Crosstrainers Fitness Forum in Clinton Township, Michigan, is a bright, open and completely accessible facility that represents how gyms and fitness centers could be. Christopher Grobbel and business partner Randell Carver promote their gym as "quality and service without limits." Everything is accessible, from the elevator to non-skid flooring materials to wide aisles and state-of the-art workout equipment. The locker rooms have accessible showers with benches, sinks and lockers of appropriate heights, and hooks on a variety of levels to store towels.

Seven hundred members have signed up since the gym opened five months ago. Grobbel believes the best part is seeing patrons with and without disabilities work out together, with no inappropriate remarks, stares or whispers. Grobbel, who uses a wheelchair, makes a distinction between facilities being wheelchair accessible but not wheelchair friendly. Carver, who is a personal trainer of Paralympic athletes, offers customized workouts that utilize a person's maximum capabilities. People with disabilities are still often viewed as sick or a liability; Carver wants to change those perceptions and empower people with disabilities to have confidence in their own abilities. For the full article, go to http://www.ncpad.org/180/1343/No~Limits~on~Fitness~At~Crosstrainers~Gym.