Train Unique California didn't start in California. It started twelve years ago and two thousand miles away, in Lafayette, Louisiana — as a fitness class called DREAMS, with six athletes and one coach. This page is that story, and why it's the foundation everything here is built on.
WPC Worlds 2024, Lisle, Illinois · Train Unique’s Louisiana team
2014The first class
6Athletes who showed up
~500Athletes since 2014 (Louisiana)
2Floors in Louisiana today
Louisiana figures, 2026: 186 athletes training, ages five to seventy-five, and an average stay of four and a half years. Once a family finds the floor, they tend to keep it.
The program
What Train Unique is.
It's not a gym with an adaptive corner. It's a standard: athletes with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities training in the middle of a real floor — same floor, same bar — with coaches who expect effort and keep raising it.
The word is athlete — never client, never patient, never special needs. That one word changed the culture of the original floor, and it's the only word used anywhere Train Unique operates.
And showing up gets counted. Athletes earn milestone shirts as their session count grows, starting at 100 sessions — the Hero’s Journey. A simple idea doing a hard job: consistency, celebrated until it becomes identity.
Lafayette, Louisiana
The history
Twelve years, one direction.
2014
A class called DREAMS
Six athletes and one coach in Lafayette, Louisiana. Bruce “Damon” Vincent II — a professional MMA fighter who grew up managing a rare medical condition of his own — starts coaching athletes nobody else was building gyms for.
At the 2023 Lafayette Disability Awareness Awards, Damon Vincent receives the Lynette Fontenot Community Achievement Award. Damon later takes a seat on the Governor's Advisory Council on Disability Affairs.
2024
Four athletes. Four golds.
Train Unique lifters travel to the WPC World Championships in Lisle, Illinois — every lifter gold, every lifter a personal record, world records broken (KATC).
2026
Two floors — and a third coast
The second floor opens in Baton Rouge (The Current, April 2026) — and Train Unique California begins: the first floor outside Louisiana, led from inside the family.
Lisle, Illinois
From families on the Louisiana floor
What it means to parents.
Not only is Owen getting stronger, he genuinely looks forward to every class. The coaches create such a positive and motivating environment, and his confidence has grown right alongside his strength.
Rainey
The minute you walk through the door you're greeted with the sweetest welcome. There is always a positive vibe and smiling faces. This place is doing amazing things for so many people.
Jade Foreman
Louisiana families
In their own words.
Jonah’s mom.
Shannon Barres talks about what her son Jonah gets from Train Unique besides strength: goals, leadership, and the chance to mentor and help other athletes. She also makes a point most places miss: other people need to learn how to socialize with athletes like Jonah, too.
Read what she says
Hi, I’m Shannon Barres. I’m here with my son, Jonah Barres. Train Unique is a great program. It’s giving him goals. It’s giving him leadership. He’s been going for years, and he loves being a mentor, and he loves helping others. It gets them integrated into the community, and it’s something that they need. They need to socialize. They need to be around other people, and other people need to learn how to socialize with them.
Our culture
Everyone here is an athlete.
We call everyone who trains with us an athlete, whether they compete for medals, walk with a limp, or communicate without speaking. Everyone deserves the same respect, attention, and opportunity to grow.
That doesn’t mean everyone gets the same workout. It means nobody has to reach a certain level of ability to belong on the floor.
From our Louisiana community · everyday training, and Ulympics 2026 (Lafayette vs. Baton Rouge)
Louisiana
In the news.
Damon Vincent and Coach Linden in a TV news segment shortly before the Baton Rouge floor opened in 2026. Captions are built into the video.
The home floors are alive and training in Lafayette and Baton Rouge — 186 athletes (2026), a full-time coaching staff, and the community twelve years built.
If you're ever within driving distance, go stand on the original floor. Until then, it's all at wetrainunique.com.
Same floor. Same bar. Since 2014.
California is the next chapter.
Everything on this page is what we're bringing west — the standard, the word, the expectation. See what's being built here, or reach out and be part of it early.
