Andra Lenius
MA student in Applied Health Sciences
2014 Three Minutes Thesis runner up
Supervisor: Prof. Maureen Connolly
Title of presentation: “Fit for action: Adapted fitness and conditioning programs for individuals with disabilities”

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Andra Lenius sees the clock ticking away on the personal fitness and training industry as it faces the 2025 deadline to comply with the province’s mandatory accessibility standards.

“Building ramps and widening doorframes is only a small portion of what we need to do to make personal training accessible. Opening the mind to better training is much more difficult,” she said during her presentation at Brock’s Three Minutes Thesis contest finals held earlier this year.

Lenius, the runner-up at the 3MT contest, focused her master’s research specifically on developing personal training services that meet the needs of youth and young adults with autism spectrum disorder. Her study involved working directly with two fitness instructors over seven weeks to implement a fitness and conditioning program for two teenage boys with autism.

She says her research is all about putting “the personal back in personal training.”

“Our trainers need to learn to work with all individuals regardless of disabilities. Trainers must be fit for action. We have 10 years to ensure that our trainers are ready – but change comes slowly the time to start is now.”

Find out more about Lenius’s research by watching her 3MT presentation.

The 3MT contest is a university-wide competition open to master’s (thesis and research project) and doctoral students in all Brock’s graduate programs. The contest challenges students to talk about their research and why it matters in a way that will inform and captivate people outside of their disciplines. It is held each year in conjunction with Brock’s annual Mapping the New Knowledges Graduate Student Research Conference.