Orbit Magazine, a publication of the United Spinal Association
Win or Lose
By Lori A. Wood
“I started exercising and joined a gym when I was thirteen years old,”
says Paul O’Lone, Founder and Executive Director of Accessible Fitness,
http://www.accessiblefitness.com , a fitness center
for people with disabilities, located in Santa Clara, California. “In 1979
or ’80, somebody gave me a box of bodybuilding magazines, and I saw these
pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger in them and said, ‘I would like to look
like that someday.’ I started exercising, did my first bodybuilding show
when I was fifteen and placed 3rd in it. By the time I was twenty-five, I had
been in almost seventy amateur bodybuilding competitions.”
For Paul, this competitive drive paid off. In 1993, he won the Mr. North America
and Mr. USA titles. “After that, I was getting ready to get my professional
bodybuilder’s card. It was exciting for me; it had been my dream since
I was thirteen to be Mr. Olympia, the biggest show that there is.”
Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that his body was not up to the challenge.
“Around 1994 or ’95, I started having numbness, tingling and balance
problems,” he says. “I knew that something was going on, but didn’t
know what it was. Finally, in 1997, they diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis.
At first, I was doing okay. In 1998, I was even considering competing, because
I was doing so well.”
In the next year, however, Paul’s physical and mental health had begun
to deteriorate. “I fell into a depression, and a lot of that was because
the MS had caused me to go completely blind in my left eye, and partially in
my right,” he explains. (I Lost my vision in my left eye for almost a year,
“I think that, along with the fact that I had problems with balance, walking
and my bladder contributed to my depression. I was also overmedicated, on antidepressants,
sleeping pills and drugs for the nerve pain I was in. There was a whole list
of things, and I was afraid to say ‘What next?,’ because it kept getting
worse. I think it was a combination of those things and being sedentary. It’s
very easy to become inactive, especially when you’re drugged up. A lot
of times, a lot of these drugs can make you more tired.”
In 1999, he began having difficulty walking, and soon after, he had to use a
wheelchair. “I hated my MS. I’d been living in Philadelphia at the
time, and had just met my wife, Judy. She told me, ‘You have to accept
your MS.’ I didn’t know what that meant. She said, ‘You have
to accept that you have it, and have to keep doing exercises where the weaknesses
are, and begin strengthening those areas that have been affected by the MS.’
I finally went back to the gym.”
“For ten years, I owned an entertainment business in Philadelphia. called
A Class Act Entertainment. We had DJs, clowns, et cetera, for parties. I wrapped
that up, and in 2001, I came out to California. I was in a wheelchair at the
time, and I started rating all of the gyms, based on their accessibility, everything
from the bathrooms to the spaces between the gym equipment,” Paul remembers.
“I started exercising again. With my relapse-remitting form of MS and the
use of a home treadmill, my leg strength had started to come back. Stress sets
off a lot of MS exacerbations. I was taking some MS drugs, but stopped taking
those to focus on more holistic approaches to health, like exercise and a balanced
diet. I think of MS as a tiredness disease. It can make you really tired sometimes,
so you have the right nutrition and find that balance.”
“I have a four year-old son, Tyler, and it’s amazing what I’ve
learned from him,” says Paul. “In a child, the core muscles, those
of the abdominals, hips and back, are the last to develop, and when you have
MS, they’re the first to go. In his first year, Tyler liked to do a lot
of things on his knees on the floor, and I thought, ‘What a great way to
exercise.’ If you put a pad down and get on your knees, you can do a lot
of exercises, without much the risk of falling. For me, being a bodybuilder
was about seeing how big, toned and ripped I could be. With MS, it’s more
about quality of life, and continuing to move my legs through exercise so that
I can walk.”
“At Accessible Fitness, we really focus on the core muscles. In a person
who has MS, they get really weak, like a flower with a weak stem. If those muscles
are weak, the wind blows and you might fall over, just like that flower. Whether
you have a spinal cord injury, MS or cerebral palsy, those muscles are always
affected and usually cause a lot of problems. For example, if you have a weak
hip, you’ll fall to the side.”
In 2004, Accessible Fitness opened
its doors. “I wanted to open a gym that was completely wheelchair accessible,
including the equipment itself. I use the Equalizer 1000 (™) as my gym
station. You can work every body part, and the stools pull out, so that a wheelchair
can lock into every station. We also have cardiovascular equipment (called a
APT Active, Passive Trainer) that moves the legs passively. Some people who
have a little bit of leg strength get stronger after using it. I gradually turn
the machine down, until they can move it on their own.” Paul and Judy serve
as personal trainers at the gym, and are both certified in adaptive fitness.
Accessible Fitness serves people with a wide range of disabilities, including
Guillain-Barre´ Syndrome, MS and spinal cord injury. The facility operates
on one philosophy: ability, not disability. “When it comes to exercise,
no two people are the same. We always make people feel like they can accomplish
their exercises, by not giving them things that they can’t do. If they
can’t do it, I’ll adapt the exercise so that they can.”
The gym offers a variety of programs to its clients, including workshops. “We
do those once a week,” Paul explains. “We focus on stretching and
weight resistance, and give people exercises that they can do when they’re
not here. We also have one-on-one personal training sessions, in-home training
and a nutritional component, because a lot of people with MS aren’t taking
care of their diet, so we help them with that. Once a month, we have speakers
come in for Living Well events, to talk about things like myelin repair and
employment for the disabled.”
For more information on any of these programs, call (408) 986-1419
Additionally, the O’Lones are frequent collaborators with the National
MS Society, http://www.nmss.org.
(Silicon Valley Chapter) “We participate as speakers for the client programs,
we do exercise demonstrations and routines and help get the word out about the
fight for a cure.” For these efforts, Paul received the MS Achievement
Award in 2002. “It was an honor. It’s mostly given to people who are
living with MS, helping others who have it, and maintaining a high quality of
life.”
Paul is currently training for the 2006 Mr. America competition. “I’m
not as concerned about winning as I was before,” he says. “I’m
representing those who are physically challenged, like myself.”
Win or lose, there’s no doubt that he will do it with grace. “No matter
how difficult MS makes things, you have to remain positive and never give up.
That’s what exercise does for me; it gives me a sense of control of my
life.”