Glasgow personal trainer introduces classes for deaf people
24-year old Amy Hill grew up with sign language as both her parents are deaf.
Last updated 4th Feb 2020
A Glasgow personal trainer's introducing sign language into some of her classes.
24.year old Amy Hill from Dennistoun runs the 'Body By Amy' studio in Alexandra Parade, and is beginning classes specifically aimed at those who have a hearing impairment.
She's had a lighting system installed to assist with these classes, where she can switch the lights to green to signal 'go' and red to signal 'stop'.
She also knows how to communicate using sign language after growing up with it due to both of her parents being unable to hear.
Amy has also been uploading videos using sign language onto her Instagram account.
She said: "Both my parents are deaf, I grew up doing sign language my whole life.
"I understand the negative impact that it has on them that they can't work out because there's not those things there for them to access.
"I've gone to the gym with my mum and dad once and it was okay because I was there to help them and communicate with them but they would never go to a gym by themselves.
"We can go up and ask someone 'how do you use this machine?' - but with them there's that communication barrier - they can't speak to anyone there.
"I see the things that they go through that they find difficult that we would just take for granted.
"I do think that they definitely are forgotten about - that's why I really am desperate to bring awareness to the deaf community."
Amy used to train clients in Viper which she hired for her classes, but recently got her own studio in Alexandra Parade.
She said: "I was very nervous about opening my own gym - that was in my five year plan so I didn't expect it to happen within the first two years.
"My main thing was this place was a safe space for deaf people and hearing people.
"When I was going to the gym, I felt like there wasn't that safe space - but here there's more of a community."
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