Special Olympics athletes from around the world lead fitness activities.
Fitness is a key aspect of Special Olympics’ mission. Special Olympics Fitness comprises three components that focus on healthy lifestyle behaviors: physical activity, nutrition, and hydration. When Special Olympics athletes practice regular physical activity, eat healthy, and stay hydrated, they improve their health, confidence, and quality of life.
According to Special Olympics Fitness 2024 Annual Report, 74% of athletes report improved confidence in doing physical activity after participating in Special Olympics fitness programming. This focus on fitness extends beyond individual athletes and into entire communities. Across the globe, Special Olympics Athlete Leaders and coaches are inspiring others to be more active daily. They are dedicated to making fitness more inclusive, leading education and fitness activities, and empowering their fellow athletes, family members, and other supporters of the Special Olympics movement to live healthy lifestyles.
This emphasis on movement is celebrated globally on World Day for Physical Activity, observed annually on 6 April, which promotes physical activity and encourages people of all abilities to move more every day. This World Day for Physical Activity, we’re highlighting Athlete Leaders and a coach who have taken on a variety of leadership roles to empower athletes to stay active year-round. Get to know them below!
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Ayoub Deboub – Special Olympics Ireland
Ayoub Deboub (right) demonstrates a fitness exercise at an Athlete Leadership Fitness Workshop.
Ayoub Deboub is an athlete, football and Special Olympics Young Athletes coach, Certified Personal Trainer, Special Olympics International Fitness Advisory Committee member, and advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He is passionate about making fitness inclusive for everyone.
Having grown up with a disability and gone through multiple surgeries, Ayoub understands first-hand the challenges and barriers people with IDD face when it comes to physical activity. These experiences have shaped his belief that sport isn’t just about winning; it’s about building skills, confidence, and empowering every athlete to reach their full potential.
Reflecting on these experiences, Ayoub said, “Throughout the years, I’ve worked in schools and centres to create opportunities for people of all abilities. I hosted a fitness workshop for the Eastern Region in Special Olympics Ireland, focusing on breaking barriers for physical activity by introducing simple, adapted, and enjoyable exercises. There were team-building exercises and stations with different workouts for the athletes. The energy and engagement throughout the session were incredible, with many stepping outside their comfort zones.
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By the end, participants felt more empowered and motivated to stay active in their daily lives. I believe the workshop made a real impact by showing that disability should never be a limitation to leading an active and healthy lifestyle.”
To Ayoub, fitness means empowerment, inclusion, and personal growth.
Krystal Johnson – Special Olympics Southern California
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Krystal (right) leads a warmup activity.
Krystal Johnson has been an athlete with Special Olympics Southern California for 25 years. She is a multi-sport athlete competing in tennis, floorball, bowling, and athletics. As a Fitness Captain, Krystal supports her teammates in maintaining their health on and off the field. Fitness Captains are athletes on a sports team who lead the team in activities related to fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Krystal uses her leadership and communication skills to empower athletes to be healthy and fit.
When asked about why she wanted to become a Fitness Captain, Krystal shared, “I enjoy being a Fitness Captain leading warmups and cooldowns with my fellow teammates. I want to help us all get ready for a good day at practice. I want to help promote fitness to my teammates by being an example. They see me working with the coaches and this is something that they can learn to become part of.”
Banele Makhonco – Special Olympics South Africa
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Banele Makhonco (middle) motivates his community to stay active.
Banele Makhonco is a Special Olympics South Africa athlete, coach, and Athlete Input Council member based in the Eastern Cape Province. He has become a true champion in health and fitness.
For Banele, fitness goes beyond staying healthy; it’s become a way for him to connect with others in his community. In addition to leading boot camp fitness activities in his community, Banele also runs inclusive training sessions for people of all abilities, helping each person reach their true potential.
Banele explained, “I help others with routines, training strategies, and training plans. I also assist other colleagues and the local gym. Most importantly, I support my former school with fitness sessions and assist selected athletes when they go to Provincial or National Games.”
Banele is also passionate about teaching others about the importance of nutrition, and that to be a great athlete, you must be a healthy athlete. His hope this World Day for Physical Activity is that everyone can “understand that health and fitness is a way of life. It is important to keep fit and live healthy because you can live a longer life without suffering from petty illnesses.”
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Susan David – Special Olympics Namibia (Coach)
Susan David (middle) leads stretching exercises during a fitness session.
Susan David has been a Special Olympics Namibia coach for 27 years. Her journey into fitness and health was shaped not only by her passion, but by the athletes she coached.
When Susan first started fitness training, she shared that she “was simply a coach who gave instructions to athletes. I guided them on what to do, but I was not fully practicing what I was teaching. Over time, the athletes began to influence me in a powerful way. Their dedication and energy rubbed off on me, and I became more interested in fitness myself.”
Susan found herself inspired by the dedication and energy of the athletes, which led her to follow what she loved.
