Immortal Martial Arts Center in Lewis Center teaches a modern, yet traditional approach to combat arts. But, once a week -- they put their skills to good use by holding a free class for people with disabilities.
"We put them through a lot of different coordination and flexibility and strength exercises," said Matthew Brown, owner of the gym and UFC veteran.
Immortal partnered with The Alpha Group, a local non-profit that offers resources to individuals with disabilities.
"Our goal is to help them integrate in all different ways, whether it's from having opportunities for the traditional types of things that the rest of us do on a daily basis, to having different opportunities like this," said Elliott Castello, director of Community Services.
Despite each person in the group facing their personalized challenges, trainers at Immortal encourage them to tackle the class like any other person would.
"It shows that they have the ability to push through things that maybe at first they didn't think they could, or when we started they wanted to quit," Castello explained."So, finding the right balance between getting pushed, and pounding through on something your brain is telling you isn't a good fit."
There is no doubt the weekly teaches perseverance and determination. Immortal offers the class to the Alpha Group for free.
"We have a fundraiser for them to get them boxing gloves and help pay for the staff and everything, but... the gym doesn’t make a dime off of it, and that was never the intention," said Brown.
Classes are every Thursday afternoon.
For more information please call 740-909-3065 or click here.