Programs, Workshops & Classes for Women with Disabilities

NYU Langone’s Initiative for Women with Disabilities at the Elly and Steve Hammerman Health and Wellness Center offers programs, workshops, and classes specifically designed for women with physical disabilities.

We offer educational workshops that bring information directly from the experts to our participants. Our medical professionals also hold a lecture series on various topics to help promote healthy lifestyle decisions. The goal of the workshops is to help build participants’ knowledge and confidence in managing their health, and to keep them informed of resources available in the community.

Exercise classes are available on weekdays and are designed to help women stay active and improve strength, stamina, and flexibility. The majority of our classes can be done in a seated or standing position.

Fitness Classes

Our class schedule includes pricing information. For more information, please call 212-598-6429.

Some of the fitness programs and classes we offer include the following.

Chair Pilates

Chair Pilates teaches you how to move and use your muscles while maintaining proper posture. It can help you to develop core strength and stability, which can allow the rest of the body to move freely. The exercises are controlled movements performed in conjunction with breathing techniques that simultaneously strengthen and relax the body.

Strength and Tone

The strength and tone class integrates strength-training exercises with stretching techniques. Body weight, exercise bands, and hand weights are used to improve and maintain range of motion and strength.

Chair Yoga

Yoga is an excellent tool for a stronger, more relaxed body. Our yoga classes are adapted to allow women of all abilities to participate. Classes are taught from a seated position, and focus on basic hatha yoga postures, breathing, and relaxation techniques.

Practicing yoga may help you to be more mindful and achieve greater clarity and mental focus, relaxation, self-empowerment, flexibility, and muscle tone.

Core Strengthening

Core strengthening incorporates props and Pilates-inspired techniques to strengthen the abdomen and upper body muscles. Core and arm exercises help build better balance, stability, and shoulder mobility.

Zumba

Zumba is a cardio-based total body workout combining fast and slow rhythms that tone the body in an aerobic fitness fashion. The aerobic fitness and toning program is easy to follow and inspired by Latin music.

Adaptive Sports

Through our adaptive sports programs, women with disabilities can participate in healthy activities that provide opportunities for achievement and success. Adaptive sports programs are designed to build strength, stamina, range of motion, confidence, and teamwork skills.

Achilles Track Club

In collaboration with Achilles International, our track club allows you to participate in the sport based on your own abilities and to set personal fitness goals. Training is held in Stuyvesant Square park. At the culmination of the season, our club participates in the annual Achilles’ Hope and Possibility Race. This program runs from April through June.

Adaptive Rowing

Rowing provides both a cardio and strength-building workout. It is easily adaptable to all levels of ability, and the buoyancy of water can help women to overcome limitations that may seem insurmountable on land.

We began our partnership with Row New York in 2008. Now in its eighth year, our program offers year-round rowing programs on the water in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Indoor training ergometers are also used during the winter months.

Annual Adaptive Ski Trip

Every winter, the Initiative for Women with Disabilities hosts an adaptive ski retreat. Depending on the level of mobility, participants may ski on bi-ski sleds or stand-up skis while tethered to an instructor.

Participants have the opportunity to learn or adapt to this sport as they socialize with their peers and push themselves beyond their limits, thus encouraging independence and self-advocacy. By the end of the ski trip, participants gain confidence both on and off the mountain.

For more information on our adaptive sports programs, please call 212-598-6429.