Brendan Aylward of Unified Health and Performance
Social Media is a pretty powerful tool. I “met” Brendan about a year ago on Instagram. I actually remember my friend, Chelsea telling me to go follow this his page. She said that he was from around the area we grew up in (Central Massachusetts) and trained adaptive athletes along side adult classes and other general population type classes. Her and I were very intrigued by how different his inclusive model seemed to us. I have never seen a gym like this before. Of course, they exist but for me and the little world I was living in at the time (a story for another day), I loved the posts I was seeing and it opened me up the another world of fitness. Turns out his gym is 5 minutes from where I grew up, I so wish it was there when I was a kid/high school athlete.
We recently met in person because I will be helping him out with a Special Olympics Powerlifting meet and June and i thought no better time than to highlight him on my blog today.
Here are my questions to him:
Q: How did Unified Health and Performance come into fruition?
A: I’ll answer this in terms of how I got from being a sophomore in high school unsure what he wanted to do to being a 23 year old gym owner. I started volunteering with Special Olympics and Best Buddies when I was a sophomore and was instantly drawn to it for so many reasons. I don’t know how exactly to explain it but amidst the expectations of performing in school and sports, I think I initially fell in love with the programs because all that the kids wanted from me was my time and friendship. The self-reflection that went along with being involved in these programs led me to being incredibly grateful for the ability that I had and I was hell-bent on not letting it “go to waste”. But I became gradually more invested in these programs and more and more involved in the kids’ lives outside of sports and Best Buddies. They were, and still continue to be, some of the best friendships I’ve ever had. But I digress…I went to Providence college to study Special Education and always said that I was going to return to my high school and teach some of the kids in my Special Olympics program; but by sophomore year my ideal career path pivoted. I transferred to Lesley University in Cambridge and continued to study special education but I commuted to school, worked full time in special education/human service jobs, and began to build the foundation for what turned into Unified Health and Performance. I asked people to let me train them at their houses and the high school basketball coach allowed me to run an off-season strength and conditioning program for the team. It was all career capital as I had the opportunity to work with a variety of individuals and it forced me to spend all of my free time studying and learning because I didn’t want to provide a disservice to these athletes. I figured if I were to open my own facility that my high school athletes would come train with me, and I’d build from there. So the long-winded answer is that no, when I was 18 it was never a thought to own my own gym; but by 21 it was all consuming. Now we have over 300 members and I’ve somehow became a resource to different organizations for training in the niche market of adaptive athletes.
Q: Explain the mission and what you do behind UHP?
A: I started the gym because I wanted the opportunity to train athletes with and without disabilities for overall health and sports performance. While high school, collegiate, and Special Olympic athletes were my initial focus, the gym grew organically and it was in my best interest from a business standpoint to train adults, middle schoolers; anyone really who wanted to get stronger. Initially I worried that I would spread myself too thin and become average at working with a lot of different populations instead of great at doing what I set out to. But this fear has subsided for a couple of reasons. Every individual I work with is an opportunity to learn and the way that I approach training, it doesn’t matter if someone has a disability or not; it is my responsibility to understand their goals, recognize what they need to get there, and develop a course of action to do so. This mentality makes the existence of a disability irrelevant. I have developed a “niche” in the adaptive fitness world but I also think I offer a very good service for all of my members. Working with adults has made me a better coach for high schoolers, training adaptive athletes has made me a better teacher for my middle school athletes, etc.
We train a variety of individuals. We have D1 athletes, individuals with intellectual disabilities, record holding powerlifters, marathoners, athletes in wheelchairs, and more. I am motivated by the fear of not being able to help someone; I refer out when it’s beyond my scope of practice and skill set but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who is as obsessed as I am when it comes to bettering myself as a coach, athlete, and business owner.
Q: How did you get the idea to start the adaptive groups and working with the Special Olympics?
A: I think I answered this through my response to number 1 but I identified that it was a significant void (and still is a significant void) that needed to be filled. I just wanted the athletes that I cared so much about to have the same opportunities as their peers; to workout alongside one another and build confidence, improve their health, and the physical characteristics necessary to be successful. It has been exciting to watch the business grow and see how all of my members benefit from each others’ presence.
Q: What events do you coach for the Special Olympics?
A: I’m the program director for the Central MA program and am the head coach for our soccer, basketball, and powerlifting teams. We’ve run a golf and tennis program in the past and many of our athletes also participate in the Challenger baseball league.
I’ve had the opportunity to coach at the USA Games in the past for Team Massachusetts, at the North America Tennis Championships in South Carolina, and consult on strength and conditioning for Team USA in preparation for their recent trip to Abu Dhabi for World Games.
