take advantage of outside gym memberships.



?In addition to the clear monetary payoff from boosting employee fitness, there are intangible benefits too. Research supports what employers know intuitively, namely that:



  • Fit employees are less stressed and have a better attitude towards work
  • Fit employees have better self-images and therefore are more confident than out-of-shape employees
  • Employees who learn to follow an exercise program also learn how to be focused and mentally disciplined in pursuit of a goal – a skill that is obviously useful in the corporate world
  • Employees who work out together have a greater sense of camaraderie and work together better as a team

In addition, employees and potential employees are likely to view an on-site exercise facility as a major perk. The easy availability of exercise facilities at the work site can be a factor in retaining current employees and in attracting the best employees in the future.



The best way to plan and build any exercise facility is to hire a knowledgeable fitness consultant like the regional representatives from Advanced Exercise Equipment. AEE is a top supplier of commercial fitness equipment, including quality reconditioned used commercial fitness equipment. Our consultants can provide free layout and design services for your company’s on-site exercise space, and can recommend the best mix of equipment to serve your workforce and help them achieve their fitness goals. AEE distributes Life Fitness, Hammer Strength and other top brands of commercial exercise equipment in 11 Western states and southern Illinois. Contact us today at 800-520-1112 or e-mail us via our website to find out more about how to bring the benefits of a fit and healthy workforce to your company.