Sport England’s Active Lives Adult Survey found that one in five people live with a disability, and that group is almost twice as likely to be physically inactive as the general population, with the gap widening further for people with multiple impairments. The picture in Australia isn’t dramatically different.
Two products on our radar this year tackle that gap in inclusive gym equipment from opposite directions. One rethinks the wheelchair, the other rethinks the bench, and both are now looking for their first Australian gym, council facility or sporting club to say yes. Neither requires a full facility overhaul. Both are asking for an early adopter.
Fortem GymChair Brings Wheelchair Accessible Gym Equipment to Australia
We’ll start close to home. The Fortem GymChair is manufactured in Canada, but as of this year it has an Australian home. WA-based Wild West Wheelchairs has become its exclusive Australian distributor and retailer, the first distributor for the product outside Canada.
“A standard wheelchair is designed primarily for mobility and everyday activities,” explains Erik van den Berg, part of the Wild West Wheelchairs team. “When a wheelchair user goes into a gym, however, they may need to transfer onto machines, use free weights, reach, push and pull against resistance and move around equipment. Stability becomes particularly important.” The GymChair is built to solve that problem: a dedicated, stable platform for the gym floor, using an ApexAngle tilt system that shifts between a Dynamic Position for seated exercises and transitions, and a 45-degree Performance Position built for heavier strength work.
Erik says the decision to bring this piece of adaptive gym equipment to Australia came from what they saw daily in their own work. “We work with wheelchair users every day, and we saw a clear gap between gyms saying they are accessible and wheelchair users actually being able to participate in strength training.”
Real World Results for Wheelchair Users in the Gym
Since taking on the distributorship, Wild West Wheelchairs has trialled the GymChair with one of their own clients at his regular gym. “He absolutely loved it,” says Erik. “His personal trainer was particularly impressed because the GymChair allowed him to access gym equipment that he previously hadn’t been able to use safely or effectively. It wasn’t simply about the chair itself, it was about seeing someone suddenly have access to parts of the gym that had previously been unavailable to them.”
The product has also been demonstrated publicly in Australia for the first time, at the AusFitness Industry Trade Show & Summit in Sydney, where Erik says it “generated significant interest from both wheelchair users and people within the fitness industry.”
Built for Fitness Facilities, Not Individual Ownership
The GymChair retails at approximately AUD $13,000 to $15,000 depending on quantity and shipping, and Wild West Wheelchairs is deliberately structuring the offer around facilities rather than individuals, including exploring leasing options “because we don’t want the upfront cost to automatically become a barrier for facilities interested in becoming more inclusive.”
That reflects the practical reality of the product. Unlike a personal wheelchair, the GymChair is designed to live permanently on a gym floor for members to use as needed, not to be owned and transported by an individual user.
Right now, no Australian facility has taken that step. “We are still at the early-adoption stage in Australia,” the team says. “No Australian gym, council or sporting facility has purchased a GymChair yet, which is exactly why we’re keen to find the right organisation to work with as an early adopter.”
Commercial gyms are their ideal first customer. “We want to demonstrate that wheelchair users can be part of the mainstream fitness environment rather than being directed only towards specialist disability facilities,” alongside council-run leisure centres, rehabilitation centres, and wheelchair sports clubs. Trials are on the table for the right facility.
Para Bench Adapts Existing Equipment for Para Powerlifting
While the GymChair tackles inclusion from the athlete’s side, a UK company is solving the same problem from the gym’s side of the equation, and an Australian para athlete is about to become one of its first users.
Para Bench grew out of coaching, not engineering. Co-founder Dan Cumberworth, an adaptive strength coach, had a client who had been classified to compete in para powerlifting but couldn’t find a gym with the right bench setup. “The gym could not sacrifice its limited floor space for a dedicated para powerlifting bench,” Dan explains, so he approached his friend Mark Lock, an experienced gym equipment designer. Together they developed a modular extension that turns an existing combo rack into a para-powerlifting-ready bench: removable, compact, and built around equipment gyms already own.
From Prototype to Production
Para Bench has now moved from prototyping into its first UK production run, with the first units expected to begin shipping from October 2026. Testing has taken the product further than its original brief. Athletes and coaches have used it alongside freestanding and adjustable benches to unlock flat, incline and 90-degree seated training positions, and it has also been tested successfully with select seated plate-loaded machines.
