Adaptive strength and conditioning for kids, teens, and adults with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. Everyone who trains here is an athlete.
Train Unique athletes and coaches · Louisiana
Since 2014 · Now in California
It started in Lafayette, Louisiana. Now we’re in California, where athletes ages 5 and up train one-on-one with a coach.
Somewhere else in California? Join an interest list for a future location.
Where it started
Damon Vincent kept meeting athletes with nowhere to train, so he built the gym himself. Train Unique began in Louisiana in 2014 and now trains athletes in Lafayette and Baton Rouge. California is the next chapter, built on the same approach.
The Arc of Louisiana and the Down Syndrome Association of Acadiana have been sending families to Train Unique for years.
In California
Director of Operations · California
The father who learned disability at home and the trainer who learned how to build strength became the same person. Today, Jose is building Train Unique California around both.
When you ask about training in California, Jose is who gets back to you.
What training looks like
Every athlete trains one-on-one with a coach. Our coaches work directly with each athlete, learning how they communicate, what motivates them, and where they need support.
We call everyone who trains with us an athlete, whether they compete for medals, walk with a limp, or communicate without speaking.
What they enjoy, how they communicate, what makes a good day. Coaches learn the athlete before they plan the workout.
We teach the equipment, show each movement, correct form, and change the exercise when the day calls for it.
Some progress is a heavier weight. Some is remembering the next part of a routine, asking for what you need, or trying again after something felt hard.
Our athletes train alongside other gym members, on the same floor and with access to the same equipment. In Long Beach, that floor is Trinity Training Facility, a full gym at 117 W 5th St.
Photos from our Louisiana community · Lafayette and Baton Rouge
Programs
An athlete doesn’t need a competitive goal or any gym experience to get started.
5–12Ages
Crawling, climbing, carrying, jumping, and balancing, planned like training and built for kids to enjoy.
About Fun Fit →
13+Teens and adults
One coach and one athlete. Strength, balance, coordination, mobility, and endurance, built around how they move and communicate.
About personal training →
2–3 hrsLonger sessions
Fitness, mentorship, recreation, and community activities in one longer session, planned around the athlete’s interests, goals, support needs, and approved services.
About structured sessions →In California, training is one-on-one: one coach working with one athlete. Photos are from Train Unique in Louisiana.
California
Training now
Trinity Training Facility
117 W 5th St, Long Beach, CA
Get directions (opens Google Maps) · See the gym
Ask about Long BeachTraining now
Allegiance Training Facility
251 Dupont St, Suite 107, Corona, CA
For athletes in Corona and nearby parts of Riverside County.
Get directions (opens Google Maps)
Ask about the Corona areaPaying for training
Families in the Self-Determination Program may be able to include training like ours in their spending plan. Your planning team and FMS decide what’s approved.
How funding worksJoin the interest list for your area. It doesn’t reserve a spot or commit you to anything. It tells us where families are, and we’ll contact you when there’s news about training near you.
Getting started
Send the form, call, or email. Share only what you’re comfortable sharing. No diagnosis or paperwork is needed to ask.
Someone from our team gets back to you by phone or email to learn about the athlete: how they communicate, what they enjoy, what they’d like to work on, and what support they need.
Jose meets you and the athlete in person before anything starts. No workout and no commitment.
Sessions start at the athlete’s pace, and the coach adjusts as they get to know each other.
Louisiana families
This family trains with Train Unique in Louisiana. The video waits for you to press play, and the sound stays off until you turn it on.
Laina Lambert’s son Ridge has trained at Train Unique in Louisiana for almost five years. She talks about how shy he was at first, how the coaches and other athletes became his friends, and why he’s excited to come every week.
My name is Laina Lambert and my son Ridge Simon has been at Train Unique for almost five years now. He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. which means he was only born with the right side of his heart functioning. He went through a series of three stage surgical repairs, suffered a stroke. and had some other troubles recovering for the first three years of his life. But since then he’s been happy and healthy wanting to do all the things that a normal kid does. When Ridge was going through school he was in... a lot of different therapies and one of those being physical therapy. And eventually he kind of aged out of the physical therapy that they provided at school. But I always wanted him to have something that would continue that growth for him. And we heard about Train Unique through a gym that we were already at. And I just wanted Ridge to find something that he could have for himself. that would also continue to help him develop mentally. We found Train Unique and just keep coming back. Ridge is a very shy kid at first, so... I know it took him maybe a few sessions, but after that, all the coaches were best friends and all of his new friends have become old friends. It’s all like a big family now. His confidence has grown by leaps and bounds. His physical ability has flourished. He continues growing and He’s excited to come every week. It makes me feel so grateful to have a place that Ridge feels so included in and so a part of. A place where he can be himself and he can have other friends that look like him, some that don’t look like him, but everyone is treated all the same and everyone just is genuinely having a great time and doing better for themselves. The environment is everything that your child needs, so just do it.
Tell us a little about the athlete and where you are. Someone from our team will get back to you by phone or email to talk through next steps.
