Sam James

Fitness Professional, Presenter, Neurological conditions expert, Speaker and Educator.
Inclusfit

Award category:

Sports, Health and Wellbeing

I have had Cerebral Palsy since I was 9 weeks old, following a near miss cot death. I have grown up in an active family, I swam and rode horses when I was younger.

During my mid 20s I rediscovered exercise as my CP was affecting me more. I did Body Balance and Zumba. Following an injury and the rehab, I saw how much the gym and fitness classes helped my CP. I was encouraged to train by my own PT, to help encourage more disabled people to be active.

11 years ago, I qualified through Instructability. Ever since, I have been on a mission to make the industry more accessible to disabled people. There should not be separate classes if you have a disability.

I have worked with many fitness brands and an activewear company to make them more accessible to disabled people. These Brands include: Wild Legs Activewear, Beatz, Clubbercise, Sosa / Seated Sosa, GroovX and Veraflow.

I became the UK’s first disabled fitness presenter. Presenting at major fitness conventions. I also speak at events on exercise and disability, inclusion and about my own life experiences and journey. I am an educator, as well as educating medical and sports students on disability, I am a tutor/ assessor. I tutor many fitness qualifications, including the Level 3 Designing Exercise Programmes for Disabled Clients qualification. I really enjoy passing on my own knowledge to other fitness professionals, so they have the right knowledge to work with disabled clients in their locations.

As well as teaching group fitness, I am a personal trainer and specialise in Neuro and disability PT. I have seen amazing progress from all of my PT clients.

I sit on a focus group within the industry, to make it more accessible to both disabled clients and those who want to work in the industry with a disability.

As well as my business InclusFit, I have created 2 class brands. IncluSeat and NeuroHiit. I teach NeuroHiit online every week to disabled and non-disabled people worldwide. I am launching IncluSeat training soon, to train fitness instructors on how to teach a fun, enjoyable seated class. These are aimed at getting everyone active together.

I am thrilled to be on the Disability Power 100 list. In the disability world, disabled people that work hard on inclusion and accessibility within the fitness industry are not seen in the same light as other industries. I am honoured to be the first disabled person from the fitness industry to be recognised by the Disability Power 100. Hopefully this will help encourage other disabled people to start being active or have the push to enable them to work within the industry.

Q&A

Sam James
Connect and get mentorship from another disabled person in the industry. Use their knowledge to help you get started and how to progress.
I have educated the disability community about making sure their PT or group fitness instructor is disability qualified. The L2 group fitness qualifications and L3 PT qualification, only qualifies the person to work with a reasonably healthy adult. There are separate qualifications for disability, long term health conditions and more advanced Level 4s in to specialist areas eg neurological conditions, lower back pain, cardiac rehab. I have and continue to carry out a lot of work within the CP community explaining that exercise is vital for the condition, like a lot of disabilities especially as we age.
To keep educating both the disability community and fitness industry on how vital exercise is, and that the fitness professional has the right qualifications and knowledge to work with disabled people. This is vital, so they know how to improve the disability and not make it worse.
I actually enjoy going to fitness events and joining in as a participant, exercise especially dance fitness has been great for my own mental and physical health. I have made so many friends from being in the fitness industry and its nice to spend time with them, doing something we all love to do. I absolutely love castles and exploring old buildings. I always have to find a castle every time I go away. I find them so interesting but peaceful at the same time. I have found my own unique way of exploring them, especially as they were not designed with accessibility in mind. I often am seen to be going up the stairs on my hands & knees. I love spending time with my friends and family. Going for walks, days out, weekends away. They are really patient with me and often find a way for me to see things before I have. I have a young niece and nephew and love being an auntie to them. Especially when they join in with co teaching my online classes. I have been passing my love of castles on to them.
My friends and family. All have been there when I needed them to be. All my clients, as I love seeing the fun they are having in my classes or seeing them achieve things they never been able to do before. That is a feeling, I just cannot describe.
Cats – I love cats of all sizes
Where everyone is seen in the same light, for their talent and given exactly the same opportunities as non disabled people.
The fact we are able to live a full life and do things non disabled people do without thinking. More medical pathways to help disabled people get the treatment they need, and not get fobbed off by medical professionals blaming the disability and look looking to see if it’s a separate condition and searching for the root cause or the right treatment for it.
Sam sat teaching, having a laugh. Sam is wearing snowflake leggings and a black Inclusfit top.

Areas of expertise

Accessibility, Art, photography, Business, Charity, social enterprise, Children and young people, Community, Disability Advocacy, Education, Equality, Fashion, Food and drink, Health and wellbeing, Nature, animals, Social Media influencing, Sport, Television, radio, podcast

Disability Power 100 profile information is self-submitted by the profile subject. Shaw Trust understands and respects that disability and impairment descriptors and language use varies from person to person. Shaw Trust assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or discrepancies in the content of this, or any other, profile page.

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