Sensory-Friendly Gym Design: Behind the Scenes Look at the Kidisthenics El Centro Facility
- Ryan Bigelow
- Jun 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 27
On May 7, Kidisthenics officially opened the doors to its first-ever physical location: a 4,200-square-foot space designed to serve as a hub to our high-intensity fitness programs. While the Kidisthenics El Centro facility provides a high-energy, engaging environment to build physical fitness – it is also intentionally designed to work toward promoting greater motor control, emotional regulation and independence in our clients. Thoughtfully curated to support Kidisthenics’ core movement–based learning methodologies, each piece of equipment was selected to provide sensory stimulation to target dysregulation and an outlet for practicing rhythmic, primitive movements that repair neurotransmitters within the brain.
Targeted Barriers to Growth
Common barriers to physical and emotional growth for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often tied to sensory sensitivities and retained primitive reflexes. Over 95% of children with ASD experience hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input, while roughly 80% of children have at least one retained reflex.
Proprioceptive & Vestibular Systems
Among the most affected sensory systems are the proprioceptive and vestibular systems. Located within the muscles, tendons, joints and inner ear, the proprioceptive system provides the brain with essential information about the body’s position, movement, and spatial orientation. This sensory input forms the foundational awareness and muscle strength necessary for the development of fine motor skills.
When an individual with autism has an oversensitivity to proprioceptive stimuli, they may find certain movements, body positions or pressure overwhelming. On the latter, when they have an under-sensitivity it may manifest through seeking intense or repetitive movements, applying excessive pressure, or stimming to obtain the deep sensory input they crave.
Working alongside the proprioceptive system to provide the brain information on the body’s position, the vestibular system plays a crucial role in maintaining posture and balance. While it is essential for the development of motor coordination, it also contributes to an overall sense of safety and security for individuals with autism.
Encompassing five organs within the inner ear, activities that require changes in the head’s positioning in relation to the body, such as swinging, rolling, rocking, spinning and balancing, engage this system. When there is a hypersensitivity to input within this system, everyday activities can be intimidating. Climbing and descending stairs, or walking on uneven surfaces are all activities that may be avoided. Those with an under-sensitivity seek intense sensory experiences through repeated behaviors like body whirling, jumping and spinning.
Retained Primitive Reflexes & Rhythmic Movement
Primitive reflexes are involuntary movement patterns present in infancy that help facilitate early survival and developmental milestones like crawling, grasping and orienting to stimuli. As the brain matures, these reflexes are typically integrated, allowing voluntary, coordinated movements to take their place. However, when primitive reflexes are retained beyond infancy – a common occurrence in individuals with ASD – they can disrupt neurological development, leading to challenges with motor coordination, sensory processing, posture, attention and emotional regulation.
Growth in Motion at the Kidisthenics El Centro Facility
Recognizing the impact of sensory sensitivities and retained reflexes, our gym environment was crafted to actively support the integration of movement-based interventions into each client’s routine. Through introducing exercises that challenge the proprioceptive and vestibular systems, we are gradually increasing our clients’ bodily awareness and comfortability with movement, while simultaneously providing a safe, regulated outlet for their sensory needs.
Our approach to reflex integration blends primitive movement training with rhythmic movement training (RMT) to create a comprehensive, sensory-informed intervention. Primitive movement training involves active, functional patterns like crawling, climbing and rolling – movements that mimic early developmental stages. To deepen this impact, we introduce RMT techniques into our sessions through slow, repetitive, rhythmic patterns that help calm the nervous system, improve communication between brain hemispheres and encourage the brain to learn and adapt by tapping into its natural ability to grow and self-regulate.
Together, these movement-based methods work to strengthen the mind-body connection, enhance sensory processing and lay the groundwork for improved coordination, regulation and confidence.
Regulation & Sensory-Integration
For clients with dysregulation toward proprioception, our battle rope station provides a safe, regulated outlet for stimulating key proprioceptive zones including the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee and ankle joints. By practicing movements like rope slams, snakes and alternating waves in rhythmic, repetitive motions, clients are able to simultaneously receive critical sensory input while reaping the benefits of RMT’s impact on self-regulation and enhanced focus.
Similarly, our weighted sled push requires forceful movement, engaging large muscle groups such as the legs, core and shoulders to push against resistance – providing that deep pressure input to the proprioceptive system that many individuals with ASD crave.
Whether working solo or in pairs, our medicine balls are another key sensory-integration tool that provides the body with grounding proprioceptive input and the calming effects of rhythmic repetition, all while developing a greater understanding of force regulation.
Balance, Stability & Body Awareness
A common tool used by gymnasts that you’ll find at the Kidisthenics gym is our balance beam. By walking heel-to-toe along a narrow beam, the repetitive, coordinated RMT movement sequence enhances brain integration in areas related to balance and coordination, while challenging the vestibular system within the inner ear.
Another tool commonly used by gymnasts is our still rings station. Hanging, holding and stabilizing movements on the rings provide deep joint compression and encourage midline stabilization – all factors that engage and challenge the proprioceptive and vestibular systems to develop greater bodily awareness.
Nearby on the turf resides the putting green area – an activity that requires careful joint positioning, visual-motor coordination and fine motor control – all areas that may be impacted by sensory-system dysregulation and retained primitive reflexes. The act of putting encourages focus, depth perception and deliberate movement – activating impacted neurotransmitters and encouraging brain-body communication.
Primitive Movement & Reflex Integration
While primitive movement training can be practiced in any open area and incorporated into an array of our gym equipment – as it involves simple, fundamental movement patterns like crawling, walking, climbing and rolling – our climbing rope and air roller are especially effective at targeting common challenges linked to retained primitive reflexes.
The act of climbing a rope requires both hemispheres of the brain to work together in order to coordinate movement between the left and right sides of the body. For clients who may have a retained asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, symmetrical tonic neck reflex or tonic labyrinthine reflex, this movement actively works toward repairing those neurotransmitters within the brain that contribute to difficulties with bilateral coordination, upper and lower body communication, as well as posture and trunk stability.
The moro reflex – a survival-based startle reflex activated when an infant perceives sudden changes in movement, light or sound – is another commonly retained primitive reflex targeted by our air roller. When treating a retained moro reflex, gradually exposing the nervous system to controlled vestibular stimulation helps build trust in movement and stimulate postural control through a regulated manner. By practicing rhythmic repetitions of forward and backward rolls, as well as rocking back and forth on the roller, the Moro reflex is actively being integrated through primitive movement, vestibular stimulation (as the head’s positioning is changed in relation to the body), and RMT patterns that lay the neurological groundwork for more complex movement patterns to emerge.
Motor Planning & Coordination
While sensory stimuli within the muscles, joints and tendons play a key role in the nervous system’s ability to recognize spatial orientation and bodily positioning, utilizing the development of that awareness to foster fine motor skills is of equal importance.
Retained primitive reflexes and dysfunction within the sensory systems all contribute to difficulties with motor planning, applying appropriate pressure and hand-eye coordination. Our dynamic sports offerings located within the gym help develop those deficits. The act of kicking a football through a field goal, from varying distances, challenges our clients to effectively execute movement sequencing and bilateral coordination, while increasing awareness of force regulation and the positioning of various parts of the body in relation to one another. Our basketball, pickleball and badminton court is designed to enhance skills such as spatial judgement, movement sequencing and visual tracking, all while enjoying the environment of a social, fast-paced setting.
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