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“I started doing what I preached,” Susan shared. “One athlete who lives close to my house, a [Special Olympics] Health Messenger, played a big role in my journey. He would remind me about my running schedule and encourage me to stay consistent.Today, I love running and continuously work towards improving my fitness.”
Today, Susan continues to lead fitness sessions with the support of Fitness Captains and Health Messengers in schools and communities.
Kayla Cornell – Special Olympics Michigan
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Kayla (middle) competes in a powerlifting competition.
Kayla Cornell is a Health Messenger, athlete, and serves on the Special Olympics Fitness Team’s Athlete App Advisory Committee. One way Kayla motivates her fellow athletes and herself to stay active is by using the Special Olympics Fitness App.
The Special Olympics Fitness App is a free, inclusive fitness tool designed to help athletes with IDD stay active, build healthy habits, and feel empowered in their wellness journey. The app features fun challenges and helps you track your workouts, nutrition, sleep, and mental wellness.
When asked about her favorite features of the app, Kayla mentioned: “What really sets the experience apart for me is the resource section. I use a ton of the resources available there to stay informed and keep my routine fresh. Whether it’s looking up new exercise techniques or following health tips, having all that information in one place makes staying healthy feel much more manageable.”
The app also provides healthy tips to stay motivated and lets users share their progress with friends. “We talk a lot about how the app makes fitness fun and less stressful, and by working together from different places, we can show others that you don’t have to be in the same room to stay active,” Kayla added.
These stories remind us of the importance of being active year-round, and how this can promote well-being among athletes, families, and community members.
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Interested in learning more? Download the free Special Olympics Fitness App on the Apple or Google Play stores. The app features health behavior tracking, goal setting, fitness challenges, and resources, including being able to do Fit 5 exercise videos right from your phone!
Heel touches are one of those exercises you look at and either think, ‘is that it?’ or ‘that looks nice and easy!’, depending on how much you enjoy core exercises. For those who’d rather avoid planks and crunches, this movement makes for a good alternative – and it can be done lying down.
This exercise targets the obliques, muscles that sit on the sides of our core and help stabilise the spine and support hip strength. Often underworked and underrated, these muscles are essential for everyday movements like bending down and twisting, which in turn may help prevent lower back pain.
Abby McLachlan, personal trainer and founder of East of Eden, recommends heel touches to clients to target the obliques in her workouts. It’s “not the most challenging” core exercise, she tells woman&home, but “if you keep your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor in spinal flexion, you’ll definitely feel it in your abs and obliques”.
How to do heel touches
How to Do: HEEL TOUCH – YouTube
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Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
Raise your shoulders slightly off the mat and keep your neck neutral.
Keep your lower back flat on the floor.
Alternately reach forwards to touch your heels with your hand stretched out flat.
Exhale when touching your heels and inhale when coming back.
A top tip is to do these slowly and try not to swing from side-to-side.
If you’re new to heel touches, Abby says they can be “easily modified, or progressed to make it more challenging”. You might not be able to touch your heels at first, but as your spine becomes more mobile, you will see improvements.
“Your pelvis will naturally tuck slightly as you bring the head, neck and shoulders up, but just try to move with control, keeping the pelvis stable,” she says.
How to make heel touches harder
If you’ve been doing a bodyweight Pilates workout for even a few weeks, you’ll already have good strength in your obliques and abdominal muscles. You may need to make the heel touches harder to see the benefits.
To do this, Abby says: “You could take your feet off the floor into tabletop, which will make pelvic stability more challenging, or lengthen the legs on the diagonal to create more of a challenge, or even add hand weights to increase the load.”
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You could also move your heels further away from your bottom to increase the stretch, or hold each touch for two seconds.
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While above we’ve suggested alternating sides for the touches, you could do all of your reps on one side before switching to the other. This will intensify the pressure on your obliques. Abby suggests aiming for 15-25 reps over three or four sets to “make it count”.
Adding in additional core exercises that complement heel touches can fire up these muscles even more. Dead bugs and the side plank are good options for targeting the obliques.
Benefits of heel touches
No equipment required: You might want a thick yoga mat to lie down on if you don’t have one already, but you don’t need any equipment to do heel touches.
May help prevent lower back pain: As this exercise strengthens the stabilising muscles in the trunk, including around the spine and pelvis, you might find you have a lower risk of back pain.
Boosts spinal mobility: Whether you do strength work in the gym or you’re a keen hiker, if you spend a lot of the day sitting down, you may benefit from better spinal mobility. This helps with bending down and other functional movements.
Improves core strength: Having a stronger core has been shown to improve balance and coordination as we age, lowering our risk of falls and other injuries.
Aids posture: Back muscles are essentially scaffolding for the spine, so having strong ones created by back exercises like heel touches helps maintain a neutral spinal position when walking and sitting down, and pulls the shoulders back, improving posture.
Teenagers who see exercise as fun, social and good for their health are significantly fitter by late adolescence than those driven by competition, pressure or fear of judgement, new research led by Flinders University shows.