Q: What’s a day in the life look like for you? (Work week)
A: My gym is open Monday-Saturday and many of our Special Olympics sports and Team Hoyt races are on Sundays. Between everything that goes into the business, I work 12 to 15 hours every weekday and another 6-10 on Saturdays and Sundays. That isn’t meant to sound like your Instagram entrepreneur who boasts about working all day; it’s just a matter of fact that that is the amount of work required to run the operation that I do. It isn’t necessarily the lifestyle I want forever, but I’m willing to punch the clock now to positively impact the community that I’m in. Everyday is a bit different but a Thursday could look like:
4:15 – Wake up
5:00 – Get to gym and prepare for first class
5:15 – Adult group class
6:30 – Adult group class
7:30 – Semi-private with one of my Boston Marathon runners, a Special Olympics MA staff member, and one of my athletes with Cerebral Palsy
8:30 – Adult group class
9:45-11:30 – Track workout and go home, shower, and grab lunch
11:30-1:00 – Send out newsletter with link to the two blog posts that I wrote earlier in the week/month and work on a couple of athletes’ programs on the to-do list
1:00-2:00 – Semi-Private training session with a client with TBI (traumatic brain injury) and a client with Multiple Sclerosis
2:00-2:30 – Answer emails and review afternoon sessions with intern
2:45-4:00 – High school lifting
4:00-5:00 – Youth class (4th-8th) graders plus a handful of high schoolers are also training
5:00-5:45 – Finish with evening clients and clean gym
5:45-6:30 – Eat dinner, and transfer pictures from camera to iPhone
7:00 – Post on Instagram
7:15-9:00 – Write workouts, handle various business responsibilities, and answer emails
9:00-9:30 – Stretch, roll, get ready for bed
Coaching and writing workouts takes up a ton of my time but there is also accounting, marketing, blogging, customer service, janitorial, etc that has to be done.
Q: What are you currently training for? How does your social media strategy differ from many fitness professionals?
A: I’ve been racing for Team Hoyt New England, pushing my friend Jacob, for several years now. Jacob stays with me and my fiancé on the weekend and running started as something that we could do together. I didn’t anticipate ending up on Team Hoyt as Rick and Dick were these legendary figures that I couldn’t imagine being associated with. Now we’re attending events as their guests like the Easter Seals Evening of Empowerment that we were at last night.
Jacob and I were chosen as ambassadors for Newton Running, our favorite running shoe company so we are looking forward to representing them at races. We’ll run mostly 5ks and 10ks this Spring but over the summer we will gear up for a Fall marathon. I train quite a bit. It’s something I really enjoy doing and I view it as part of my job. It helps me understand the demands of various methods of training and gives me insight on how to advise athletes on handling common aches and pains,
I usually lift 4-5 times a week and run 3-4 (some of these being very short recovery runs). I’ll try to squeeze some time in on my trainer (stationary bike) if my schedule and energy level permit. I’m fortunate that I have several classes a day that I can roll, stretch, and do some prehab work alongside; and a couple times a week I can sit in Normatec boots while I write workouts.
If you were to follow the gym’s Instagram page @unified.hp you won’t find any personal training footage other than pictures from races. I’ll occasionally share the details of a running workout but that’s more so geared towards people who follow the page because of our involvement with Team Hoyt. Instagram is a bizarre world. There are gym accounts who post almost exclusively videos of the trainers lifting; and in many cases these workouts are impressive but my approach to social media has always been to highlight what my athletes do and demonstrate the incredible community that we have. I’m not so much interested in whether a trainer who lives in the gym can PR his squat as I am whether he can help the mother of three or the high school athlete become stronger and perform better. I want social media to be used as a vehicle to provide more value to my athletes’ membership, celebrate their accomplishments, and build their confidence and knowledge base.
Q: What does the future look like for UHP?
A: I tend not to disclose too much information about the future of the business. While I certainly plan ahead and have aspirations, the success of the last nearly 3 years has been dependent on my ability to analyze and adapt to situations and trends and reflect on how I can make the experience better for my athletes; and just a lot of work.
My goal is to create opportunity for as many Special Olympic athletes as possible to become the strongest and healthiest versions of themselves, to be a positive role model for the middle school and high school athletes that I train, and to continue developing meaningful relationships with and produce results for the adults that workout at UHP. I am extremely grateful for everyone who comes through my doors as their membership allows me to continue doing what I love.
When I started the gym as a 23 year old, $100/month seemed like so much money and I didn’t have the confidence to place my price point at the highest level. After being immersed in the industry for a few years, there are gyms that charge three times as much as I do for less individual value. I’m not particularly motivated by money but it would be foolish to dismiss its importance. The financial success of the business is more related to the ability to offer the best in-house service as possible to my members (which may mean a bigger and well-equipped facility in the future), to have the resources to spread the mission nationwide, and to comfortably support my family. Lauren, my fiancé, has sacrificed a lot over the last five years and I want this business to be successful so I have the freedom to be more present in her and in my future kids’ lives.
I am grateful to have met Brendan and help support his athletes anyway I can. The gym vibes itself are super warm with everyone high-fiving each other and even some hugs at the end of the session. With that said, everyone still works hard and lifts heavy it’s not all fun and games.
Actually, I was quite honored when he reached out to me to help coach at the meet in june. He is very hardworking (clearly) and inspired me to open up my ideas on fitness and to think more inclusively. His members will tell you “he is amazing”, simply put. Make sure to follow him and his gym on Instagram @unified.hp and keep up with all latest!