Some of the most telling feedback has come from how independently people can use it. “One above-knee amputee was able to assemble and install Para Bench on his first attempt in approximately three minutes, despite never having seen it before,” the team says. “Another wheelchair user was able to transfer onto the bench and reposition the equipment independently.”
Paralympian Louise Sugden also tested the product, describing it as feeling like a standard para powerlifting bench, feedback Dan says “carried considerable weight because it came from an athlete with extensive experience of the specialist equipment used within para powerlifting.”
An Australian First for Adaptive Strength Training
Australia’s connection to Para Bench now has a name attached. Australian para powerlifter Ben Wright has confirmed an order and will be one of the first people in the country to receive one. “Ben has supported the project from an early stage,” Dan says, “and we are extremely pleased that he will be one of the first people in Australia to receive one.”
There’s no formal Australian manufacturing or distribution deal yet. That remains “a decision to be explored over the coming months rather than several years away,” with the team also exploring options in Taiwan as part of a broader international strategy. But the door is open, and there’s a clear next step for anyone who wants to be part of it. Australian gyms, councils, rehab providers and sporting clubs can register interest directly. Registering doesn’t commit a facility to anything, but the team says early enquiries help “measure demand and identify potential demonstration or trial locations,” and interested facilities could be considered as early Australian partners.
For gyms wondering about compatibility, Para Bench is designed for commonly used combo racks but isn’t universally compatible without checking first. It accommodates bench-pad widths up to 320mm and bench heights of 413 to 457mm, and the team asks facilities to share their equipment’s make, model and dimensions before ordering.
Why Australian Gyms Should Pay Attention to Both Inclusive Equipment Options
For an Australian gym owner, council facility manager or club committee, the takeaway from these two products isn’t “buy everything at once.” Inclusive strength training is now solvable in pieces: some through on-site equipment that supports members who arrive in their own mobility devices (Fortem GymChair), some through facility-side retrofits of equipment already on the floor (Para Bench). Real inclusion likely means paying attention to both, over time.
Both companies made a similar point when asked what they’d say to a gym owner who thinks inclusion is too expensive or complicated.
Wild West Wheelchairs: “A gym can have a ramp, accessible entrance and wide aisles, but if a wheelchair user can’t actually participate in the exercise program or use the equipment, there is still a significant barrier. The cost doesn’t necessarily have to sit entirely with the gym. It can be absorbed across the wider membership base, while at the same time opening the doors to people with disabilities who may currently feel that mainstream gyms aren’t designed for them.”
Para Bench: “Inclusion does not always require replacing everything you already own or creating an entirely separate training area. Start by looking at the barriers within your current facility and speaking directly with disabled people about what would make training more accessible. The important thing is to begin.”
For facilities wanting to get ahead of this rather than wait for a fully mature, distributed market:
- Enquire about trialling or purchasing a Fortem GymChair directly through Wild West Wheelchairs. Commercial gyms, council leisure centres, rehab centres and wheelchair sports clubs are all in their sights as an ideal first Australian customer, and leasing options are on the table.
- Register interest directly with Para Bench via their interest form. International registrations, including from Australia, are shaping where they build local manufacturing or distribution next.
- Talk to your existing wheelchair-using members about what barriers they hit with current equipment. This is exactly the kind of frontline feedback that shaped both products in the first place.
- If you don’t have any members who use a wheelchair, try reaching out to community groups they might belong to and ask them to share their experiences. You might find a whole new membership base out there just waiting for a facility that is ready to offer a more inclusive setting.
The Bigger Picture for Inclusive Gyms in Australia
As Wild West Wheelchairs put it, “the bigger conversation is about changing the perception of what an inclusive gym looks like. It’s not simply about getting someone through the front door, it’s about giving them the opportunity to actually participate once they’re inside.” Para Bench frames the same idea as its “No Exclusion” mission. Together, the Fortem GymChair and Para Bench are a reminder that becoming a truly inclusive gym doesn’t require reinventing the space. It requires being willing to be one of the first to say yes.
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