Tracking more than 1,000 young people from age 14 to 17, researchers found early attitudes to physical activity strongly predict measurable aerobic fitness three years later.
The national study, using data from the long‑running Raine Study, was led by Flinders University in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Australia, and has been published in Child: Care, Health and Development journal.
Researchers examined how teenagers’ beliefs about physical activity relate to aerobic fitness in late adolescence, measured using a standard laboratory cycling test at age 17.
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The findings show that intrinsic motivations – such as enjoying physical activity, feeling healthy, keeping fit and spending time with friends – consistently matter most between the ages of 14 and 17.
Teenagers who value these factors are significantly fitter at 17 than those motivated primarily by winning, external rewards or pressure from others.
Senior author Associate Professor Mandy Plumb, a clinical exercise physiologist at Flinders University, says the results underline the importance of understanding what genuinely motivates young people.
“When adolescents see physical activity as enjoyable, social and good for their health, they are more likely to develop lasting fitness into later adolescence,” says Associate Professor Plumb, who is based at Flinders’ Rural and Remote Health NT.
Participants reported both how important they believed different outcomes of physical activity were, and how likely they thought those outcomes were to occur, including enjoyment, health benefits and appearance.
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While most motivational factors remained relatively stable across adolescence, improving appearance was the only factor that increased in importance for both boys and girls by age 17.
Associate Professor Plumb says this reflects normal adolescent development.
“As teenagers get older, they become more aware of their bodies and how they are perceived by others, which is why appearance becomes more influential in later adolescence,” she says.
The study also identified clear gender differences in how motivation relates to fitness outcomes.
Boys tended to have higher aerobic fitness at 17 when motivated by competition, winning and external rewards.
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Girls, by contrast, were fitter when motivated by enjoyment, feeling healthy, weight control and supportive social environments.
Associate Professor Plumb says these findings show youth sport and physical activity programs need to be more targeted.
“One‑size‑fits‑all approaches don’t work, particularly for girls during adolescence,” she says.
The research also highlights the damaging impact of negative social experiences, especially for teenage girls.
Girls who believed others would make fun of them for being physically active were significantly less fit by age 17.
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“Fear of judgement can directly reduce participation in physical activity, leading to poorer long‑term fitness outcomes,” says Associate Professor Plumb.
Importantly, the study shows that attitudes formed in early adolescence influence later health outcomes – not just behaviour at the time.
“What teenagers believe about physical activity at 14 continues to shape their fitness several years later,” says Associate Professor Plumb.
The authors say the findings have clear implications for parents, schools, coaches and policymakers.
“Programs that prioritise fun, friendship and feeling healthy may be more effective than those focused on competition or performance alone,” says Associate Professor Plumb.
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“Reducing pressure, bullying and overly competitive environments could help more young people stay active throughout adolescence.”
The authors say that schools and community sports organisations are well placed to apply the findings to help reverse declining physical activity levels among teenagers.
The paper, Perceptions of the Likelihood and Importance of Physical Activity Outcomes at 14 Years Affects Physical Fitness at 17 Years by Amanda Timler, Paola Chivers, Helen Parker, Elizabeth Rose, Jocelyn Tan, Beth Hands and Mandy S. Plumb was published in Child: Care, Health and Development journal. DOI: 10.1111/cch.70276
Acknowledgements: The Raine Study Gen2-14 year follow-up received funding from NHMRC (Sly et al., ID 211912), NHMRC Program Grant (Stanley et al.,ID 003209) and The Raine Medical Research Foundation. The Raine Study Gen2-17 year follow-up was funded through a NHMRC Program Grant (Stanley et al., ID 353514).
The Monroe Center for Healthy Aging will mark Older Americans Month by hosting a Health and Fitness Day on May 27, according to a community announcement.
The event is designed to promote wellness, physical activity and a positive approach to aging, organizers said. Programming reflects the center’s philosophy that many factors influencing how people age — including nutrition, movement and mindset — are within individual control, according to the announcement.
Exercise classes and health screenings
The day begins with the Movin’ and Groovin’ exercise class at 9 a.m., followed by the EnhanceFitness class offered by the Monroe Family YMCA at 10 a.m.
Cholesterol checks will also be available, though space is limited and advance registration is required by calling 734‑241‑0404. Participants are asked to fast for eight hours before the screening, according to the announcement.
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Lunch and educational presentation
A complimentary lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. Registration is required and can be completed by calling 734‑241‑0404.
Following lunch, Chris Boudrie will present a program titled “The Pay‑Offs of Moving Your Body.” The presentation will examine the health benefits of physical activity and include a head‑to‑toe movement routine, according to the announcement.
Boudrie is a retired biology and health sciences professor at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio, and currently works part‑time with the Monroe County Library System, and has been associated with the Monroe Center for Healthy Aging since 1987, organizers said.
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This story was created by Dave DeMille, ddemille@gannett.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
