Inside Out

Elly currently offers personalized and adapted fitness programs for individuals with developmental differences. Inside Out Fitness training sessions are held in local recreation centres, gyms, or outdoors when the weather permits. During these one hour sessions, clients have the opportunity to incorporate fitness into their weekly schedule, work towards an independent fitness routine, develop fundamental fitness skills, and connect with others in their community.

I have a need to know people. It had never really occurred to me, (until recently in my late twenties) that other people don’t need to know people in the same way that I do. The information that most people seek out to construct their understanding of someone generally consists of: What do you do for work? Are you married? How long have you been married? Kids? And the observations we can make on the surface: What do you look like? Is this person smiling or not? How is this person dressed? How is this person’s hygiene? The information that we piece together to construct the shell that represents a person, has never been nearly enough for me. Instead, I’ve been the girl at the party who goes from “what’s your name” to “what’s your favourite memory and why” within two minutes of meeting you.

I will deep dive immediately into the why questions — because I want to really know you. I want to know why you do what you do. I really don’t care what you look like; but I am interested in your morning routine and why you choose to start your day in the particular way that you do. I don’t care about your relationship status; but I do want to know how you feel inside your relationships. If you have just gone through a break up, what was the moment you knew it needed to end? If you have kids; What is your favourite part of parenting, and what are you most challenged by? How do you feel about yourself in those challenging moments? I want to know you — from the inside out.

As a young person, I explored all of my feelings through dance. I filtered all of my emotional experiences, my identity, and dreams, through movement. As an interpretive/ contemporary dancer, I obsessed over body language, mannerisms, facial expressions, and subtleties of expression in daily life. It became my passion, and a language of its own, how people can tell stories and show you themselves without speaking a word.

In my early twenties I travelled around Europe and the UK for the better part of three years. I landed in London, where I worked at a gym called Gymbox. At Gymbox I was exposed to variety and creativity in fitness training. After a few years of dancing, travelling, and sampling everything that the fitness world could dream up… I decided to move back to Vancouver to go back to school, in search of a deeper fulfillment. I was curious about connecting with the people in our world who are non-verbal, or limited verbally. I wondered if my passion for expression and non-verbal communication through movement and dance would translate in a therapeutic setting. I spent the following 5 years completing my Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Applied Psychology, training as an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapist, and working with kids on the autism spectrum from 2 through to 18 years old. In my degree, when I had the freedom to choose my subject, I often chose to research the impact that fitness, and movement has on mental health. Over time, the research in this area continues to build, and we become increasingly aware of how critical movement is for our health and well-being. I couldn’t help but notice a gap for my clients with developmental differences. With so many fitness professionals, and so many behaviour support professionals, there seemed to be very few who overlapped. It quickly became my dream to make fitness available to this amazing group of people, and to teach the necessary skills to build healthy habits that could be carried into adulthood- hopefully for the rest of their lives. Inside Out Fitness is the place where all of my passions meet.

Inside Out Fitness got its name from the people who inspire me most in this world. One of the many special things about people on the ASD spectrum, is their lack of filter between their inside world and the outside world. While historically this has been labelled as a social deficit, I see a lot of beauty in this trait. It is so rare in the world to meet people who are 100% honest and genuine. With all of our conditioning and training, in a lot of ways, we lose our true selves to project an image of who we feel we’re supposed to be. I am inspired daily by my clients who live from the inside out — expressing themselves from a place of true inspiration and honesty. Through this work, I find myself questioning my own behaviour and filtering process. In an age of heavy curating and filtering ourselves online, to the extent that many people live dual lives, (online persona vs. real life) spending time with people who live from the inside out is exactly what we need to learn how to heal judgement, grow compassion, and return to our true selves. It is my hope that as we move towards more inclusion, integration, and acceptance of those with neurodiversity — we will also see all that we have to learn from these relationships. My aim is that Inside Out Fitness is a place where you are supported, encouraged, and celebrated, for living your life from the inside out. A place where you feel free to be yourself, and never pressured to fit the mould. It’s a place where I get to join together with the Inside Out people, (the living honestly genius’) to break the mould and build in its place- openness, acceptance, and freedom. A place where you can be beautifully and comfortably, inside out. 

So far, I’ve been training about a dozen young people (11 to 18 years old) since Inside Out Fitness launched this July 2020. Training sessions are as varied and diverse as the athletes I work with, but you can expect to see some introductory yoga, and bootcamp style training in most sessions. I like to target types of movement that are essential in building a foundation for fitness, such as; squatting, pushing, pulling, posture, alignment, balance, and coordination. It’s important to me to develop confidence and a really strong foundation to build upon, rather than jumping ahead and causing frustration and discouragement. What began so small, as 1-1 personalized, adapted fitness training, has already grown into 2-1 sessions and group fitness classes. This fall I’ve launched ‘Group Fit,’ and am working to pair up clients with like-minded peers within similar levels of fitness, to create community and facilitate friendship alongside fitness. I am so excited to continue to grow this community and continue to create programs that are lacking, while facilitating opportunities for social connection. At times I feel like I am bursting with ideas of what I can create for the ASD community, and likewise, how enriched our fitness communities will be as a result of creating space and opportunity for people with neurodiversity. Come move with me, come live inside out with me- I’m here waiting for you with open arms, adoring eyes, and too much energy in my feet.

Elly is a mother and leader based out of Vancouver, BC. You can follow her IG here. To contact Elly directly; inquiries can be sent to elly@insideoutwithelly.com